As I was going through my computer files this weekend – I’m running out of room on my hard drive and need to do some purging – I came across a folder of songs I wrote during my internship. I couldn’t believe I’d let these songs go unused for the past two years, so I immediately rescued, reworked, and recorded them.

The first song I’m going to share is called “Count by Five Jive”. I remember using this song with a little boy named Alex who was working on this particular skill at the time. It goes like this:

When you want to count by five,
Just sing the words to this jazzy jive.
Start at five instead of one
Count to one-hundred, and then your done.

Five, Ten, Fifteen, Twenty,
Twenty-five, Thirty, Thirty-five, Forty,
Forty-five, Fifty, Fifty-five, Sixty,
Sixty-five, Seventy, Seventy-five, Eighty,
Eighty-five, Ninety, Ninety-five, One-hundred.

It’s not so hard to count by five
When you know this jazzy jive.
Now we’ll end our clever rhyme
By counting by five just one more time.

I found several counting songs, actually, and I’ll be sharing them over the next few days. Another fun file I came across in my internship folder was the journal I kept for the entire nine months. It was so interesting to read the first few entries, which really brought back memories of how nervous and excited I was to be actually practicing music therapy.

The funny thing is that even now, three years later, I still get that nervous and excited feeling with each new client. Every child is different and presents his or her own unique challenges. I love that this job constantly keeps me on my toes and forces the creative juices to flow 24/7.