I Need to Sing

"Zachary! Shh...inside voices."
"I singing mom."

Hello guilt. I am suddenly convicted. You see, I want my children to grow into fabulously creative and physical people. I want them to be of strong mind, body, and faith. And there I was telling my toddler not to be. I know plenty of people who will say that I wasn't doing anything wrong. They will say that I was teaching him to use an appropriate volume. But they are wrong. They are wrong because you do NOT teach a toddler about volume control by telling them to be quieter. 

a)"quieter" holds no meaning to them.

b) they take your words as a negative of what they are doing, not how.

So if you want to teach them about volume control you must demonstrate it. 'Show and tell and duplicate' is the way toddlers learn. They are physical and emotional creatures. The epitome of kinesthetic learning is a toddler.

Now...let's be real for a minute. I didn't want him yelling his song because his yelling upsets his baby sister and she will start crying. It's not like my motives were awful. I just wanted to get home from church before she let loose her vocal stylings. I did not succeed, by the way.

So now I am struggling. Where is the line drawn? It's nap time. What is my toddler doing? Singing up a song about dinosaurs and turtle shells. He is not sleeping. How do I approach this and not crush the creative and sensitive soul that is my son?

I don't have an answer.