• Ask you child, "Where is it okay to move your bodies really fast? How do you slow down when you are moving really fast? Can you freeze in one spot and not move?"
• At the start of the song, encourage your child to get as uninhibited as they can.  Have them dance their own dance as fast as they can where they stand.  Then they "STOP" and "PUT IT ON HOLD".  While they're "waiting" during the song, have them fold their hands and tap their toes or fingers to the "tic, toc" music.
• Turn taking is one of the biggest challenges to a child's self-control.  And one of the most aggravating parts of early childhood teaching is intervening in seemingly endless conflicts over turn taking.  The answer for the sake of the sanity of  a parent and the development of the child is to self-regulate turn-taking.
• Freeze Games - Any games that involve stop and go behaviors can help your child gain body and mind awareness and better self-control.  Try playing music of any kind and encourage you child to dance.  Stop the music abruptly and call out "Freeze" while putting your body in an interesting position (arms out in a T shape, standing on one foot, etc.).  Explain that when the music stops they must freeze and mimic your position.  Do repeatedly, making the body shapes more complicated or different each time.  This helps them not only to stop, but to stop and look.
• Go with Games - It is important to practice the good as opposed to scolding the bad.  Playing games such as "Red Light, Green Light" or "Simon Says" practices self control in the climate of fun and engagement between you and your child. 

The Research Behind This Song
Nancy Eisenberg (2005) stated that, "although effortful control has a hereditary basis, it develops rapidly in the first four years of life, with marked improvements occurring in the third year. Individual differences in effortful control, although due partly to heredity, are also associated with the quality of mother-child interactions. Warm, supportive parenting, rather than cold, directive parenting, appears to predict higher levels of effortful control. Individual differences in effortful control that emerge during the first five years of life have been linked to higher levels of adjustment, social competence, committed compliance and conscience, concurrently and in the future."

Books to Read with Children
Hunter's Best Friend at School by Laura Malone Elliott

This song is part of our Songs of Self-Control series, which consist of the following twelve song titles:
Breathe
Emotion
I Get Angry
Self Control
Stop and Think
Three Rules
Be Careful
Down in the Dumps
Golden Words
I Can Settle Down
I Can Wait
When a Kite Flies