Music

[mabfan]

I'm not sure how interesting this will be for people, but...

A few years ago, Nomi and I got iPods. But when we got iPhones, I stopped using my iPod as my portable music player. Especially after my Palm device died, it made much more sense for me to combine all my functionality into one device. It's true that my iPhone can't hold as much music as my iPod, but it was easier to carry around only one device rather than two (or the three I used to carry).

Sometime after we bought the iPods, we also bought a Bose SoundDock so we could plug the iPods in and listen to music in the living room. But once I stopped using my iPod, I thought that perhaps that was the end of using the SoundDock.

It wasn't until this past weekend that I realized how foolish I was being.

I dug out my iPod, loaded all my new music into it, and plugged it into the SoundDock. We now have a SoundDock with an iPod always plugged into it, so we can always play music for the room.

I took advantage of this yesterday by playing songs for the kids, and singing and dancing with them. I hope they like Schoolhouse Rock and Peter, Paul, and Mommy.

Any suggestions for music for babies would be welcome.

Comments

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

They Might Be Giants' kids albums -- their counting song "Sevens" is one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard.

[rarelylynne.livejournal.com]

They Might Be Giants has an album called "here come the ABC's" that is GREAT and aimed at kids.

[jimvanpelt.livejournal.com]

If you don't know Raffi, you should check out his stuff. My kids were addicted.

http://www.amazon.com/Singable-Songs-Collection-Raffi/dp/B0000003IO

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

I put together a mix for my friend Minda's son who was born about three weeks ago. You can see the play list at:

http://www.zenrunningorder.org/index.php?option=com_zeromix&task=ViewMix&mixID=1162&Itemid=9

[amysisson.livejournal.com]

Schoolhouse Rock! Classic! ;-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Philadelphia Chickens is pretty wonderful (Boynton); I know there are some later book-CDs after that, but I haven't heard those.

Also soundtracks to some musicals, like Mary Poppins.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

A little classical might not be a bad thing. And Beatles (Yellow Submarine, Octopus' Garden, you know, the good stuff).

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

The Wiggles!

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

What about playing classical music for the girls? There's an article about it here: http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/Articles/building_babys_brain.htm

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

I grew up on Phil Ochs, Phillip Glass, Tom Lehrer, Pete Seger...

[introverte.livejournal.com]

This is what I told aunt_becca recently:

Really Rosie by Carole King, They Might be Giants, David Polansky (a wonderful local artist), Laurie Berkner, the Wiggles (ok in moderation), a compilation called "A Child's Celebration of Song" that we love, and lots of Broadway.

[delkytlar.livejournal.com]

I've done many mix tapes and CDs for my kids as they've grown (yes, cassette tapes were still slightly in vogue when mine were very little).

Here's a link to the topic on my LJ. I'll be posting more playlists from some of those mixes shortly (particularly now that someone is interested):

http://delkytlar.livejournal.com/21013.html

[glishara.livejournal.com]

Peter, Paul, and Mommy is what's sitting in my CD player now!

Our kids' favorite is "Singin' in the Bathtub" by John Lithgow, but that might be a year or so down the road for your girls.

I also really like Sandra Boynton's CDs, and we own the books to go with a lot of the songs, so we can do songs and books together. The kids learned to "read" from memory the song-books before they did the books that didn't have melodies to go with them.

[pnew8.livejournal.com]

Kenny Loggins' Return to Pooh Corner.

[c1.livejournal.com]

My parents gave me Kiss to listen to when I was only a little bit older. ISYN. You could pursue this approach, but be forewarned, the outcome could be a pair of kids who become EMTs and later go to art school.

Or, you could scrap the whole thing, and play classical music. My parents gave me carte blanche to watch as much Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, and the like, because of all the classical music in the soundtracks.
Later in life, when I started building my own classical music collection, I was amazed to find out how many different operas I was really familiar with.

[eal.livejournal.com]

Okay. You asked for it.

If Ben were awake (which thank goodness he isn't tonight), he would say: Imagination Movers, Laurie Berkner, Hot Peas N' Butter, Barenaked Ladies (yes, them, but they have a great children's album, SnackTime), Ralph's World, Trout Fishing in America (Nomi will tell you that I have been raving about these guys for the last, um, four years, roughly), and the "Grumpy" song guy (Dave Weinstone, but the Grumpy song is under the name Music for Aardvarks). He also likes the Backyardigans music CDs.

Katie, who is also asleep, would add: Rick Springfield (yes, that Rick Springfield, but he has an amazing children's lullaby album that Katie adores)

Edited to Add: Oh, and They Might Be Giants -- He's getting Here Comes the Science for Christmas :).

[aviatrix18.livejournal.com]

Sarah adores all three They Might Be Giants albums, Here come the ABC's, Here come the 123's and Here comes Science. The Imagination movers are a favorite along with a few Klezmer albums, classical music especially the Nutcracker.

Right now, when we are in the car, She sings along to the Science album, explaining "how a shooting star is not a star at all".