Children’s musicians Erin Lee and Marci bring us the next of their regular posts with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music, plus activities to make the songs an interactive experience for the whole family.
Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.
I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.)
Little kids play pretend all the time — it’s a natural part of their growth. But when those same kids graduate to grade school they pronounce imaginary things babyish. Wrong! How can you create something — a story, an invention, a new law, a better society – unless you can imagine it? It’s important to imagine a world where anything — anything — is possible. You can’t change things for the better if you can’t picture things for the better — and for that you need an active imagination.
So here are some tunes to keep those imaginations charging:
“Go Do Be
Ernie & Neal play rock, reggae, ska, jazz, folk, bluegrass and more — frequently all on one album! This is a musically sophisticated duo from Philly who never play down to their young audience. “Go Do Be” off the CD In Your Mind is a fun, funky reggae tune that is easy to sing along to and reminds you that in your imagination you can reach any destination. Ernie and Neal’s travel plans are not limited by any kind of gas crisis or recession — they travel with their minds. Parents will be grooving along. Guaranteed.
“I Like to Pretend” (Audra Rox, I Can Do It by Myself!
This band’s target audience is just a little bit younger than ours and Ernie & Neal’s, but the music is so fun and funky that we bet older siblings will immediately be boogieing along. All of Audra’s music is developmentally sound for young listeners, yet savvy enough that other family members will get just as big a kick out of it as their little brothers and sisters do. So get out your fabulous rock star duds and sing along.
“Just Pretend
In our song “Just Pretend,” an industrious mother sets about convincing her disbelieving offspring that they can in fact have an entire afternoon of fun built around a toy boat, a bath tub and a bicycle. Quite radical when so many kids today think changing your Mii’s hairstyle is a sure sign of creative genius!
Get this song off the iPod and into your life: invent something new: Many famous stories have objects turning, or being used as, other objects (think Cinderella’s pumpkin). Get a bunch of common household objects like hairbrushes or spatulas and talk about how other everyday objects could be turned into something special with a little imagination. Draw before and after pictures of the object and its creative counterpart.
PS: We first heard both Ernie & Neal and Audra Rox when we all played an amazing summer concert series in New York called Madison Square Kids. There is great family music in Madison Square Park all summer long and it is absolutely, totally, incredibly FREE! If you live in NYC, or happen to be visiting here in the hot sunny months, grab a picnic blanket and come on by! We’ll be there with our band on June 23rd.