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 iTunes for those who want only the singles.

Spring has Sprung! At least, here in NYC it has. And if you happen to be looking for seasonally appropriate songs, here you go! Read more »

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 iTunes for those who want only the singles.

April Showers bring…MUD PUDDLES! Forget about those May flowers and get out your rubber boots! Here are some of our favorite songs about rain. Read more »

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 iTunes for those who want only the singles.

It’s March, and for many of us that means: March Break! No school! We know lots of families that will be spending the break traveling, and we are traveling too - we’ll be rocking our way to Mexico with R Family Vacations. So we thought that this month we’d recommend some of our favorite traveling songs. Whether you’re heading to Mexico, Grandma’s, or just the grocery store, here are some transportation tunes to hum when the going gets rough – because every traveler knows that even the best laid travel plans go awry! Read more »

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 iTunes for those who want only the singles.

“It’s February, it should be snowing!” Those are the opening words to our song Snowdance. And we stick by them! In this months post, we bring you two of our absolute hands down favorite snow songs: Read more »

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 iTunes for those who want only the singles.

Happy New Year! Have you made any New Year’s resolutions yet? If not, then you can get the ball rolling with some songs about things to work on and strive for in 2008: Read more »

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. This month’s highlights include one song that “celebrates the friendship and tenacity of two birds that are told their relationship is ‘obscene’ by the rest of their bird-brained society,” and manages to do so in a way that is both kid-appropriate and non-preachy. 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 iTunes for those who want only the singles.

As the year winds to a close and children hear about “Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men”, it’s sometimes easy to forget that peace and good will begin very close to home - on your street, in your class, at your hockey game or at your gymnastics practice. So this month we’ve highlighted some songs that indirectly teach about good will, tolerance, and the value of friendship. Read more »

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. I was particularly amused by their first recommendation below, as my own son often uses a similar argument. 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 iTunes for those who want only the singles.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and if your family is anything like our families are, that means one of two things: Over Eaters and Picky Eaters.

Here’s a song for each of them! Read more »

I’m proud to announce the launch of a new venture here at Mombian: the “She Got Me Pregnant” video blog. Published in partnership with After Ellen, the vlog will focus on the intersection of lesbian parenting and popular culture, covering children’s media, depictions of parenting in pop culture, and celebrity lesbian moms.

I convinced my partner Helen to join me in this effort (how, I won’t say), so she’ll also be providing her perspective and commentary on matters Mombilicious. In our inaugural effort, we review Dottie’s Magic Pockets, a new TV series for children of LGBT families, wonder where Dottie gets all her free time, and debate the merits of a parallel universe in which only gay people exist. We also compare Melissa Etheridge and Britney Spears as parents, and highlight a song that could be an anthem for LGBT families.

The film editing won’t win any awards at Sundance (as with parenting, we’re learning as we go), but we hope we’ve put together an enjoyable ten minutes for you. You can tune in to a new vlog every Thursday, crossposted here and at the After Ellen blog. Thanks to the fine women over there for giving us this opportunity.

If you came here from After Ellen and are visiting for the first time, welcome! Hope you’ll have a look around.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Children’s musicians Erin Lee and Marci bring us today’s guest post, the second of their regular posts with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music. Look for them 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 iTunes for those who want only these singles. You can also get all of the below singles at once as an iTunes Mix.

Finding good Halloween tunes for school-age kids who have outgrown the cats and pumpkins themes can be tricky. But Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, so we have learned a large repertoire of creepy crawly songs. If we had our way we would be singing these spooky songs year round.

Interestingly, both our favorite Halloween tunes are by mid-western men tormented by the things that go bump in the night! Each song is great fun, and offers interesting ways of dealing with fears. Read more »

I interviewed children’s musicians Erin Lee and Marci after meeting them on the R Family cruise in July, and posted about their inclusive approach to children’s music as well as their escapades with an illegal Elmo. They’ve kindly agreed to do a regular guest post with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music, as well as ways to make music a more interactive experience. Look for them on the first Monday of each month.

Below is their inaugural contribution. I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to iTunes for those who want only these singles. Enjoy!

We first started writing children’s music when we ran out of relevant, child-friendly songs for our after school musical theatre class to sing from the standard kids music repertoire. But since the release of our first CD, a few wonderful things have happened: We’ve had the chance to meet and perform with some great family-friendly musicians; more and more skilled writers have begun writing music for children; AND independent kids music is now thriving on the Internet. So, we were thrilled when Dana asked us to share some of our favorite songs about some of our favorite topics with her. First up: BACK TO SCHOOL.

First-Day-of-School jitters happen to both preschoolers and seasoned fourth graders. Luckily, there are lots of songs that explore both the anticipation and the anxiety of starting school. Read more »