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, they take a slightly different tack with recommendations for some spoken-word tracks from favorite children’s artists.
Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org. (Yes, today isn’t Monday. Posting late this week because of Blogging for LGBT Families Day.)
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.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview all three songs without leaving Mombian.
Alas, one of the recommended tracks this month, Bill Harley’s “Why Kids Sing to their Parents” is not available as a single. The protagonist, you see, has two moms, though that’s not at all the main point of the tale, for which Harley gets bonus inclusion points. I may just buy the entire album, myself.
No Difference
We always get a kick seeing what kids put on their wish lists for birthdays and holidays. Usually it’s filled with games that require lots of batteries, but once in a while there’s an item on the list that surprises and delights you. Recently, Erin Lee’s niece Melody had a book of poems on her wish list. It was Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends and Melody was somewhat astounded that we knew all of the poems in it by heart. Apparently a librarian suggested it to her at the library and she found them hysterically funny, and conveniently housed in an updated edition with a CD.
Well, it is very, very hard to narrow down the long list of wonderful Shel Silverstein poems to pick just one to recommend for this column. After all these years they are still as hip, insightful, relevant and wickedly funny as they were when we first read them. So, this is how we chose it: A third grade kid saw us looking over the list of titles on the CD and she volunteered “I know one and I can say the whole thing!” Then she recited it with such drama and gusto, we said “done!” and now we’re recommending it to you. It’s called “No Difference” and we are certain that after a few listens you will be reciting with drama and gusto too.
“Why Kids Sing to their Parents” Bill Harley (The Town Around the Bend
We’ve recommended Bill Harley here in this blog before. We’ve been waving our pom poms and cheering about Bill since we met him last autumn at the Children’s Music Network National Conference where he received the Magic Penny Award honoring his lifetime of work in the children’s music field. Well, our pom poms are out and up and waving madly because Bill’s wife sent us one of his storytelling CD’s with a little note that happened to mention that a little girl in one of the stories happened to have two moms. No fanfare, just a fact: Twizzlesticks has two moms, and it is not a plot point or the focus of the story, just a fact about Twizzlesticks. This is a sweet, funny bedtime story that celebrates intelligent children, exhausted parents, songs, stories, teamwork and universal truths. We hope it starts a new bedtime tradition in your home!
Wheels
This is one of our favorite pieces from our first album. Big kids refer to it as the loneliness poem and little kids refer to it as the motorcycle poem — because if you are not into hearing something sad and sorrowful, we find that a motorcycle can cheer you up considerably. It was written as a monologue for a girl in a school show, and she performed it with such wistfulness and insight that we just kept adding to it. The narrator has moved to a new town, and has all the complicated feelings of resentment, loneliness and longing that go with being the “new kid”. If you’ve moved and your kids don’t have the all the words to express what you’re feeling, this may help. And if you know someone who has moved or is moving, this might help you and your kids know what they’re thinking when they look faraway and a little out of place.
Learn Something New: The child in this poem has just moved to a new neighborhood and feels lonely. Ask your kids what they think they could do to make a new child feel welcome. What are some places in your neighborhood you would want to share with a new neighbor? Use this idea to open a new discussion about your neighborhood geography.