Is there any better sight than a young one possessed by music to shake themselves out as wildly as possible? Kids dancing is great because they completely lack the censorship that adult self-awareness brings, and that’s reflected in their awesome gyrations. Here’s three records that always bring on the action at our house.
The hardest working man in show business at the peak of his powers in front of a raving audience of French fans? This is probably one of the best lie albums ever recorded, and every song is a winner. The classic JB groove is solid and steady, and kids love James’ dynamic, free-spirited vocal style.
This Berlin-based electropop duo boasts a lot of factors in common with straight-out kids music – band members with silly names, bouncy synthesizer beats, and simple lyrics. But those lyrics are in multiple languages, delivered with a manic zeal, and against a schizophonic backdrop of mangled music. Fun enough for grown-ups and still jamming for the kids.
British mod-rockers The Equals are barely a footnote in musical history, notable only for spawning the career of Eddy “Electric Avenue” Grant. But sometimes the best music comes from the margins, and this multiracial outfit released a string of irresistibly catchy singles between 1966 and 1971, including the #1 hit “Baby Come Back.” This double-CD compilation holds 40 of their best.
Reviews are starting to come in for our new arrival, Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Queen and we’re noticing a pattern. At first, everyone seems to doubt we’ll be able to pull it off, but by the time they’re through, they’re radio ga ga over our sleepy-time versions of rock’s most challenging band.
Didn’t we promise we would rock you to sleep?
Thanks to all the great writers who took the time to review our album! You make us feel like champions!
Wanna hear what they’re talking about? Check out two full-length tracks here. Also, be sure to check out our new Queen-themed print & play activities!
“They included all of my favorites in this fun cd, even Fat Bottom Girls and We Will Rock You. How did they make those baby friendly? Somebody was really talented when they put this one together because they pulled it off beautifully.”
“One can only wonder what the late Freddie Mercury would think of his rock masterpieces distilled down to tranquil instrumentals featuring harps, xylophones and other decidedly un-rock ‘n’ roll-like instruments, but by gum it actually works.
I tested ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ out on my 3-year-old son, and he was out like a light before the first ’scaramouche.’ Even more up-tempo tunes such as ‘Another One Bites the Dust,’ ‘Will Rock You’ and ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ seem to work when given the lullaby treatment.”
Buying gifts for kids is always a crapshoot – you can never be sure what’ll be played with and what’ll be left gathering cobwebs in a corner. When I go shopping for a baby shower gift, I try to make it do double duty, so even if the little one doesn’t end up playing with it, it’ll look nice in the house anyways.
One go-to pick is the soft blocks made by New York’s DwellStudio – not only do they help little hands learn how to feel, grab and hold, they also look cute without being overly babyish. Packaged in a cloth tote, this is one gift that is always appreciated. Unless they already bought some.
We’ve been talking discipline in the house lately — as Henry gets deeper into his toddler time, he’s starting to test the waters in terms of what he is and is not allowed to do. Of course, kids this young have no impulse control, so it’s foolish to expect them to not do something stupid. But it’s doing it more than once that we’re worried about — or, more accurately, doing it after he’s been told not to.
The little punk’s favorite technique now is, after he’s been told not to touch something, to either: a) lean in extremely close and put his face millimeters away from the object in question, but not technically touching it, or b) find a handy object and touch the forbidden thing with it, all the while looking at me like the cat that ate the canary.
So we’re trying to figure out how to introduce discipline into his life. He has a basic knowledge of causality and one thing leading to another, but we’re sort of torn on what to do after he does something that he knows is bad. The standard wisdom seems to be the ol’ time out, but he just starts laughing whenever we put him in one. I was talking to my sister (who has three kids) and she says that she never uses the time outs — instead, she tries to redirect their energy to something else. She says that she thinks that traditional discipline is too reactive, and she tries to be more proactive.
We were also reading Your Baby and Child by Penelope Leach, which also pooh-poohs time outs, instead recommending that parents “time in,” in a way, by holding the misbehaving child in a close hug until they calm down and act rationally. This seems sensible to me — instead of punishing your child by ignoring them, you stay with them and make yourself more available — but does it really work? If a kid is acting out to get attention, isn’t this just rewarding that behavior?
We haven’t made a decision as to what we’re going to do yet. I think we’ll just take it as it comes, and do what feels right based on the offense. Whether that be time out, long hugs, or some as yet undetermined third option only time will tell.
We already know that music is good for kids — music education helps older kids grasp other subjects in school, listening to lullabies helps calm toddlers, but a new study released by a group of Canadian researchers is providing compelling evidence that music can work on even the youngest child, as playing music to premature infants seems to decrease their overall pain levels, increase oxygen saturation, and help them transition to a bottle.
This, obviously, is great news. As any parent knows, one of the hardest parts of adapting to life with a baby is the communication gap, as infants get angrier and angrier when their needs aren’t met. If music can have a demonstrated neurological benefit on our children, who knows how much stress and anxiety we can save everybody?
When you have kids, you know that eventually they’re going to exceed the event horizon of your house and need to be taken someplace to get their ya-yas out. We travel with Henry a lot, so we’ve been to more than our fair shares of day camps, playgrounds, and other kid-centric spaces over these United States. But it wasn’t until we took a trip down to Los Angeles to visit the Rockabye Baby! folks at lullaby world headquarters that we found Naya’s Garden, which should be a model for playspaces nationwide.
Founded by Cherie Bolger three years ago, Naya’s Garden works because of a few simple organizing rules. One, it’s designed for kids six months to four years, so the young ones can romp without being worried about school-agers treading over them. Second, it’s eminently affordable — eight dollars for a kid to play as long as they want, with parents and guardians free. Buy a pack of ten admissions and you can get in for just six bucks fifty each time. And thirdly, this isn’t just a hole in the wall with some toys lying around — two ball pits, a climbing wall, an inflatable castle, and way more fun things await your young one, and the whole place is scrupulously clean, with plenty of places for parents to keep tabs on their kids as they play.
So many play spaces make the same mistakes — either they’re run on the cheap, relying on the infinite imaginations of kids to wring fun out of an empty room, or they’re insanely expensive (like one Manhattan place I won’t name that charges $900 a year for membership and doesn’t sell day passes). It’s nice to see a place that gets it right by just listening to what kids and parents want.
Naya’s Garden, 836 W. Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
We’ve already discussed how YouTube is the greatest thing to happen to kid distraction since, I dunno, open flame? But the problem with YouTube is that sometimes videos aren’t what they seem, and you can start playing something for your child and end up RickRolled or worse.
Enter TotLOL - a juried video portal that uses parents to screen and categorize content that is appropriate for the younger set. Parents submit videos from YouTube that their kids enjoyed, and then a peer review group ensures that they’re good for the site. With hundreds of clips available, it’s Hulu for the diaper set. Great idea, but sadly the site is closing July 1. Check it out while you still can!
And parents, any suggestions for other sites that might fill the void?
I’ve been trying to steer you towards awesome choices for baby shower presents for expecting friends (aside from Rockabye Baby! CDs) for a very good reason — I’ve been on the other side of the coin. Here are five of the absolute worst things that you can get expecting parents.
Age 0-3 Month Onesies. Yes, these are the smallest size clothes available for kids. No, your kid will never wear them. Ever. Why? Because they’re too damned small. Doting relatives will purchase them because they are just so cute and tiny, and they will sit, gathering dust, in the back of your closet until you throw them away.
Baby High Heels. Okay, this is just demented. These are soft-bottomed baby shoes with little fake plush stiletto heels stuck on the back. How many bad messages do these things broadcast? And why would you buy something that would make it even harder for a baby to stand up?
Pee-Pee Teepees. Yes, baby boys make urine, and yes, it sprays all over Creation. But this gag gift, a small cone that rests atop the willy when you’re changing the diaper to catch the splash before it hits your face, actually does more harm than good – instead of arcing in a spray that you can catch with a diaper (which you should have handy), it ricochets off of the nosecone and drenches everything in its vicinity. Poor trade-off.
Baby Wipe Warmer. Seriously, people? You can just hold them in between your hands and warm them up in a minute or so. Instead, some idiots buy (or gift) a device that uses electricity to heat your wipes so they won’t shock a tender bum. Unsurprisingly, many of them were recalled for safety reasons.
Soft Toys. Every little one needs a cuddle buddy, but to be quite frank, what they pick is going to be absolutely inscrutable to even the most plugged-in parent. By filling a young baby’s room with stuffed animals and other soft toys, you just clutter up your living space with stuff that they probably won’t form any kind of emotional bond with. And without that bond, they’re just funny-smelling, ungainly pillows.
Summertime means outdoor music — and while we don’t think you should drag your poor sprout to Coachella (without earplugs), there’s nothing more fun that watching your little one jam out to live music. Here are four of my favorite festivals to go to with your young one.
Just about every weekend, the lovely Prospect Park Bandshell is taken over for early evening concerts from around the world – rock, pop, jazz and even film screenings with live soundtracks. This year’s best picks for families include David Byrne, They Might Be Giants and the always raucous African Festival. But leave the kids at home for August’s Purple Rain Sing-A-Long – that movie is racy!
A sunset symphony concert in the gorgeous Kansan countryside, with some of the Midwest’s greatest performers on display? The only thing that could make that better is a whole day of activities leading up to it, from covered wagon rides to a musical instrument “petting zoo” that lets kids get close to the kinds of instruments they’ll hear later that evening.
Seattle’s wide-ranging, anarchic arts festival is held at the Seattle Center, the former World’s Fair site that is the home of the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project. Music of all stripes is on offer here, and this year’s big names include De La Soul, Os Mutantes, Matt & Kim and many more. Even better, the sidewalks are lined with buskers, street performers and other undiscovered talent.
And we’ll close out our summer tour with a trip down to Texas, where the legendary Austin City Limits fest gives the goods to grown-ups and little ones alike. Unlike some of the other events on this list, ACL has a whole stage set aside for kid-friendly music, and this year’s players on the Austin Kiddie Limits stage include Secret Agent 23 Skidoo and Paul Green’s School Of Rock All-Stars.
If you’re anything like me, you grew up in the era where the synthesizer transformed from a super-expensive piece of musical equipment played by 70s prog rock beardoes into an affordable home music-maker due to the onward march of technological progress.
If you’re nostalgic for those times, the MiniOrgan Library will be just what the doctor ordered. Over one hundred toy organs and synthesizers are featured, along with sound samples of notable models. It’s an awesome trip down memory lane and will make you want to hit up eBay for some of these cool gadgets.
