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.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.
It seems like March is always a month to travel. Some schools have a March Break and some families are just sick of winter and head South! So whether you are heading to a resort or your relatives, here are some great songs to sing en route.
“18 Wheels on a Big Rig
This is our all-time favorite counting song. Seriously. Do you have an older child who thinks he’s “outgrown kiddie song” and has to pooh-pooh what the younger kids are listening to? Well, he will have met his match with this song! Get Smarty-pants to sing along, first counting by Roman numerals and then dividing the wheels of a big rig by pi.
“Get in the Car
We first saw Miss Cathy sing this song two years ago at the Children’s Music Network National Conference — and it’s STILL stuck in our heads (in a good way)! So many songs about cars focus on all the fabulous places you can go – but let’s face it, usually we are in the car to run to the grocery store, and the dry cleaners…and we’re usually running late. This list song of all the places to go in the car can be easily adapted to fit all your errands, so sing it the next time that you are trying to hurry up and get those errands done!
“A View From the Backseat
It’s hard when you are 9 going on 29 and your family insists on doing everything together — including the weekly car trip to an unnamed place (which remains unnamed at the behest of Erin Lee’s loved ones!) It’s even harder when you get stuck in traffic, which means you idle so long you run out of gas, which means you have to ride in a tow truck, which means… wait a minute… tow trucks are COOL!
Here’s an activity to get this song off the iPod and into daily life:
Plan a trip! It can be a trip to your best friend’s house, or a trip to Disneyland. Get out the maps (or go to Mapquest) and learn how to read one — not such a common skill these days now that we all have GPS! Plot out the route, and how it might be different if you traveled by train rather than a car…or a horse rather than a train…or….