I feel your pain on this one. Right now, I am still mostly living with the Backyardigans, and XM Kids (which, actually, aren’t horribly bad – as long as you like earworms).

However, last month my son had me make him a “Going to Sleep” Mix, which surprisingly consisted of a lot of Jimmy Buffett, Carole King, Geoff Smith (!), Ben Folds and Randy Newman. At this point, I am seeing that his musical tastes are still influenced by the kids’ movies that he sees.

Of course, I remember Charlie singing along to Danko Jones’ “First Date” when he was two years old, and I was playing it over and over and over.

Yes, he was the only kid at day care that knew how to head-bang and make “devil’s horns.”

RAWK

I feel your pain on this one. Right now, I am still mostly living with the Backyardigans, and XM Kids (which, actually, aren’t horribly bad – as long as you like earworms).

However, last month my son had me make him a “Going to Sleep” Mix, which surprisingly consisted of a lot of Jimmy Buffett, Carole King, Geoff Smith (!), Ben Folds and Randy Newman. At this point, I am seeing that his musical tastes are still influenced by the kids’ movies that he sees.

Of course, I remember Charlie singing along to Danko Jones’ “First Date” when he was two years old, and I was playing it over and over and over.

Yes, he was the only kid at day care that knew how to head-bang and make “devil’s horns.”

RAWK

I’ll give you my take on this, even though Jack is just over the age of 3. For a while, we didn’t worry too much about what was on the radio or playing on our iPod when we were driving Jack around. The older he got, however, the more interested he was in what was playing. This led Kerry and I to try and find some tracks and put together a playlist.

The easiest way to keep Jack entertained musically was to rip the tracks from the CDs my parents would play for him during the day. He loved listening to and learning all the cute little classic nursery rhymes, and these CDs cost $1.99 and have like 50 tracks or something. Easy to find and super cheap. Soon enough, I had dozens of songs Jack would listen to on the iPod, and after I ripped the tracks, I’d give the CDs to my parents so they could play them at their house or in their cars. (Because they don’t have and cannot use iPods.)

As Jack got older, we would entertain him on longer car rides with audio versions of Thomas the Tank Engine and Little Einsteins episodes. These would be vital during afternoons when he might be tired, looking to nap, about to lose his mind, etc.

Another tip: if you have an old iPod or Shuffle hanging around that you’re not using, fill it up with all the stuff the kids want to hear in the car. That way, you don’t have to bring yours everywhere.

Hey,

Read your blog and just wanted to put my 2 cents in. I follow you on Twitter BTW which is how I got to your blog.

I can totally sympathize with you on the difficulty of choosing what artists to let your kids listen to. As a mother of 2, I also have a more music focused life than many of my friends. My kids are also a bit older that most of my friends as well. I grew up listening to many of the hair bands, heavy metal, and punk bands of the 80′s and while my 10 year old daughter thinks the boot leg radio recordings of my youth are “kinda cool”, they are not always kid friendly. I mean how can I let my little angel listen to the Crusifucks? About a year ago, when my husband and I started getting more involved with our church, we switched to Christian music and started listening our local station due to disgust of some of the things being played on the radio. I liked many of the folksie, indie genre style bands but really missed my head banging fixes.

I discovered there is a whole Christian metal/punk genre that i never dreamed existed. Bands such as Red, Devil wears Prada,Anberlin (who actually made it mainstream with ‘feel good drag’, and Skillet, provide a total rock out experience but without the negative messages and smut of some of the more mainstream bands. Check out HM Magazine. It’s a magazine totally dedicated to the Christian Heavy Metal scene and where some are more hardcore than others, most bands have a myspace or web page with song samples to check out. For your daughter, try Brit Nicole, Barlow Girl, Clique 5, and Toby Mac.

Sorry so long but you wanted feedback

Hey,

Read your blog and just wanted to put my 2 cents in. I follow you on Twitter BTW which is how I got to your blog.

I can totally sympathize with you on the difficulty of choosing what artists to let your kids listen to. As a mother of 2, I also have a more music focused life than many of my friends. My kids are also a bit older that most of my friends as well. I grew up listening to many of the hair bands, heavy metal, and punk bands of the 80′s and while my 10 year old daughter thinks the boot leg radio recordings of my youth are “kinda cool”, they are not always kid friendly. I mean how can I let my little angel listen to the Crusifucks? About a year ago, when my husband and I started getting more involved with our church, we switched to Christian music and started listening our local station due to disgust of some of the things being played on the radio. I liked many of the folksie, indie genre style bands but really missed my head banging fixes.

I discovered there is a whole Christian metal/punk genre that i never dreamed existed. Bands such as Red, Devil wears Prada,Anberlin (who actually made it mainstream with ‘feel good drag’, and Skillet, provide a total rock out experience but without the negative messages and smut of some of the more mainstream bands. Check out HM Magazine. It’s a magazine totally dedicated to the Christian Heavy Metal scene and where some are more hardcore than others, most bands have a myspace or web page with song samples to check out. For your daughter, try Brit Nicole, Barlow Girl, Clique 5, and Toby Mac.

Sorry so long but you wanted feedback

“Music Together”. That’s a class that I’ve been attending with my 3-year old daughter for 3 semesters already. The music is of the “sing-along, clap-along” type. Very acoustic and wholesome.
We also started her on some Baby Einstein Mozart and Bach. She really liked that. So, just on a hunch, I took a few pieces of real Mozart, Vivaldi, Bach and Verdi, cut them down to 3 minutes, and started playing them. She loves those even more.

On the pop side, she sings along to some classic Beatles and U2 tunes.

My blood runs cold at the thought of playing Catherine a collection of “kids music” when we’re in the car. Sure she might like it but I’d be miserable. It’s still early days for me – Catherine is only 19 months old – but I’m going to be working on interesting her in the same music that her mum and I listen to. I believe it’s possible for us all to be happy.

my daughter’s two and a half years old and is all about elmo and dora. she digs the backyardigans and my wife and i don’t mind them at all: that show seems to be the most musically intricate of the nick jr. lineup. she’s shown a lot of interest in yo gabba gabba, an odd show with extremely silly moments, but it’s cool to see her imitate biz’s beat of the day.

she’s got that and her nursery rhymes…and far too many wiggles discs courtesy of my brother-in-law who works for their stateside distributor (yes, i’ve sat through the live experience). i like watching her sing along to the *NO!* album from they might be giants. it’s always good when artists that you respect make kids records that go past the insipid and speak to a child’s imagination, and tmbg’s been doing that for a long time, long before they actually made children’s records of their own. there’s also the baby loves hip-hop cd by the dino 5, an animated prehistoric hip-hop group that voiced by some of my favorites in hip-hop like lady bug mecca of digable planets and chali 2na from jurassic 5. it also helps that prince paul produced the album, my favorite producer in hip-hop and long-time collaborator with de la soul.

i host and produce a podcast that features hip-hop, soul, funk, and electronic music, so i’ll play stuff for her to see how she reacts. i play a lot of instrumentals around her, particularly if it sounds like her spirit, if it sonically reminds me of how her mind works or if i can see her smile in the music or singing along to it. outside forces will always play a part in her influence. through day care, she heard beyonce’s “single ladies” and it was rather disconcerting to hear her singing the chorus at the dinner table. she doesn’t do the choreography, thank God, but it’s a reminder of how hard it can be to preserve the innocence of young children in this life. it’s something i’m very cognizant of, but i know i can’t go overboard in terms of control.

i love that my daughter’s responsive to the fast-paced electronic dance of drum and bass (she calls it “bouncy music”). i play hip-hop for her as well, from instrumental beats to yo gabba gabba and dino 5 material to female emcees that raise the bar for hip-hop lyricism (and there are more of them than the music industry would have you think), stuff that you can play in front of your grandparents and not wince. i was growing up with the music and always heard and saw females rapping, break dancing, into the graffiti art…they had a hand in every aspect of hip-hop. that’s what i want to teach to my daughter. i want to arm her with that information so that mainstream media outlets can run game on her about being a video vixen and not one who controls her own image. simply put, i grew up listening to lots of different music and i want my child to have that same experience.

i made a mix cd for her 1st birthday called *simone suite*. come late august, she’ll turn 3 three years old and i plan to celebrate her birthday with a podcast episode in her honor, appropriately entitled “father-daughter dance”…

my daughter’s two and a half years old and is all about elmo and dora. she digs the backyardigans and my wife and i don’t mind them at all: that show seems to be the most musically intricate of the nick jr. lineup. she’s shown a lot of interest in yo gabba gabba, an odd show with extremely silly moments, but it’s cool to see her imitate biz’s beat of the day.

she’s got that and her nursery rhymes…and far too many wiggles discs courtesy of my brother-in-law who works for their stateside distributor (yes, i’ve sat through the live experience). i like watching her sing along to the *NO!* album from they might be giants. it’s always good when artists that you respect make kids records that go past the insipid and speak to a child’s imagination, and tmbg’s been doing that for a long time, long before they actually made children’s records of their own. there’s also the baby loves hip-hop cd by the dino 5, an animated prehistoric hip-hop group that voiced by some of my favorites in hip-hop like lady bug mecca of digable planets and chali 2na from jurassic 5. it also helps that prince paul produced the album, my favorite producer in hip-hop and long-time collaborator with de la soul.

i host and produce a podcast that features hip-hop, soul, funk, and electronic music, so i’ll play stuff for her to see how she reacts. i play a lot of instrumentals around her, particularly if it sounds like her spirit, if it sonically reminds me of how her mind works or if i can see her smile in the music or singing along to it. outside forces will always play a part in her influence. through day care, she heard beyonce’s “single ladies” and it was rather disconcerting to hear her singing the chorus at the dinner table. she doesn’t do the choreography, thank God, but it’s a reminder of how hard it can be to preserve the innocence of young children in this life. it’s something i’m very cognizant of, but i know i can’t go overboard in terms of control.

i love that my daughter’s responsive to the fast-paced electronic dance of drum and bass (she calls it “bouncy music”). i play hip-hop for her as well, from instrumental beats to yo gabba gabba and dino 5 material to female emcees that raise the bar for hip-hop lyricism (and there are more of them than the music industry would have you think), stuff that you can play in front of your grandparents and not wince. i was growing up with the music and always heard and saw females rapping, break dancing, into the graffiti art…they had a hand in every aspect of hip-hop. that’s what i want to teach to my daughter. i want to arm her with that information so that mainstream media outlets can run game on her about being a video vixen and not one who controls her own image. simply put, i grew up listening to lots of different music and i want my child to have that same experience.

i made a mix cd for her 1st birthday called *simone suite*. come late august, she’ll turn 3 three years old and i plan to celebrate her birthday with a podcast episode in her honor, appropriately entitled “father-daughter dance”…

I’ll never forget the first batch I loaded up for my youngest son (then 5 yr old). I pulled heavily from his older sister’s collection and was not careful enough. When he listened to the second song he got a funny look on his face, took off the ear buds and said, I’m not going to listen to this. I asked him why. He said, “Daddy that song has cuss words in it.” Boy did I feel bad and proud all at the same time. Then I had a talk with my oldest daughter!

Hey Dads

Music just like any choice of stimulus is a series of choices that are a part of what I would term as “dynamic parenting”. By that I mean you start at day one as a media and stimulus filter. The early formative years I feel parents need to be vigilant in what you might allow your children to be exposed to. For me this includes not only language, video images, attitude but over all themes of messages being sent. If you want co-operative community oriented positive teenagers and adults, here is your chance for influence. Many studies have proved that early childhood experiences/memories effect us in later development. So when I took the kids in the car, to school or on holiday, we all sang along to the “Nice Kids music” which there is a pretty good selection of. Ya I didn’t care for it sometimes. My take on it is, (I just sucked it up)it only happens once and I can afford to not be selfish in order to keeping my kids a bit pure, just that being just”kids”, singing about loving animals, making friendships, keeping the environment clean and having fun. May sound corny but my kids are just exiting the Teen years and they are nice people, and did’nt get into trouble as kids or teens. Be a filter, its worth it.

Hey Dads

Music just like any choice of stimulus is a series of choices that are a part of what I would term as “dynamic parenting”. By that I mean you start at day one as a media and stimulus filter. The early formative years I feel parents need to be vigilant in what you might allow your children to be exposed to. For me this includes not only language, video images, attitude but over all themes of messages being sent. If you want co-operative community oriented positive teenagers and adults, here is your chance for influence. Many studies have proved that early childhood experiences/memories effect us in later development. So when I took the kids in the car, to school or on holiday, we all sang along to the “Nice Kids music” which there is a pretty good selection of. Ya I didn’t care for it sometimes. My take on it is, (I just sucked it up)it only happens once and I can afford to not be selfish in order to keeping my kids a bit pure, just that being just”kids”, singing about loving animals, making friendships, keeping the environment clean and having fun. May sound corny but my kids are just exiting the Teen years and they are nice people, and did’nt get into trouble as kids or teens. Be a filter, its worth it.

Recently i’ve been listening to a fair bit of celt-punk and celtic-metal.
imagine this scotsman’s pride when the 4yr old hears Skiltron (Think Old iron Maiden with pipes!) and says “bagpipes Rock Daddy”!

That aside – my only rule is the logical -no gangsta rap, no four letter words. (And no Laurie Berkner band!) of course being a self-confessed music snob, I will tell him that the Jonas brothers are evil, and that American idol is not real music – but I can’t really call that a rule now can I?

I was thinking a shuffle might be a good idea for junior this christmas, but is almost 5yrs old too young?