This month's All About Parenting Blog Carnival delves into the topic of music and kids - from cool tunes for tots, to conservatory auditions for college kids - with help from 18 fantastic parenting experts, parents and bloggers. Among the tips: concert etiquette, music lessons, explicit lyrics, philosophical musings and great tunes. Let's get started:
Concerts, Lessons & Beyond
If you're introducing your children to the wonderful world of concert-going for the first time, Espie Estrella, About.com's guide to music education, has some excellent concert manners tips, from what to wear to when to clap. Check it out, then go enjoy some culture.
Laureen Miles Brunelli's funny and inspiring blog post, "No Ukuleles at the Dinner Table," addresses music lesson issues. The About.com guide for work-at-home moms talks about the challenges, expenses and benefits of bringing music into your child's life - and what to do when that ukulele starts showing up for dinner.
Katherine Lewis, About's guide to working moms, raises a related issue - how do you fit music practice into an already crammed schedule? She shares some really great tips from readers - and invites you to share yours too.
And I tackle the opposite end of the spectrum: what happens when your passionate young musician contemplates music as a career? Here's the lowdown on college vs. conservatory, audition survival and the big question - is "starving musician" a stereotype or a reality?
Tots & Tunes
When your tot stops you in the market, points up at the speaker blasting music and announces, "I want that!" - what happens next? About.com's Katherine Lee, guide to child parenting and mother of a young rocker, talks nature, nurture and the power of Eric Clapton.
About's guide to parenting preschoolers, Amanda Rock sees music as more than notes. Her list of wonderful music activities for preschoolers ranges from freeze dance to - well, check it out for yourself!
Apryl Duncan, About's guide to stay-at-home moms, pens a paean to singing preschoolers, and says it's not about creating little Mozarts. It's so much more important than that.
Amping Up, Calming Down & Connecting
Music can be a fun and powerful motivator for family exercise as well as listening pleasure, says Catherine Holecko, About.com guide to family fitness, who bops along to Wii dance tunes and shimmies around the kitchen to CDs.
Sherri Osborn, About's guide to family crafts, says don't just listen to music, make musical crafts too. She's got instructions for everything from impromptu percussion to a shoe box guitar.
Laura Schuerwegen, the mom and writer behind the Authentic Parenting blog, agrees. She says music is a great way to rev up, calm down and just have fun together - in short, music is a marvelous parenting tool.
Music has therapeutic value too, of course. Amber Bobnar writes about connecting with kids through music therapy in a Wonderbaby blog post dedicated to parents of blind and developmentally disabled children.
And Miriam Katz, the mom and writer behind TheOtherBabyBook blog, has been taking music lessons with her little daughter through a Music Together-type class, except all the songs are in Hebrew. Music, she says, is a way to communicate regardless of age, language and vocabulary. It's a way to connect.
Great Tunes & Troublesome Lyrics
Great melodies are one thing, but what happens when the lyrics are dicey? Jennifer O'Donnell, About's guide to parenting tweens, just got a heaping helping of that experience when her kids started listening to a Cee Lo song - and no, it wasn't the "Forget You" version.
Megan Cooley - About's guide to kids' birthdays - talks about playlists too, but her post is on incorporating great music into children's parties. She talks about playing some rocking country tunes for a recent horse-themed fest, for example.
Heather Corley, About's guide to baby products, loves blasting music in the car and the house, but concedes that Lady Gaga isn't exactly appropriate kid fare, no matter how much mom loves "Bad Romance." So she's got a list of suggestions for music that will please the whole family.
Susan Adcox, About's guide to grandparenting, asks: why should all the fun be reserved for kids? Throw a grandchild hootenanny with your little darlings and teach them your favorite tunes - and she's got a list of 10 great songs to get you started.
Teacher and blogger Katy Farber from Non-ToxicKids has a music recommendation too. She's a fan of pre-bedtime dance fests, and her favorite CDs are by Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights. (Which gets my vote for best kid rock band name ever.)
And Tiffany Merritt, the blogging mom behind StuffParentsNeed, uses music as a way to get through the crazy times of day, when pent-up energy and kiddie fatigue intersect, and she has a CD recommendation too.
Enjoy!
Music is such a special way to connect with kids, but I had no idea how many different creative ways there were to include music in your parenting until I read this post. It’s tempting to slip into the pushy parent mode by exposing your children to music — thanks for the reminder to have fun also.
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