Quote of the Day

4.16.2008

works for me: iPod for cultural literacy

For any other families adopting older children, here is my best idea yet for helping your children catch up with all the nursery rhymes, stories, and folktales of their new culture.

First, I went to eBay and got a cheap iPod shuffle, the old style. Then I gathered together a huge selection of children's lit and music via iTunes (which is a free download). I install a random collection of Lit and Music onto the shuffle and we are all set. I got a little adapter so that the shuffle can run on the stereo speakers, so when we are just hanging around the house we have "Coming Around the Mountain" or "Jesus Loves the Little Children" playing, or someone reading to us "The Three Little Pigs".



On our list we have:

Podcasts ~ free

1. StoryNory Podcast ~ this is a current podcast and is our favorite, read by a woman with a voice like a chocolate truffle.

2. BigStoryTime Podcast ~ common children's books read by a cute cute little boy.
3. Karen & Kids Pod cast ~ this is a current podcast of Bible stories & songs
4. How Stuff Works Podcast ~ under 2 minutes
5. Lit2Go Podcast ~ stories and poems, read aloud by a variety of readers, some better than others

~~~~~ just added ~~~~~

6. The Story Home ~ classic and original stories posted every other week
7. BrainStuff: How Stuff Works ~ fascinating sciency-stuff in about a minute & a half
8. Kid's For Truth ~ daily devotions in under 5 minutes
9. Paws & Tales ~ 30 minutes of Bible-based stories

Purchased or Received as Gifts or Already had as CDs.
1. 100 Bible Stories, 100 Bible Songs~ Stephen Elkens
2. 100 Bible Songs for Kids - St John's Children's Choir
3. VeggieTales Sing-Along CDs

4. Children's Sing-a-long Favorites - St John's Children's Choir
5. More Singable Songs - Raffi
6. Peter, Paul and Mommy
7. Return to Pooh Corner- Kenny Loggins
8. Songs Of The Cat - Garrison Keller



9. Music Tales: Popular Children's Stories Accompanied By Famous Classical Music
10. Sing Along with Putamayo
11. Where the Wild Things Are
12. The Cat in the Hat

Apple iTunes



~~~~~ just added ~~~~~

13. Selections from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language: Genesis 1, Exodus 20, I Samuel 17, many Psalms, Isaiah 53, I Corinthians 13
14. Steve Green's Hide 'Em in Your Heart: Bible Memory Melodies, Vol. 1 (thanks Kate)

What am I missing? What do your kids enjoy/learn from?

~Suzanne

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Return to Pooh Corner is one of my favorite CD's, and I'm an adult!

Anonymous said...

Suz, you might like Steve Green's "Hide 'em in Your Heart" cd's. There are two that are Bible verses set to memorable (oh, soooo memorable) tunes. There is also a children's praise cd. I've already got these for d2b!

Anonymous said...

And, umm... I need an iPod. Which one do I buy? (Mac user, loads of cd's...need them for school and dance classes as well as showering and housecleaning.)

Suzanne said...

Hi Kate,

Thanks for the Steve Green's tip.

I am very happy with my iPod Nano, 2nd Gen. It does everything I want it to do and is readily available on the used market.

For the kids, I have shuffles, 1st gen, cheap cheap cheap.

Best,

Suzanne

Anonymous said...

That's a great idea! I've never been brave enough to venture into ITune land. This may be what pushes me out of my comfort zone. Thanks! =0)

Anonymous said...

Cheers, suz. Let me know what you think of Steve Green. (Even as I type this, I've started singing, "Children obey your parents in the Lord...".)

Suzanne said...

That's my favorite one Kate! Thank you so much for the tip -- got any more good ones?