November 2010 Notable Toys — Audio & CD

This collection of songs is designed to teach children self-regulation, coping skills, increased attention span and self-soothing techniques. The skills associated with self-control allow children to get along with peers and adults and participate in an array of activities and experiences. These songs encourage children to see rules as positive tools for self management. Awards: 2010 Creative Child Magazine CD of the Year

These songs are designed to create a soothing atmosphere that helps children make the transition to sleep calmly. The album aims to relieve the anxiety of bedtime/naptime, and strengthen the bond between parent/teacher and child.

The songs featured on New Day were developed to teach hope to children and give hope to teachers/parents. They are designed to help children internalize positive “self-talk” and anticipate a future of accomplishment and confidence. Based on the field of positive psychology, these songs teach children how to better handle negative life experiences, develop a future orientation and develop positive feelings about his/herself and the world in general. The album features the music of Mary Hulefeld and David Kisor.

The music from Feeling Positive is based on the key findings from the field of positive psychology. The lyrics convey messages from positive psychology and the rich music orchestrates experiences of “positivity” for parents and children alike. This CD is designed to help children develop important character strengths such as curiosity, hope, optimism, kindness and gratitude.

“Robot Dance,” the first album from Mr. Leebot, is a electric powered tribute to the synthetic sounds of the 80’s. Drawing inspiration from Devo and Talking Heads, Mr. Leebot brings new wave to kids across sixteen tracks with names like “Rumbling Tummy” and “It Wasn’t Me.”
— Charles of A Child Grows reports that the songs on “Robot Dance” live up to the CD’s title; their electronic rhythms are sure to inspire breakdancing and doing the robot. Charles warns parents, however, that “Mr. Leebot’s sound is so unmistakably 80’s throughout the CD that unless your family can’t get enough of the dance sounds of Yo Gabba Gabba!, you may not be able to sit through the entire sixteen tracks on the CD.”
— Nugget Island’s Matthew Siden calls the album “a keytar classic.” According to Matthew, highlights of the CD include “’Paper Airplane’ and wear-your-helmet song ‘Protect Your Nog’ [which] serve as proof that a poppy kids’ song can meld with bleepy programming and actually work.”

Jeff Jones and the Earthtones inspire kids to “Sing a Little Song, Do a Little Dance” on this 14 track CD. Latin, Caribbian and Asian musical styles influence many of the songs, including “La Bamba,” “Je Je Kule” and “Cumbia del Sol.”
— Gayle Geise of Parents’ Choice called the CD “an exciting, musical journey” that gets kids “twisting, dancing, singing, responding to calls, moving faster and slower as they ride their ponies-all while successfully introducing a number of general music lessons.”
— Daniel Freidman from Raising Arizona Kids referred to the songs as “sophisticated fare.” Daniel especially enjoyed "Night in Wulanbatuo," a “soothing, melancholy song that features Chinese lyrics and a Tibetan melody.”

Grammy Award winning children’s musicians Cathy and Marcy team up with human beatbox Christylez Bacon to combine folk and hip-hop styles. This eight track CD is filled with new songs and children’s classics like “Froggie Went A Courtin’” and “Syncopated Washboard Rhythm Song.”
— Mark S. Tucker of Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange described the CD as “very Sesame Street-ish.” Though the recording quality is “somewhat amateurish” and the CD is “only a half hour,” Mark recommended from “Banjo to Beatbox” as “a nice little addition to the catalogue of discs for kids.”
— Caroline Holt from Our Kids listened to the CD with her kids as well as four other adults. Caroline and her children preferred the beatbox songs on the CD, while the other adults greatly favored the folk songs. As a whole, they “found it annoying that it flip-flops between beatbox and folk songs,” though Caroline felt the low price tag made the album a worthy purchase even for only half the songs.

Parachute fitness routines set to diverse music and original songs address mobility, fitness, directionality, body identification, imaginative play and important concepts. Parachute play can be used for circle time, arrival and departure activities, recess and indoor/outdoor play.

This DVD is designed to get kids moving to fun routines set to music with beat and "pop" sounds. Flexibility, strength and aerobics, moving from warm up to cool down, with a lot of easy pre-aerobic routines, aim to help promote good health and healthy play. "Important activity benefits include self regulatory behavior, valuable educational concepts, nutrition, the environment, sensory integration, improved motor skills, movement and more," Kimbo Educational Director of Sales and Marketing Elaine Murphy told TDmonthly.

Power Tunes is an album from speech-language pathologist and multi-award winning songwriter Joe Rothstein, MS, CCC-SLP. Favorites like “School Song,” “Food Song” and “Opposite Song” aim to pick kids up and get their bodies and brainwaves moving together while empowering them with important language tools. "Power Tunes uses principles of speech-language pathology to to help toddlers and young children learn vocabulary, speech sounds, and early academic concepts," Turning Points Media President Joe Rothstein told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2009 iParenting Media Award; 2009 National Parenting Center Seal of Approval
— “I have several students with speech issues in my room this year and was thrilled with the results of playing this CD for my class,” explained the reviewer from The Opinionated Parent. The critic added that “Whether your children have speech concerns or not, it’s a great CD … I give it a ten out of ten – even if I wouldn’t listen to it without my kids around.”
— Heather Sedlock, Special Needs Kids Examiner for Examiner.com, listened to the CD both on her own and with a group of children and toddlers with speech-language deficits. Heather and her co-reviewers enjoyed the “10 upbeat, get-you-out-of-your-seat songs,” which she found perfect for home, school, daycare and travel settings.

Monkey Monkey Music offers a deep commitment to putting the child back into children’s music with Meredith LeVande's second album, What Are the Odds? The album finds the middle road between baby songs and pop band songs where kids’ lyrics are simply added to music that would otherwise be played for adults. Meredith’s music is not only child-friendly, it’s truly child-appropriate, having been created with the healthy growth of the child in mind. "Her songs are joy-filled expressions of pure, childlike fun. One listen is all it takes to recognize that Meredith really loves being around children," Waldmania PR Publicist Elizabeth Waldman Frazier told TDmonthly.
— “As soon as I pushed play, my 19-month-old son started bopping to the music,” reported Shonda of The Knowlton Nest. Shonda was struck by Meredith’s “happy, upbeat and friendly child-like voice” throughout “music that was contemporary, yet simple” and “appealing to kids and adults.”
— Toni Morton of Toni’s Treehouse provides a track-by-track analysis of the CD, highlighting the knock-knock joke based song "Who's a Knockin'?" and “the surprising sounds of a banjo and dobro” in the food pyramid song "Frogs Eat Butterflies."