Sadly, my seven-year-old has begun to outgrow little kids' music. I blame it on school. If she hadn't been exposed to all those kids going gaga over Hannah Montana and Taylor Swift, she would still love XM Kids and be begging for more Laurie Berkner. I'm just not ready for her to be singing romantic lyrics and getting into the top 40 yet. I encourage her love for songs like Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana's "The Climb" or "Best of Both Worlds," sure, but there are other Miley songs that I'm not as wild about. My husband has made a "favorite songs" file for her on his computer, which she thinks is just so cool, and so do we because we know exactly what she's listening to and that all of the songs are age appropriate.
Yesterday, we made kind of a break through. We have been downloading a lot of songs from musicals lately, and she started requesting songs from movies as well. We downloaded both Tinker Bell movie soundtracks, which are absolutely fabulous for a kid her age (can't wait for Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue), and I remembered that my kids have all been singing the songs from Toy Story 3 since we saw it, so that's next. What an untapped resource for kids' music that I have been overlooking. Warren Truitt, About.com's guide to kids' music, has a list of his favorite Disney/Pixar soundtracks that reminded me of a few music gems I had forgotten about as well. Often, kids and family movies have soundtracks that follow the theme of the movie, so there can be really great music by well known bands or singers that is topically appropriate for kids.
Kids grow up, and we have to let them spread their wings and fly on their own -- I get that -- but I just think kids grow up too fast these days. We're not trying to shelter her (I didn't go up to the school and throw a fit when she came home singing "Next Time He Cheats" after listening to it in PE -- ugh!), but hopefully, by filling her ears with music she loves and introducing her to great music from soundtracks and musicals, she won't even notice what she isn't listening to, at least not for a while.
Family Films
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