Music is like medicine: The perfect song, at just the right moment, can provide clarity, perspective, or release. With my kids, I use it like a reset button, to help them wake up, relax, or snap out of sour mood. Just last night, when the kids clearly needed to let loose after dinner and before their baths (finding one attempting to scale a doorjamb, American Ninja Warrior style, gave me the hint), I cranked up the old-school jam “Apache” on my phone as they shed their clothes for bath time. Just ten minutes of dancing to the Sugarhill Gang, underpants optional, turned out to be just what they needed to settle into the evening.
Last week, I asked friends and readers to share some of their favorite tunes to play with their kids in various settings—to rock out, chill out, or just pass the time in traffic. I got some great feedback, and naturally wasted a ridiculous amount of time online checking out their choices and discovering some new ones. You can connect to these via Spotify—it’s free, easy and really worth subscribing to, if you haven’t yet (you’ll get a prompt when clicking on a song). You can also find these songs on iTunes, Amazon, and Soundcloud, too. Let me know what you think, and please share your own family faves, as I will almost certainly do another playlist post at some point. This just might have been the most fun post to write, ever.
Note that all of these playlists have many more songs than the ones previewed in boxes, here. Just click on the edge of the box and scroll down for the full list. You can also find these and other playlists on Spotify directly by typing spotify:user:happyhealthykids into search bar at the top of the page.
Playlist #1: Preschool PlaytimeThere are quite a few really terrible “toddler time” playlists online, with the same group of tinny-voiced children singing the same creaky nursery rhymes to the same synthesizer beat. And yet, much of the new kiddie rock music is inaccessible to 2- and 3-year-olds. Here’s a mix of nicely produced classics and catchy newer tunes that are good for playdates, craft time, or car-seat time.
Finding something suitable for the entire family in the car can be tough when a mix of ages and a musically snobby grownup or two are present. This is where some of the truly clever and often very funny new kids’ rock music comes to play. These songs are playful without being too babyish for elementary schoolers, and all have a good beat.
Our entire clan, ages 3 to 8, really digs this, but with a few “damns,” a couple “sexys,” and a drinking reference here and there, a more sensible parent than I might choose to reserve this as an after-dark playlist for the ‘tween set. It also doubles nicely for runs and workouts.
Pleasant, upbeat music can have a positive effect on everyone in the household. All of these songs have a slightly ambient quality that’s well suited to lazy or busy weekend mornings. At the very least, you can enjoy listening to this while pretending to not hear your kids fighting over the new Hot Wheels track in the basement.
Every parent should have a sleepytime playlist in their back pocket—for frazzled nap times, long, sick nights, or nighttime road trips when the kids need to sleep. This is an extended version of a playlist I’ve been passing along to my best new-mom friends for years now. It got us through colic. Hope you like it.
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