This past fall I volunteered to put together a kids dance mix for an event at my daughters’ school. While I’d made several playlists for them as babies, it had been awhile since I got something together for their toddler/kindergartener selves. After watching them jam out, I immediately downloaded the playlist to my iPhone.
It’s proven quite useful, especially when we found ourselves homebound for three days during winter storm Goliath. An impromptu dance party at the grandparent’s house can burn off a lot of energy.
There’s a reason human beings gravitate to dance. For starters, dancing truly makes us happy. And that happiness is believed to begin when we’re babies. While researching for this post, I came across a great story by PBS Parents about selecting music for children.
My favorite bit of advice was this, “The best musical library for your child includes a wide variety—a mixture of genres you like and music they like. Levinowitz compares music you play to the foods you serve: you don’t want your child eating only mac and cheese, or similarly, listening to the same CD all the time.”
Here’s a mix my clan is currently bouncing to. I’ll be creating some new ones for 2016:
- I Want You Back: Jackson 5
- Happy: Pharrell Williams
- Roar: Katy Perry
- Twist and Shout: The Beatles
- Purple People Eater: Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem Version
- We Got The Beat: Go-Go’s
- The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?): Ylvis
- Stayin’ Alive: Bee Gees
- Cha Cha Slide: DJ Casper
- Moose On The Loose: Ozomatli
- Walking On Sunshine: Katrina & The Waves
- What I Like About You: The Romantics
- Wipe Out: The Surfaris
- Firework: Katy Perry
- Everything is AWESOME!!!: Tegan and Sara
- Funkytown: Lipps, Inc.
- La Bamba: Ritchie Valens
- Jump: Van Halen
- We Are Family: Sister Sledge
- I’m a Believer: Weezer Version
- Yellow Submarine: The Beatles
- Ain’t No Mountain High Enough: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Does your family have a favorite song(s) you bop around to? Please share below.
Oh and did I mention there’s even a National Dance Day?
Happy Dancing!
With David Bowie’s passing I’ve been listening to a lot of his music this week. Wanted to share a great gem on ITunes, a recording of Bowie narrating Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with the Philadelphia Orchestra & Eugene Ormandy. It’s a lovely listen.