Head, Shoulders, Knees, and all that

And the winner is...

We have a winner in the drawing for 4 tickets to see Ralph's World Live.

32 entrants correctly filled in this missing lyric from Just Like The Monkeys.

We’d eat bananas and mangos and orange papayas
And sometimes on Sundays we’d eat  PIZZA.

Anita K. from  Alpharetta, GA will be going to see Ralph's World at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, GA with her husband, 4 year-old son, and one lucky guest.

Thanks to Ralph's people for making this contest possible and thanks everybody for participating.  If you entered but did not win...don't despair.  There are a couple more Ralph's World contests going on (check out Zooglobble and Cool Tunes for Kids), and you can always make sure you get tickets by ordering through the link below:

Here's a just a bit of Ralph's World to get you excited:

 

Too many presents?

Uncle Rock's Plays Well With Others was chosen as one of the top children's music CDs of the year in the Fids and Kamily poll.  Here's a track:

Wiggles wobble but they don't fall down

LOTS of posts in the blogosphere about the departure of Greg from the Wiggles.  I don't have much to add, other than I hope he gets well, but I wanted to link to some thoughts I enjoyed from Play Library.  If you're interested, here are my thoughts on the Wiggles from April of this year.

Rather than asking who should replace Greg, I'd like to hear your thoughts on who should definitely not replace Greg.  I'll start it off by saying I think that they should absolutely NOT ask Prince to replace Greg.  (Besides, Jeff already has dibs on Purple).

Thank You letter

Molly McGinn is the Senior Writer for Kindermusik International, a leader in music and movement classes around the world.  (Check out Molly's youTube channel for more on Kindermusik).

Here's a great song from Molly to enjoy with the family. (I'm a sucker for any song with whistling in it!)

Elizabeth Mitchell on NPR

Listen here. For more on Elizabeth, check out the archives at Zooglobble.

Nagi sings Rubber Ducky

She came out strong as a 2-year old with Nagi Raps Freestyle.  Silencing the doubters and shrugging off the sophmore slump as a 3-year old, she hit hard with her second single At School.  Earlier this year, 4-year old Nagi released the instant classic, Fugees-inspired Be Yourself.

And now... 4 1/2 year old Nagi shows the depth of her range with her interpretation of the old standard, Rubber Ducky (accompanied by Papa).   One day, we'll all be saying, "I knew her when..."

Nagi sings Rubber Ducky

Dan Zanes on youTube

The Lovely Mrs. Davis has posted a great piece on Dan Zanes from youTube. If you like Dan Zanes, you'll really enjoy this clip. If you don't know him yet, it's a great introduction.

CD News

A big thanks to fellow Japan-based, toddler-teachin', blogger Shannon-sensei.  We sent her a couple of Super Simple Songs CDs (yep, those ones over on the left-hand side of the screen) to use with her pre-schoolers and she gave us some nice feedback.

We're also excited to learn that both Super Simple Songs CDs are finalists for 2006 Children's Music Web Awards (one each in the Best Recording for Babies and Toddlers and Best Recording for Preschoolers categories), alongside some of our favorites; Mary Kaye, Monty Harper, Lanny Sherwin, Hap Palmer, and Sue Schnitzer, among others.

What does it mean to be a finalist?  From childrensmusic.org:

Entries are first screened by a blue-ribbon panel for appropriateness for kids. Then, entries are sent worldwide to volunteer families or neighbor groups comprised of adults and kids of appropriate ages. The entries are then rated by kids and adults according to specific guidelines for quality such as performance, production values and content. The top scorers in each category, the Finalists, are passed to the next round.

Each of the Finalists are then rated by a total of 100 kids of appropriate ages in 3 volunteer classrooms and day care centers in geographically diverse areas. The kids vote on their favorites using a simplified ballot. In the case of the Baby and Toddler categories, caregivers do the rating. Those recordings that score a composite of 90% or better will then be declared Winners.

We'd love to get an award, but it really is nice to be amongst great company.  The  Children's Music Web Awards do a great job of keeping children heavily involved in the selection process, so have a look at the finalists and check some of them out online.

One more thing...don't forget to vote for Monty over at the Unisong People's Choice awards.  Less than a week left in the voting!

Willy Was A Whale

Stefan links to Justin Robert's performance on the Today Show last week.  For more from J.R., here's another YouTube clip.

Vote for Pedro...

...make that Monty.  Monty Harper has a couple of songs in the running for a Unisong People's Choice award.  Take Me To Your Library has already won 1st prize in the Unisong International Songwriting Competition children's category.  Take a minute and pop over to let Unisong know how much you value quality children's music in general and Monty's music in particular. 

Vote here. (you can vote 3 times a day, voting ends September 10th).