A Guest Post by Prerna Mallik of “The Mom Writes”
Need a fun and interesting way to spend time with your always on-the-move toddler? Check out multicultural music CDs and videos. These song-filled CDs derive inspiration from the variety and richness of cultures around us and are a great way to bond with your preschooler.
Here’s more about them:
What is Multicultural Music?
Multicultural music consists of songs, videos or lyrics that present a variety of different cultures. These can be used as is or maybe adapted to suit our own native culture. You may not realize it but we’ve all been exposed to multicultural music at some point of time or the other. Feliz Navidad is an excellent example of this.
How Can Multicultural Music Help Your Toddler?
Multicultural music is a fantastic way of spending time with your toddler, having fun and learning as well. Music from across the world teaches toddlers that while we may have different colors, languages and homes, we are all one. We feel the same emotions, experience the same challenges and celebrate in pretty much the same way.
Multicultural music opens up a whole new world for a toddler. Literally. Listening to a song can lead to many fun bonding activities. For instance, if you listen to a song from Mexico, you can do the Mexican hat dance, spend time reading about that country and try to make some hot chocolate like in the popular song “Bate Bate Chocolate”. If you like songs like “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” from Africa, you can make a great preschool craft – a sticker shekere (http://makingmulticulturalmusic.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/make-a-sticker-shekere/ ) that is just as much fun as the real instrument from Africa. And you and your young child can play along to your favorite songs.
Doesn’t that sound like a whole lot of fun!
Another great way to use multicultural music is to pick a country each month and then, listen to the songs from that part of the world. For instance, you can pick Latin America and listen to a variety of songs in Spanish and other languages found in Latin America. You can find a lot of fun, free songs online. Three great websites are DARIA’s World Music for Kids (www.dariamusic.com), Mama Lisa’s World (www.mamalisa.com/world/) and Kiddiddles (www.kididdles.com/) .
World music is a fantastic way of inspiring interests in geography, history and cultural studies. Pop in a CD on your way to the school or on a road trip and you’ll have preschoolers singing in a variety of languages before you know it!
Have you listened to multicultural music with your toddler?
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Prerna Malik is a mom, a home manager and a web content expert. Join her at The Mom Writes where she talks about parenting toddlers, living green and simple, and being in the business of writing. Find her at www.themomwrites.com
