Customer Reviews

A Child's Celebration Of The World

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Basically I love the CD and my 8 month old son has lots of smiles and flailing arms while listening to the up-beat, catchy tunes. Unfortunately, I noticed a cultural mistake which leaves me wondering about the other bits included. In the song about "Family Vacation" (which on the whole presents a wonderfully positive attitude towards language learning and diversity), the artists have chosen CHINESE music as a back drop for the verse regarding a vacation to JAPAN. As I live in Japan and my husband is Japanese this is quite a difficult mistake to overlook. Instead of promoting cultural awareness it seems to underline the insensitivity of westerners who lump the whole Asian culture into things being "Chinese." I was very disappointed....... That said...I still listen to the CD often and even sing along with the vacation song.... it really is a great song otherwise. I truly wish that somewhere along the way someone checked the accuracy of the cultural representations. I wonder if there are any others that I simply don't notice.

This CD is full of songs specifically for children, many with children singing and/or encouraging interaction. My 5 year old especially loves the counting songs. I love that it introduces my children to unique cultures from around the world. And, it makes for great listening for a parent too - and I say that after listening to it over and OVER in the car!

I love this CD! It is fun and educational at the same time. I like the introduction to different languages and culture.

This is a fabulous compilation of songs in many languages from all over the world. My favorite is "on a vacation" ... I'm learning new languages and words right along with my toddler! Highly recommended ... along with anything from MFLP!

My children have listened to this CD for two months now, and we recommend it. We rank this much higher than most of the commercial children's music on the market, like Disney and various pop music CD's for kids.

This collection has some outstanding songs your children will love that you would have a hard time finding otherwise, like "The Unicorn" and "On a Vacation," which is very funny. You even get the wonderful "Like Me and You" by Raffi.

This CD is not perfect. Some of the songs are not good. The recurring "Sweet Honey on a Rock" is extremely annoying.

But the rest of the good songs make up for it. Get it for the language exposure and the handful of excellent songs.

I also highly recommend any CD's by Raffi if you are looking for the highest quality and most fun children's music. Raffi is the best of all.

I first bought this CD because I wanted my daughter to be accustomed to hearing different types of languages. She immediatly fell in love with this CD and doesn't want to hear anything else. I recomend it for all children, of all ages, esspecially adults, I love it as much as she does and love to sing along. The tunes are just too catchy :)

I bought this mainly because of the songs that teach counting in other languages. It is so irritating to listen to! "Sweet Honey In the Rock" does a buzzing sound like a chain saw in teh background as they speak through numbers 1-12. It's a shame because some of the other songs are fun to listen to like "On a Vacation" by the Chenielle Sisters which introduces silly sentences and their translations. Some of teh songs don't introduce foreign language but instead offer the sound of music from another country like "The Unicorn" by The Irish Rovers. I'd probably keep the CD if it weren't for the irritating "Sweet Honey In the Rock" songs that consist of 4 of the 18 songs. I'm re-selling it though.

... Because it is one of the only CDs my children want to listen to over and over -- every day!

My 20 month old has learned to operate the CD player in order to listen to this when she wants to, and my 5 year old son has choreographed songs and memorized lyrics. I can even excuse the presence of Kum Bah Yah on this recording (groan) because of the quality of the other songs. Patah Patah is a family favorite that gets children and adults dancing. I plan to buy extra copies as gifts for other young children in our lives.

I enjoyed using this CD and others like it in my home child care. The children ages 2 to 12 years of age danced, sang, and listened to them with complete joy and satisfaction. It's great for the children of many cultures I now teach. We love them!

Don't let the title of this CD fool you. This is one of those "children's" CD's that parents won't mind listening to again and again. "A Child's Celebration of the World" includes a variety of songs -- from the a great recording of Miriam Makeba's "Pata Pata" (my favorite) to the super-silly "On a Vacation" (learn how to say "My sister needs a diaper change" in Japanese), from the gentle "Anishanabe" to "Fiesta Musical" (a sort of rap song in Spanish). This is both educational and enjoyable -- a rare combination in children's music.