Guest Author - Michelle Taylor

As a mother of three children, I am very interested in musical programs for kids. I believe that anything that gets a child interested in music at a young age is a good thing. Kids need music! One of the very first things we do with a newborn is to croon or hum a lullaby. And one of the easiest ways for children to learn anything new, is to put it to music and make a song out of it. Can you imagine learning the ABCs without the song?

On that note, let me introduce the Little Einsteins, part of the Playhouse Disney lineup.

My 4 year old loves this program! The characters are colorful, cheerful, and get involved in all sorts of adventures that appeal to a pre-schooler. As a Mom, I like it for all the arts that it introduces to children.

Each show is a different “mission” that the little Einstein kids must go on. At the beginning of each show, the team introduces us to (at least) one classical piece of music, and one piece of visual art. Children are encouraged to hum, make up lyrics, dance, and tap out rhythms to each piece of music. Getting involved with the music makes it real to children. I loved it when I caught my son humming “Flight of the Bumblebees” while he was playing with his toy planes one day!

The art pieces are often used as the background scenes for part of the missions, and give a new perspective on art that we adults often take for granted. One particular episode I recall is “A Galactic Goodnight” which features The Scream by Edward Munch and Fur Elise by Beethoven. Who would have ever imagined The Scream as being part of a preschool program? Yet it gives a whole new look at a piece of art that I would have never thought to show my child.

The creators of Little Einsteins are the same team that works on Baby Einstein, a series of videos designed to introduce the arts to infants. Whereas the Baby Einstein programs are mostly images to attract an infant’s attention, Little Einsteins works to get the child involved in the program.

For instance; to power up Rocket (the alive rocket ship that the team travels in) kids re encouraged to pat out a rhythm, getting faster and louder to give Rocket more power. One of the show’s characters, Annie (a four year old little girl) makes up song lyrics to classical pieces of music that normally have no words – such as “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Edvard Greig’s Peer Gynt. And children are asked to help find characters by listening to the different sounds they make and identifying the correct sound – like finding musical instruments in the ocean.

Little Einsteins can be found daily on Playhouse Disney (the preschool segment of the Disney Channel), on video/DVD, and in children’s books. Be sure to check out the links below to see what music and art is represented in each episode.