Simply Fun Instagram Giveaway

January 30, 2014 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

In honor of Literacy Day and Puzzle Day this week, Simply Fun is celebrating with a giveaway with your kids in mind! This giveaway includes a featured literacy game and a featured puzzle game from their collection perfect for your little ones. This giveaway also has a super cool Instagram component. I’m so excited to share all the details!

Giveaway Prizes

Tibbars Find My ABCs and 123s

Teaches alphabet, colors, counting and early reading

Together in one bundle, Tibbar’s Find My ABCs and Find My 123s will take your child on a learning adventure. Your pre-schooler will delight in assembling each oversized floor puzzle while learning the alphabet, numbers 1 thru 10, and colors at the same time! Get more info on Tibbars Find My ABCs and 123s from Simply Fun on their website.

Spell Trek

Spell your way across the board by finding missing vowels

You and your friends are on an amazing journey around the world, taking pictures of all the things you find. But somehow all the vowels are missing from your photos! Put the missing vowels back into your words to move ahead, and be the first player to cross the finish line to win. Get more info on Spell Trek from Simply Fun on their website.

Instagram Giveaway

Are you on Instagram? I’d love to connect with you there! Just follow @growingupmagazine and @simplyfun on Instagram.

Celebrate Puzzle Day by uploading a picture of you/your little ones working on a puzzle. Include #puzzleday in your comment as well as tagging both @growingupmagazine and @simplyfun so we see your cute picture!

For a bonus entry, you can also celebrate Literacy Day! You can upload a picture of you/your little ones reading or enjoying books. Again, tag both @growingupmagazine and @simplyfun so we see your cute picture and include #readeveryday!

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You’re Happier When You’re Happy from Boxtop Jenkins

January 7, 2014 by ajpassey 1 Comment

We are excited to start the year with some great music from new-to-us musicians. We received Boxtop Jenkins latest album called You’re Happier When You’re Happy at the end of our stay in Utah. We first listened to this album when we were driving across the country with our four children. To survive the drive the kids had been watching movies. One morning I convinced them to give Boxtop Jenkins a try before we turned on a movie. The whole family loved it so much we listened to it twice and repeated a few of our fast favorites.

{Check out this month’s issue of Growing Up to see which songs are our favorites and to learn more about You’re Happier When You’re Happy.}

You can give the album a preview listen on Amazon or iTunes. You can also listen to Boxtop Jenkins’ songs on Soundcloud. Boxtop is also active on Facebook so you can stay current with projects, concerts and fun tidbits from his life and music.

Meet Debbie and Friends

December 6, 2013 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

I’m excited to highlight another band who has an album in the 4-album prize pack giveaway going on right now! Debbie and Friends have a popular YouTube channel showcasing many of their storytelling songs. We love storytelling and we love songs so it’s fun to see a band put them together in a unique way.

Check out Cinderella, which is also on their album Variety Show.

Here’s another video from their channel: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

You can see more videos on Debbie and Friends’ YouTube channel. You can also use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter the giveaway which includes Variety Show from Debbie and Friends. Giveaway is open to US residents through Tues Dec 10.

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Lishy Lou and Lucky Too

December 3, 2013 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

We are so excited for Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band on their recent Latin Grammy win for Best Children’s Album. And we can see why they were so well received. We have enjoyed getting to know them through Lishy Lou and Lucky Too.

The first thing that the children fell in love with on this album was the jokes. The girls have been really into jokes this school year. We’ve checked out joke books from the library and even Scott has a few jokes in his repertoire. So when Lishy Lou and Lucky Too had awesome joke segments between fantastic songs, the kids laughed non-stop.

Lishy Lou and Lucky Too is presented as an old timey radio show. The segments capture the humor and feel of radio shows both in content and sound effects. Elli loves the song Thingamajig which follows a segment all about a traveling salesman selling all sorts of thingamajigs and whatchamacallits.

We’re excited to be able to include Lishy Lou and Lucky Too from Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band as part of our 4-Album Giveaway! You can read the full post here and enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. Giveaway is open until next Tues. Good luck!

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Marsh Mud Madness by Roger Day Review

November 26, 2013 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

“Jessie is a Turtle Girl” sings Elli.

“Jessie is a Turtle Girl” sings Sammi.

“Turtle Girl! Turtle Girl!” hollers Scott.

Marsh-Mud-Madness Roger Day has won us over again! We were first introduced to Roger Day when we reviewed Why Does Gray Matter (his awesome CD all about the brain). Then we actually got to meet Roger Day at our library in Tennessee last summer. It was then that we first learned about his project to create a school curriculum all about marshes, their plant and animal inhabitants and how they create a healthy ecosystem. After experiencing the successful way he incorporated facts about the brain into upbeat, catchy tunes I had no doubt that Marsh Mud Madness would be awesome. And it is!

Turtles have become an obsession of sorts for our kids. They love it when Brent draws turtles and then they draw turtles for days. Scott has a favorite turtle story he tells (it’s a tragedy and non-fiction). So it was a no-brainer that the kids would love “Turtle Girl” which actually appears twice on the album. Once as recorded in the studio and once as recorded live at the Savannah Music Festival where most of the songs on the album were recorded. We also love “Mosquito Burrito” which was originally on Rock N Roll Rodeo and was performed at the Savannah Music Festival and is also included on Marsh Mud Madness. Because what would a marsh be without mosquitoes???

So the nerd in me loves that Roger Day’s website also includes ideas for incorporating his sings into learning experiences for young children. You can check out the wide range of ideas and age groups on his website. Even Brent and I has a lovely impromptu lesson on estuaries and deltas as a result of the song “Flushing Out the Estuary.”

We are excited to include Marsh Mud Madness in a 4-album giveaway to start or grow your Kindie Music Collection. This would make an amazing Christmas present for the little ones in your life! The giveaway is open to US residents age 18+ until Dec 10. You can enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. Good luck!
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Start Your Kindie Music Collection Giveaway

November 22, 2013 by ajpassey 1 Comment

I am so excited to offer a 4-CD pack to one Because Babies Grow Up reader! We have had so much fun getting to know these albums. I will be sharing individual reviews of them over the course of the giveaway. But for now, feast your eyes on these lovely images representing the CDs available in the giveaway.

Lishy Lou and Lucky Too

LLALTCOVER-300 Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band have pulled out all the stops on this amazing album full of upbeat music and jokes sure to tickle your kids’ funny bones.

Mister G’s ABC Fiesta

This album brings Spanish to your little ones in a fun, accessible way. Through songs and dialogue, you’ll hear the sweet sounds of Spanish with Mister G as your tour guide.

Debbie and Friends’ Variety Show

We haven’t received this album, yet, but I am so looking forward to getting to know Debbie and her Friends!

Marsh Mud Madness

The latest album from Roger Day is all about the bayou and the wonderful goodness found there. We loved Roger Day’s album “Why Does Gray Matter?” all about the brain and are already having fun learning about the bayou with Marsh Mud Madness.

Start Your Kindie Music Collection

Enter to win all four of these great albums. You can connect with all these musicians on Facebook through the Rafflecopter widget. It’s fun to cheer them on and celebrate with them. Lucky Diaz and the Family Band won a Latin Grammy last night and I had so much fun seeing all their photos on Facebook. Giveaway is open until Tues Dec 10, for residents of the US age 18 and older.

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Desert Island Disc from Recess Monkey

October 29, 2013 by ajpassey 1 Comment

Recess Monkey is at it again! After their June release of Deep Sea Diver, they released a follow-up album this fall. Desert Island Disc was released earlier this month. In the short time we’ve been reviewing kids’ music (for grown ups, too!) Recess Monkey has released four albums. But the most amazing part is that they are all fantastic. How Drew, Jack and Korum can continually produce quality lyrics, danceable melodies and enough energy to wear out my children is beyond me! But they do, again and again. And we love them for it. We are Monkeynauts through and through.

On our first listen through of Desert Island Disc I was struck by how simple the music was. There were fewer instruments and a stronger focus on vocals. On my second listen through I really felt like I was on an island relaxing on the beach listening to these songs. The lighter sound really caters to an island feel.

Of course, we have some favorite songs. The kids always ask to repeat The Hermit, all about a crustacean looking for a new shell. I always find myself singing The Cave at random times during the day. And it doesn’t even bother me that it’s stuck in my head! Dessert Island is a lullaby to bring you down from the sugar high of all the sweets found there. Perfect for all the sugar kids are about to consume on Halloween.

We’re excited to offer a copy of Desert Island Disc to one BBGU reader. As a special thank you to all who have subscribed to Growing Up magazine, there is a secret word in the October issue that will get you 10 bonus entries. The giveaway is open until Friday night, Nov 8.

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Green Golly & Her Golden Flute Picture Book Review

October 11, 2013 by ajpassey 1 Comment

“It’s a good thing the girl had so much time to grow hair, because frankly it was the only way up to the tower.” Sound familiar? I thought you’d recognize Rapunzel!

In Keith Torgan and Barbara Siesel’s version, Green Golly is the name given to the baby girl traded to the witch for a plate of leafy greens. The witch is afraid of Green Golly’s beauty and the attention she began to receive from the fellas. And so Green Golly finds herself very, very bored in a tower. To alleviate her boredom, the witch introduces her to the flute and the great classical composers. The audio telling of the story weaves Barbara Siesel’s beautiful flute playing into the story introducing young listeners to Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Korsakov.

If you purchase the book through the publisher or from The Green Golly Project, the book comes with the CD. If you purchase through another retailer such as Amazon, the CD is sold separately. However, there is a Story Sticker QR code inside the book so that you can access the audio telling of the story through the app. That code is available in all copies of the book (including those where the CD is included.) The CD contains a dramatic telling of the Green Golly story. We had the opportunity to review the CD a few years ago. You can read our review of Green Golly and Her Golden Flute here. Back to the book…

The illustrations in the book are magical. I love the drawing style and the color combinations. It’s whimsical, filled with little details throughout to explore as you listen to the story. I love this description from the press release: “Suzanne Langelier-Lebeda’s charming illustrations partner beautifully with the book’s text, narration, and music to create a work that has unity, contrast, and a lively flow of energy from one page to another, striking a healthy balance between classical children’s illustration and the modern graphic novel.”

I’m excited to be able to offer a copy Green golly & Her Golden Flute, the picture book including the CD, to a BBGU reader! I’m thinking 57 minute quiet time for you, right here! It is that captivating to little ones. Just fill out the Rafflecopter widget below. There are two different questions to answer for some easy entries. You’re welcome 😉
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Bear Hunt by Josh & the Jamtones

September 30, 2013 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

Finally, ska for kids! I’m reliving my college days with my little ones. Josh and the Jamtones have everything I love about ska: upbeat tunes, call outs, and a variety of instruments. Such a fun genre and Bear Hunt! captures all that in a package fit for kids with parents able to enjoy it too.

This album is a mix of storytelling and songs. The story bits move the bear hunt along culminating in actually meeting the bear. They draw out some of the ridiculous aspects of the story, like not being able to go around the lake, and my kids filled all the awkwardness with giggles. We really enjoyed listening to this album in the car and pretending we were driving to Bearington to go down Bear Ridge Road to stay at Bear Cave Lodge and Resort.

We are excited to have a copy of Bear Hunt! to give away to a BBGU reader! Just follow the prompts in the Rafflecopter below. The giveaway is open to US residents 18 and over from Oct 1st through Oct 7th and the winner will be chosen Oct 8th.

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Gratitude Attitude from Recess Music

August 13, 2013 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

Recess Music has another compilation CD out as part of their Best Foot Forward series. We had the opportunity to experience and review Share! The latest addition is all about gratitude.

There are so many benefits to being grateful that I try to focus on gratitude with our kids. If one of them gets particularly cranky, or upset over something not going their way, I send them to the table with paper and pencil and have them write or draw 10 things they are grateful for. This has helped so many times to break the negative cycle of emotions and to help us bond together again.

Long story short, I was excited to have songs all about a gratitude attitude to support what I am already trying to incorporate into our every day. Overall I would give this album four stars. It has not been my favorite collection put together by Recess Music. It does have several songs that are fun and upbeat and carry a great message about gratitude. None of the songs have really caught my attention or stuck with me past the time I am listening to it. The song I really don’t get is “There’s a Pea on My Plate.” I end up skipping it every time. Brent, however, said he found it humorous.

I think individual songs would be great for starting a discussion about why we’re grateful, how we feel when we’re grateful, and what we do to show we’re grateful.And with that, we are grateful to be able to offer this CD to one BBGU reader. I have three items to giveaway this week so there will be three winners! You only have to enter once to be entered for all three items. They are Blink of an Eye by Frances England, Sukey Molloy’s new DVD Sukey’s Circle Vol 3, and Gratitude Attitude CD from Recess Music.

The giveaway is open to all US residents 18 years old and up. It will run through Sunday, August 25 and the winners will be selected and notified on Monday, Aug 26. Good luck!
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