The journey from child, to teen, to young adult to parent seems to have similar stops along the way for most everyone. My college years were during the "age of stupidity," as a man I greatly respect refers to the ‘60s and early ‘70s. As a love-child and soon-to-be yuppie, I was thoroughly convinced that I would be a different parent to any children I might have than my parents were to me.

What makes music and dance important?
From birth children really respond to music and movement. For example we use it to calm a baby who is tired or upset, or we can use it to energise children at a party.

Music and dance is a great medium for moving and learning because most children love music and dance. It helps to build an awareness of emotions and is a great form of physical and emotional expression.

For young children music and singing are great for language development and speech and memory skills because of the repetition. We know that children's brains develop very fast in early childhood and music and movement helps make connections between different parts of the brain.

How does music and dance help with physical activity and movement?

"I love that he's funny, he's entertaining and he's always there when I need him most. I'm proud to have a dad like that, who takes on conservation issues around the world."

"I love him very, very much." - Bindi

Steve said his daughter had inherited his love of animals: "The most important thing in Bindi's life is that she's grown up in a zoo. Bindi's passionate about animals, but she's also into singing, dancing and dress-ups, like any other little girl.

"I'd do anything to spend time with my daughter." - Steve (Dad)

Loving words from Bindi and loving words from an INSPIRATIONAL Father

THE LONG DRIVE

My family and I recently had the occasion to drive most of the length of the North Island, returning home from visiting the relatives. It was a landmark journey - the first long haul car trip undertaken with James, whose toddlerish exuberance is still peaking.

Toddlers aren't meant to sit down for extended periods of time - it is hotwired into their developing brains to runjumpbouncecrawlswingplayshout, not sitsitsitsitsit. So the aim of the game was keeping the small person happy and by extension, us. This wasn’t just pure altruism at work either; we wanted to get to the end in one piece. Avoiding minor catastrophes in the back seat was going a long way towards avoiding a major catastrophe on the road. So we thought it out, took all those incremental lessons learnt from short trips and rolled them together into one big ball of diversionary tactics designed to get the most out of the journey for James and us. Here's what we learnt:

Well for all the dads who missed out on the 80's and for those who remember all the great songs, here is a blast from the past by Madonna.

Hmmm ... interesting perspective from the BBC Comedy Page on rapping dads and babies:

(here is the direct link to the file in case your browser doesn't play the video)

One of our blog readers and dad Matthias Wichtrup has told us about his solution to the problem of making babies go to sleep: compose music and play it to them. Here's his story:

I am a musician and I have a little home recording studio. So I created for my son 10 CDs with slow-moving sound collages which is the perfect way to put him to sleep. On each CD I put 80 minutes of this very relaxing music and I have to say it really does work - and not only on babies!

Sweet Dreamy World - Soothing and calming bedtime music for babies

Listen to a sample of Sweet Dreamy World here:

Remember this one? Originally released in 1981, then covered several times by Ugly Kid Joe and others. Enjoy the song guys and if anyone knows why Harry Chapin called it "cats in the cradle" let us know.

Here's an idea to capture the spirit of a new era for dads and a response to all those disappointing stories on dads, the condescending language used in parenting books (about dads) and the truly outdated stereotypes for males used by marketing people around the world. So I thought it's about time we updated the lyrics of an old time 80's-party favourite:

Now, there was a time
when they used to say
that behind ev'ry great mum,
there had to be a great father.

But oh, in these times of change,
you know that it's no longer true.
So we're comin' out of the office,
'cause there's something we forgot to say to you.
We say, Fathers are doin' it for themselves,
standin' on their own two feet
and bringin' up their own kids.

A song about a Father's unwavering love for his daughter from birth through marriage and beyond. This song is excellent for weddings, birthdays, sweet sixteens, etc.!
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