My kids enjoy Noggin for the music featured and the shows. As I parent, I like that it doesn't have commercials.

Last month was "family month" on Noggin, and the song that Moose A. Moose sung about families totally got stuck in my head. I seriously hummed it all the time for the entire month.

This month's song about animals is much less compelling, although I like that it refers to the animals as comrades. A nod to Orwell's Animal Farm, perhaps?

I review a lot of music, including music for kids, archived at http://www.romm.org/CD_recommend.html . In addition to old favorites like Peter Paul and Mary, Tom Paxton and Tom Chapin, there are new(er) musicians such as Joe Scruggs and Michael Mish. As I've found out from my nieces and nephews, it's all new to a two year old.

I'm glad more and more former young people are making music for kids. I'm also happy that established musicians are turning an eye to the younger set: The Roches and Bill Staines have done good albums. The resurgence of Schoolhouse Rock DVDs and a continuing exploration of dinosaurs shows just how timeless this music is.

Trout Fishing in America, not to mention the other solid musicians mentioned in the few previous letters. Either you just became a father and this is suddenly news to you or you were up against a deadline. "The rest of us" have been listening to wonderful music for children without wanting to die for decades.

Shame that there is no mention of Ralph's World. His music, which has been a hit with every friend's kid for whom I've bought his CDs, is very entertaining. (I must have bought at least a dozen of his CD's. They make for great birthday and Christmas gifts.)

His music rocks and can be quite funny. "Take a Little Nap", a kid-oriented take on "Shake Your Booty!" and "Get Down Tonight" is classic.

(Ralph's World is Ralph Covert, of Chicago-based rock band the Bad Examples.)

I am glad that a lot of artists are jumping on this bandwagon. Much like the prevalence of Rod Stewart videos in the early days of MTV, the limited amount of material available to Noggin has meant that a few artists get played to death.

Jack's Big Music Show is great, but I am sorry, Laurie Berkner SUCKS. The Ani De Franco of kid rock? Not in a million years! The sooner Noggin has more to choose from, the less of her I'll have to see and hear. I cannot wait.

Don't forget They Might Be Giants! They recently made a couple albums geared for kids, called "No!" and (this one includes a DVD) "Here Come the ABCs!" "No!" has a song called "Bed bed bed bed bed" which inspired a beautiful storybook illustrated by the inimitable Marcel Dzama.

Substitutes for interacting with one's child that one can actually relate to.

The duo, Trout Fishing in America, has been doing original music for kids for years. Who can forget their wonderful songs like Dragons in the Sky, No Matter What Goes Right, Two Brains, La la Land, The Goops, I Get Ideas, Your Name Backwards, Simon Says, Something Sweet, and my favorite, Something in My Nose.

Check them out!

http://www.google.com/musicl?lid=OU3FJLgzDrC&aid=gkJynSYogfH

Kudos to these bands (specifically TMBG) for putting this music out. It's very refreshing to have "safe" musical common ground with the kids. That said, most kids love punk if you put it on for them too... this stuff just has less swearing.

Niggling point with the article -- re: They Might Be Giants, Lamb writes: "Their transition from quirky indie pop band to quirky kindie rock act has been almost total...", but I'd disagree... they're still putting out adult music and playing adult shows at a pretty steady rate. The kid stuff is an integrated career, I wouldn't say they've shifted to being a kindie band full time.

Here's hoping we'll see even more high quality cross-generational music coming out soon! Worried about this becoming a pervasive trend though... I don't look forward to an [insert crappy band here] kids album just to capitalize on the trend. (If Kiss did a disco album, what's to stop a Linkin Park kids record?)

I don't have kids, let me state that first off. But this really does puzzle me. I remember being at my cousin's first birthday party a few years ago (yes I am 28 years older than my cousin, and 31 years older than his baby sister!) and one of the dads there was telling us that he and his wife take their kids to a "music workshop" every week where the parents would all sit around in a circle and sing songs and their kids would watch them, to get used to the notion that singing is good and fun and healthy.

All I could think is, "Are you kidding me? Don't you guys ever sing along to the radio?" I remember my mom dancing me around the kitchen to Emmylou Harris and my aunts and uncles dancing and singing like crazy people to the Grateful Dead (and lo, I myself turned into a Deadhead of sorts). There's all kinds of "adult" music out there that has an easy beat and words that won't make you blush when they come out of the mouth of your four year old ("Aiko Aiko", anyone?)

I don't know. I guess when (or if) I have kids, the light will dawn. But I still think I'd rather have my chislers listening to the Dead and Jimmy Cliff.

My husband and I have enjoyed both Dan Zanes and They Might Be Giants for years, but I must say that we never had problems finding music for our son. We both have a vast collection of music from classical, jazz, RAP, alternative, folk, new age, etc. My son's first exposure to music were Beatles songs for lullabyes. When he was a little older, we took him to music appreciation/participation classes, but we never sought out "kids" music (believing that most music is for everyone). Until a friend gave us "Trout Fishing...", we did not have a specific CD for him. Then TMBG came out with "NO!" and since we were already They Might Be Giants fans, we jumped for it. And we discovered Dan Zanes in the best possible way--a live performance. While I find them both wonderful, I still do not shy away from exposing my child (now 7) to as many types of music as possible, seeing performances from Dan Zanes to Ladysmith Black Mambazo.