SONGS AND STORIES FOR AGES 3-7

A podcast for young children

Gillian’s simple songs and gentle stories encourage:

• Improved Listening Skills – children practice the listening skills they will need to be successful.
• Increased Creativity – children are encouraged to be creative as they use their own ideas in songs.
• Heightened Imagination – children are encouraged to use their imaginations as they listen to the stories.

About the Podcast

• You have access to the complete Podcast Library
• Podcasts are 14–19 minutes long
• Each podcast includes 3 songs and a story

Listening Skills are Learned

Do you remember when your children learned to walk and talk? It didn’t just “happen” – they practiced! From a few hesitant steps, they become confident walkers.  Then with practice they are running, jumping and dancing. Their speech matures from “Dada” and “Mama” to complex sentence structures. Their vocabulary grows exponentially as they practice using the new words they hear.  In the same way listening takes practice! Listen Together Podcast encourages children to become good listeners in a fun and exciting way through attractive songs and stories that they will love to listen to again and again.

As busy parents of young children, we are under constant pressure to do the right thing. We get advice about EVERYTHING – should we start gymnastics, or is it too early, should we start formal instrument lessons, or sign up for sports, dance class, or academics. Before we know it, our lives are filled as we rush our children from one important activity to another.

But when children reach elementary school, they have to listen – the ability to focus, listen and pay attention are all predictors of future academic success.

Listening Skills are Important for Academic Success

Designed for young children ages 3–7, Listen Together Podcast can help by giving children an opportunity to listen; to actually listen without other distractions. Because it is purely auditory, children are not sidetracked by visual stimulation, such as flashy screens on TV and devices, and can focus, listen and pay attention to what they hear on the Podcast.

Each Listen Together Podcast is 14–19 minutes long and contains songs and a short story, centered on a theme.  Currently there are 50 podcasts available in the PODCAST LIBRARY, with more in the development stage.

Meet the voice behind the Podcast

As a mother of two boys I hunted around the radio for the kind of programs I listened to as a child growing up in England (Listen with Mother, BBC), but found nothing!  Eventually I realized that perhaps I could put my education, experience, and my musical background together to come up with something myself. Listen Together Podcast was born! Read more about Gillian…

What makes Listen Together Podcast special?

There is an abundance of music available for children, mostly for entertainment purposes, so what makes Listen Together different? Most of the music is written especially for the podcasts, with several important considerations. Commercially produced music may sound great, but the songs are often created and sung with the performer in mind, not the children. As a result, it is often difficult for children to participate. Listen Together Podcast is all about participation. The songs encourage children to sing along with the simple lyrics and even create their own lyrics.

Listen Together Podcast original songs are:

• Sung in a range that is neither too high nor too low for children’s voices
• Sung by pleasant voices with minimal accompaniment
• Written with simple language and repetitive phrases

Appropriate Voice Range for Children and Minimal Accompaniment

Children do not need to listen to great voices, with huge orchestras or electronic music blasting out an accompaniment. They need songs sung by pleasant voices that are in tune (like yours and mine!) and in an appropriate range that is neither too high nor too low, with a simple accompaniment that does not distract from the melody or lyrics that should take center stage.

Accessible Song Lyrics

Our songs are accessible to children. (Many are tested with very honest children!) This means the songs are easy to learn both melodically and lyrically. In fact you will find that the language used is repeated many times and often has only slight changes from verse to verse where we might substitute different actions, body parts or perhaps different animals. These are all factors that help children not only learn the songs, but allows them to be creative as they use their own ideas in the music. On the podcasts, I frequently give children the opportunity to do this.

 Listening  to stories encourages creativity

Listen Together stories are designed to listen to! Sounds simple. Think about how much you can use your imagination when there are no pictures to look at, or a screen to lead your mind. Have you ever read a book, then watched the movie and been disappointed? What we have created in our minds, using our imaginations, is at odds with the director’s choices. Our stories encourage children to listen carefully, pay attention, to think, create and imagine.

Children are exposed to a wealth of language that they will begin to use in their own conversations. They will hear repetitive patterns of words as they begin to predict what will happen next. They will become immersed in the lives of characters that exist in a recognizable world, engaging in activities that are real and meaningful, whether the characters are children, grown-ups, rabbits or even dinosaurs.