Something we've been doing without thinking about for the past few years is creating a Summer Playlist. It started 5 or so years ago with our first trip back to Ontario in years with smallish children. Both DH and I can stay alert better and drive longer if we have good tunes to sing along with, so we ripped all of our cd's onto our computer and burned some epic mp3 mixes onto CD for the car. We weren't even really thinking about the kids, just making our drive go better, but they loved it. It became something we'd re-examine before every big trip, and we usually made new CDs every summer. Last year our CD player in the car gave up the ghost in the middle of our Ontario trip, so DH picked up a super cheap mp3 player and car kit at Canadian Tire and we were good to go again. Since we weren't planning any big trips this year I hadn't even thought about a playlist, but Sweetpea had it near the top of her Summer Bucket List. Need to have good tunes for adventure!
For my first try at our list I put together everyone's favourtite songs. I ended up with over 9 hours of music. Oops! I don't think we need a list that long! I did some editing; took out all the instrumentals and a lot of the older stuff (but not all of it) and basically pared it down to the stuff we like singing along to best. It's more of a Moeller Karaoke List than a sweet Summer Playlist, but we like it. We finished it up on June 30th in time for our drive to St. Andrew's for Canada Day, and we've been listening to it every time we get in the car since then.
It's still over 6 hours long in total, but we put it on random and get to be surprised by what we hear on each trip. Obviously it's a little long to list in total here, but here are the featured artists:
Doctor Who Theme (we are a family of geeks, after all)
ABBA
Adele
Aqua
Celine Dion
Carly Rae Jeppson (Call Me Maybe)
Coldplay
LOTS of GLEE and Warblers tunes
Norah Jones
Ingrid Michaelson
Sara Barielles
Regina Spektor
Mumford and Sons
Lenka
Cups (When I'm gone) Pitch Perfect Director's Cut
Jillian Edwards
Stephanie Mabey
Colbie Caillat
Sarah McLaughlan
Ella Fitzgerald
The Goo Goo Dolls
Wicked Soundtrack
Lenka
India Arie
Jason Mraz
Great Big Sea
The Monkees
John Barrowman
Some Disney faves
Evanescence
Christina Perri
Anne Murray
The Barra MacNeils
...and a bunch of new-to-us artists/tunes from a NoiseTrade sampler we downloaded this fall.
And this, of course (curently the kids' favourite):
The list is maybe a little heavy on the girl power, but we all have fun with it and there is lots of happy singing and giggles. Feel free to ask about favourite tracks in the comments!
Forgot to mention that we also have several tracks from the free "Half the Sky" promotion this winter. Great music, and the documentary and book are phenomenal.
Posted by: canadacole | 17 July 2013 at 04:32 PM
Dumb Ways to Die is a favourite here too! It may not truly teach railroad safety but I'm sure the kids are gleaning something from it.
Posted by: Patricia | 17 July 2013 at 04:42 PM