Michele Valeri releases album for toddlers

Babies learn best by seeing, doing and hearing, and music is a great way to enhance the active learning process. Sometimes the old nursery rhyme songs get stale, and parents and caregivers look for new tunes to liven up play and activity time.

Little Ditties for Itty Bitties, a new CD by Grammy nominated performer Michele Valeri, offers up a fresh serving of 15 original songs designed for play and learning. Little Ditties for Little Bitties is designed to be used in the classroom and at home, and will be available in February from Cathy & Marcy’s SongShop.

Little Ditties for Itty Bitties features activities, sounds and themes that babies and toddlers love best. Whether they’re bouncing, playing peekaboo, vrooming around the floor, moving their little diaper clad bodies to the music, or being rocked to sleep, these little ditties provide the perfect soundtrack. Several of the songs are about animals, always a perennial favorite topic with wee ones. The song “My Dog George” was inspired by the popular book Bark, George, and “A Dinosaur I Am” will have listeners swinging their tales and roaring along. One song offers a bilingual activity: “Walking/Cominando,” in which both the adult and the child will learn new sounds and words.

“Early childhood teachers frequently told us they were looking for new songs to share with babies and toddlers,” explains Michele Valeri, “I wrote these songs with their needs in mind, songs that they can learn easily and sing on their own even with the player turned off.”

The CD includes a PDF with full lyrics and activity ideas for each song.

Michele Valerie is a nationally known singer, songwriter and recording artist for children. Her albums, Mi Casa Es Su Casa, Dinosaur Rock, and Dreamosaurus won Parents’ Choice awards and critical acclaim. The Great Dinosaur Mystery garnered two Washington Area Music Awards, and Dreamosaurus was honored with a Grammy nomination in February 2000. Michele has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution, and The Barns of Wolf Trap.

For 22 years she has toured extensively, performing with Dinorock Productions Inc. (www.dinorock.com), performing an original musical about dinosaurs at theatres and museums nationwide. Michele is currently developing a Little Ditties for Itty Bitties curriculum for the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts and the Kennedy Center, using the songs from this new album.

Little Ditties for Itty Bitties will be available online and selected retailers in February. For more information about Cathy & Marcy’s SongShop and Little Ditties for Itty Bitties, visit www.cathymarcy.com.