Recently, I enrolled my daughter at "Lango," a popular chain of kids language schools that just opened in our area.
www.langokids.com It's been really fun for us, they serve kids 18 months and up at our location and offer classes in Spanish and French. Some centers also offer Mandarin. I was reading a blog post from another member on here a while back about Spanish language resources and instantly recognized the singer's voice from Spanish class when I played the samples.
It turned out to be music by Basho & Friends, he created all of the music used in the Lango classes nationwide. His CD's sold online are almost the exact CD's that are sold under the language school's brand from what I can tell.
We really, really LOVE everything we have heard! Very high quality, very fun & upbeat, chock full of catchy original tracks. I seriously cannot say enough good things, we
Basho & Friends in this house!!
DD learned the Spanish alphabet in 2.5 days from watching his youtube video clips and it gave her an immediate authentic grasp on Spanish vowels sounds. The little dog shown, Cosmo, is the mascot of Lango, and of course we have a miniature stuffed one here at the house (he's friends with our stuffed Little Pim & Boca puppet now
)
So, we own the Lango branded version of the Spanish CD "En Espanol" but the second one "Aun Mas" is back-ordered at the language school now, we've heard a lot of the tracks in class though. I should just buy the second one in the set through his website, but I'm not sure how I would get the lyrics though so that's the only thing stopping me. (I think I might send in this review to his website and see if he'll answer that question and maybe join us on the forums!) In the Lango version of the CD, the lyrics come inside in a booklet. My Spanish is only intermediate, so I definitely need the lyrics. This guy has real talent and I can only hope he keeps making MORE music & MORE cartoon videos for my kids. We listen to Suzuki violin on a regular basis (we aim for daily) but when we first got his CD, my DD would shake her head and request "No! No violin...Spanish music!!" ...Made me laugh every time. The other thing I love about a bunch of his youtube clips is that they have WORDS on screen, and everyone here knows how easily babies/toddlers can pick up reading if they are simply given an opportunity and shown the words.
We also watch the Basho & Friends French & Chinese clips on youtube. My kids adore Yan Se, counting in french, and Mr. Monkey man (English) is a treat for them as well. Two of my favorite softer, almost lullabye type songs that my kids love to rock/sway to are Arco iris & Cada Semilla. Cada Semilla is really sweet and talks about planting a seed in the ground and watering it, but you also need love to make it grow. Sounds kind of like raising our precious children, the basics are great but most of all they need love.
That song really speaks to me as a mother. The only song offered on the Lango branded CD that is not included on his public version is Vamos a Celebrar, which is a bit of a shame because it is really solid and a favorite for dancing. (Well, they are all favorites truly!) But he includes the Spanish alphabet song, which is good too. And the CD's on his site are not overpriced at all, I think they're super economical at $9.99 and under to download. They are totally worth every penny & more. Go buy these CD's, you will not be disappointed. His music is truly top notch and I recommend it whole-heartedly without hesitation.
www.bashoandfriends.com*Note: This review is completely on my own accord with no gratuitous products given for review. It's just a product we discovered that I am so excited about, I wanted to share it with the parents here.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/9LT9ltzFJTQ&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/9LT9ltzFJTQ&rel=1</a>]]>
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/bMHy73mbtnQ&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/bMHy73mbtnQ&rel=1</a>]]>
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/KmaEFUQXABI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/KmaEFUQXABI&rel=1</a>]]>
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/h5dRD9U9BsI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/h5dRD9U9BsI&rel=1</a>]]>http://listn.to/bashoandfriends/player#t=2&pos=21037&p=5Here's a link to the original blog post as well made by Nikita that led me to "discover" this artist online.
http://thewhizkidsofoz.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-12-08T16%3A21%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=1
Digg
