My daughter asked for and received her first alarm clock this Christmas. She is in first grade and we thought it would help her get up and get ready for school in the morning. She is notoriously slow in the mornings, which makes me dread those teen years, but we hoped that maybe if she had an alarm clock it would help light that proverbial fire under her so she would get ready quicker. Now that she has it there has been one thing we hadn’t counted on. She now has a radio in her room. Of course she wanted to listen to it, but the question was, what station could we put it on that was appropriate for a six-year-old?
In the car, we listen to several stations with various types of music, but when something inappropriate comes on, i.e. anything from Britney Spears, we change the station. Now that she has the radio in her room, we are no longer there all the time to change the station if a non-parent-approved song comes on. Our temporary solution has been to put it on the local Spanish station. She doesn’t understand a word but she likes having the music on. Who knows, maybe she will pick up a few words. I have also thought about Radio Disney, but I don’t like a lot of the starlets they push. So many of them have imploded and set bad examples, see Britney Spears again. Have any of my fellow GeekMoms run into this issue? What kinds of music and/or stations do your kids listen too?
Does it have an AUX jack? almost everything does now and you might be able to get around it by putting an old iPod with a preapproved list plugged in.
We’ve got a CD boombox in our nine month olds room and my old shuffle as the method for keeping tunes flowing overnight.
I just checked and I think we have the only alarm clock in existence without an AUX. 🙂 Great idea though!
That might be THE cutest alarm clock in the world!! And I love the idea of the Spanish music station–I’m passing that on to my friend with 2 young girls!
Don’t worry, I don’t have an AUX jack for my twin sons’ radio either and was wondering the same thing recently. I just put it on a local jazz station, but I think it does news in the am. I’ll have to listen and see.
My daughter likes to sleep with the radio on so I leave it on either a Christian station or the oldies. I try to make sure it is not on the Christian station on Sunday mornings because they do talk shows and sermons then, and I never know what the topic will be. If you aren’t down with the Christian stations, you can try some of the oldies stations. We all love 80’s music at my house.
An 80’s station would be an idea, though Like A Virgin might come on and then I would have to explain that one 🙂 She loves to draw and I noticed this last week she had that radio on the entire time she was in her room. She came in and was all proud because she had recognized a word. I asked her what it was and she said “blackberry”! 😛
We have a neat little device that broadcasts a radio signal of the audio from our computer so we can listen to Pandora.com or other music anywhere in the house with an FM radio. Pandora.com even has specialty kid-friendly stations that we listen to with our girls.
http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Transmitter-Home-Stereo-Audio/dp/B000TJRG36
I remember my mom driving my brother and me to school and she always had oldies on. I don’t think there are too many songs that you would have to “explain” and some of the doo-wop ones have a great hook to them.
Just as a personal anecdote:
I listened to oldies and country as a kid. My absolute favorite song was “The Thunder Rolls” by Garth Brooks. If you’ve ever heard the song, it’s got pretty awful lyrics (wife is so tired of her cheating husband that she grabs the gun and puts an end to it), but I loved the haunting sound of it and the thunderstorm in the background. I could sing the whole thing, which always made my mom a bit uncomfortable, but it wasn’t until high school that I figured out why.
My point is, I think that generally kids are a lot more interested in the sound of the songs than the lyrics of the songs, and letting an inappropriate song or two slide is probably less of a deal than running to change the station. Kids will definitely notice your reaction to the song and I think you’re more likely to make them interested than if you just let it play.
@Valerie, I agree. The holy triumverate of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll has been around for over half a century, and you aren’t going to be able to screen everything she hears. In fact, if you do, you’re not letting your child get into those awkward situations that are great learning experiences. Let her listen to the Oldies and when ‘Run For Your Life’ by the Beatles comes on you can tell them they’re playing tag. My kids love the Beach Boys, and when my daughter was 5 I had to explain to her what a ‘pink slip’ was!
We have a local BOB station, which plays mostly 80s rock and classic hits, and the kids love it. If you’re that freaked about the radio, set the clock radio to go off with the alarm buzz and buy her a CD player. My daughter has had a radio in her room since she was 5 and she hardly listens to it. She likes listening to the CDs I burn for her and my old unused cassette tapes (I walked in and she was listening to Rosemary Clooney yesterday).
You all make some valid points. I think an oldies station is an excellent idea. She already loves Elvis! I agree immediately changing the station does draw attention to it. Though when she started singing Poker Face around her Gma I decided I needed to be more attentive to what she was listening to. HAHA! She loves the beat though.