March Scholastic Parent Circle: Salsa for Kittens & Puppies

As soon as I put the Salsa para gatitos y perritos CD in our car’s CD player, my kids started swaying to the music. And who wouldn’t? This magical CD contains 15 songs that are alternatively sung in English and Spanish. The rhythms are catchy and the lyrics easy to memorize so that even little children like my 2-year-old can sing-along.

I was so enthralled by the quality of the music of my pick for this month’s Scholastic Parent Circle that I decided to go searching for some background info. Here’s what I found: Salsa for Kittens & Puppies was produced by Aaron “Luis” Levinson who won a Grammy for best salsa recording for the Spanish Harlem Orchestra in 2006. (If you’ve never heard of them and you really like salsa, I suggest you look them up immediately.) And, so it’s no wonder that the CD includes performances by some of the biggest and best stars in contemporary salsa music.

The CD booklet tells the story of a group of gatitos y perritos from the streets of New York City who get together to form an awesome salsa band. The story is in English, but with a lot of key phrases in Spanish in parentheses and it’s the cutest thing! The illustrations are adorable and funny (check out some of the characters’ names: Celia La Cruz and Hector La Bone!) and the story introduces kids to all things salsa, including the instruments, in a super fun way.

My 5-year-old daughter is not only hooked on the music, but she LOVES the story in the booklet and has made me read it to her several times since the CD arrived. It’s hard to tell which one’s her favorite song because they’re all different, but I think “Bailar rápido (Bailar tranquilo) is definitely up there. My son loves the salsa version of “Old MacDonald.” Just a couple of nights ago, we played the CD in my daughter’s room and both kids burned a bunch of energy bailando… ok, I too. It’s that good!

Want to take a listen? Enter our giveaway!

The Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner: Scordovi!

We’re giving away one Salsa for Kittens & Puppies CD to one lucky winner.

To enter, all you have to do is leave us a comment telling us how you teach your children about different music genres.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you’ve completed the step above):

**Please leave a separate comment for each so we can count them and avoid mistakes.

1. Subscribe to receive blog updates and subscriber-only content via email and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so or that you’re already a subscriber. Make sure to leave the comment using the same email you subscribed with.

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3. Like SpanglishBaby on Facebook and join a thriving community of parents.

This giveaway ends Tuesday, March 13 at 11:59 p.m. EST and is open to everyone with a U.S. mailing address over 18 years of age. Check out the Giveaway Rules.

 

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