Back in December I subscribed to the They Might Be Giants video podcast for kids, but I didn’t keep up with it. Yesterday I decided to take a look, and had a laugh at some of the great songs and videos. This was my favorite:

The really cool thing about iTunes is that you can create soundtracks for the various fascinations in your life fairly quickly. I’ve been busy compiling the pirate playlist for David today, since he’s been running around since Christmas morning dressed like a pirate. Here’s how it stands so far:

• Jack was Every Inch a Sailor (Sharon, Lois & Bram)
• There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea (Danny Kaye)
• Octopus’ Garden (Ringo Starr)
• Captain Kidd (Great Big Sea)’
• Drunken Sailor (Irish Rovers)
• Pitcairn Island (Captain Tractor)
• I’m Popeye the Sailor Man (Billy Costello)
• Barnacle Bill the Sailor (Bix Beiderbecke)
• Son of a Son of a Sailor (Jimmy Buffett)
• The Last Saskatchewan Pirate (Captain Tractor)

There’s got to be more songs that a pint-sized pirate would enjoy listening to, so I’m open to suggestions.

I do love iTunes. I don’t buy, or even listen to, a lot of music, but the iTunes podcast directory is simply awesome. My computer is filled with over 25 gigs of podcast material, about half of which I haven’t had time to listen to yet.

Today I upgraded my software, and the first thing I noticed was a new link to something called iTunesU , which contains links to podcasts of courses and lectures from a wide variety of universities.

I’ve been a huge fan of the podcasts from UC Berkeley for quite a while now, but there are some really fascinating looking course podcasts in iTunesU that I missed completely from other institutions. I’ve started subscribing to all of them… though I have no idea when I’ll have time to listen to them all.

If you’re looking for a fun and interesting course to listen to, my favorites from UC Berkeley are:

• European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present — a nice, well presented overview. Good for audio only listening.
• Introduction to General Astronomy — the lecturer in this course is worth watching in the video version.
• Earthquakes in your backyard - This is a totally fascinating course, and not too hard to follow. It’s in audio only, but be sure to check out the course website to download the supplementary materials, which make it understandable.
• Man, God and Society in Western Literature — some of the audio in this one is really bad and/or missing, which sucks because this is a really great series of lectures, especially if you follow along with the readings.

Isn’t it amazing that these things all tend to pop into my radar once the weather has warmed up and we hardly spend any time indoors?

Anyway, here’s another online audio story site to bookmark for rainy days, or maybe snowy ones in the future…

http://storynory.com/

I wasn’t really keen on the Bertie the Frog bits, but David seems to get a kick out of them.

This is cool.

The Screen Actors Guild Foundation has put up this site filled with free streaming videos of famous actors reading children’s classics and new favorites aloud.

Children can log on to hear Lou Diamond Phillips read The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, or listen in on Elijah Wood’s reading of Me and My Cat? by Satoshi Kitamura, and a wide variety of other stories.

Visit StoryLine Online, or bookmark it for a rainy day.

Audible is offering a series of free audio files to share with your kids. This week it’s Goldifox and the Three Chickens by Gregory Maguire.

I think most of the story was lost on David, but it is very, very funny.

Especially if you’re having a bad day.

Trust me on that.

School of Thought posted this page with Singing Science songs in MP3 format.

I downloaded them all and am burning my favorites to CD. Some of the songs there are great fun. My favorites are “What Makes the Weather”, “Why does the Sun Shine”, and ” Kinetic And Potential Energy”

Most of the others are good for a giggle or two. Some are outright hilarious.

Since it has been more than 20 years since I last read Homer’s Odyssey, I decided it was time to read it again. The problem seems to be that, although I have a copy on my desk, I rarely have time to read it, and the Odyssey is best read in just a few sittings.

So, I headed over to Audible.com to find an unabridged audio version to listen to while I work.

After listening to the samples, I decided on this one which is Robert Fitzgerald’s translation narrated by Peter Lee.

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Online audio books and little kids radio shows

BBC’s Little Toe Radio Show has many stories for younger kids.

CBeebies Story Circle has many flash illustrated and narrated stories for young kids.

Book Pop - Web enhanced virtual literature by Stephen Cosgrove. Flash-based web books, and MP3 audio books for kids here

Light Up Your Brain contains audio stories and games for kids