Violet’s Faves
Dec 2nd, 2007
Violet and Dash love to pick out music for CDs. I learned this a few years back when I was hunting around for something to do with Violet that didn’t involve TV or video. I had my laptop with me, and I started playing tunes from iTunes for her. I started a playlist for her called “Violet’s Faves.” We chose 11 songs which I then burned to a CD. I designed a label for it and immediately became the most-played CD at my sister’s house.
Since then, I’ve done over 10 collections with Violet and Dash. (Jack-Jack is still a little young to sit still long enough to pick out a CD’s worth of songs.) It’s a great babysitting activity. It takes 30 minutes to an hour. They gain an appreciation for music and learn to identify artists they like. (Added bonus: it’s actually music that you like too!)
The most popular tunes are the ones that I liked when I was little, which is kinda cool, because it’s the music my parents played at our house. I often shop iTunes looking for faves from my childhood, so that I always have a selection of music for them to pick from. Here’s the playlist from “Violet’s Faves” to give you an idea:
1. Downtown - Petula Clark
2. Puff (The Magic Dragon) - Peter, Paul and Mary
3. Do You Know the Way to San Jose? - Dionne Warwick
4. I’ll Never Fall in Love Again - Dionne Warwick
5. Sugar, Sugar - Archies
6. To Sir With Love - Lulu
7. Brand New Key - Melanie
8. Georgie Girl - The Seekers
9. I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing - The Seekers
10. Old Fashioned Love Song - Three Dog Night
11. One Is The Loneliest Number - Three Dog Night
I used DiscLabel to create the label design. It’s Mac software, developed by the company I work for. It makes it very easy to create a design using your photos and an iTunes playlist. (If there are any good options for PC users, please share them in the comments.)
I love my Epson RX700, an all-in-one printer/copier/scanner that prints directly to CDs. (The latest models like the Epson 595 are half the price I paid!) Epson has printers like the Epson R260 that also do the direct-to CD printing and they are really inexpensive. I highly recommend this over using stick-on labels. The results are much cleaner, and you don’t have to worry about the label coming off. It’s kinda fun too: you slide a printable CD on a cartridge through a special slot in the printer. (Think classic Easy Bake Oven.)
Aunt hack ratings:
Age group: 6-13
Duration of activity: 30-60 minutes
Cost: blank CD and jewelcase: under $5; songs: $.99 on iTunes
Child/aunt fun ratio: 60/40
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