From the Reviewer

Mary Had a Little Amp includes classics parents identify with. The collection of songs on Mary Had a Little Amp, song by some of music's biggest stars, will take you back to your childhood. Many of the songs, such as, Pure Imagination, The Rainbow Connection, and Baby Mine from the Disney movie, Dumbo, are songs that you have heard many times before. Mary Had a Little Amp puts a grown-up twist on the classic songs from your childhood. Your preschooler will love sharing with you the music that you enjoyed as a child.

Mary Had a Little Amp features music that will calm your preschooler. The songs on this CD are fairly mellow and calming for preschoolers. This is a great album to listen to when you need a break from the more Barney-esque music in your collection.

Mary Had a Little Amp encourages creativity and strength of character in preschoolers and their parents. Childhood should be fun and full of adventure. The songs on this album capture the true essence of what being a preschoolers is all about. How To Be Strong by Roseanne Cash is a gem that tells preschoolers "how to be strong when the world is rough". It has a beautiful message and simple images that are a wonderful reminder to preschoolers and their parents that they are good enough.

Mary Had a Little Amp supports preschool education for children all across the country. You can feel good about buying this CD. You will enjoy it purely on it's own, but knowing that the proceeds go towards supporting preschool education will certainly add to your enjoyment.

We all need to be reminded every once in a while what it is like to be a child. Whether you are a parent of a preschooler, a preschool teacher, or an adult that wants to remember a simpler time in your life, Mary Had a Little Amp will leave you feeling refreshed and excited to share the world with the preschoolers in your life.

Mary Had a Little Amp CD Details

Mary Had a Little Amp

Tracks (14)

1. Pure Imagination - Maroon 5

2. We Walk - R.E.M.

3. The Rainbow Connection - Dixie Chicks

4. Little Star - Madonna

5. Sing Along - Blue Man Group featuring Dave Matthews

6. Baby Mine - Bonnie Raitt and Was (Not Was)

7. The 3 R's - Jack Johnson

8. Anchovie - Moby

9. Life Line - Nancy and Ann Wilson with the Brian Wilson Band

10. Gentle Breeze - Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson

11. Wild, Wild Party in the Loquat Tree - Indigo Girls

12. How To Be Strong - Rosanne Cash

13. When You Wish Upon a Star - Joe Henry

14. Teach Your Children - Graham Nash

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Hi! I'm Rachel Lister, the Preschool Education writer at PreschoolRock.com. I live in Utah with my husband and two beautiful boys. When my oldest son was born, I quit my teaching job and opened a home daycare and preschool. I love to help preschoolers learn about the world around them. They make life interesting and I can't imagine doing anything different. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, feel free to contact me.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Model learning yourself. A parent who reads books, asks questions, visits museums, and says "I don't know, let's find out" teaches learning as a lifestyle, not a chore.

• Learning is most durable when it's embedded in play. Don't pull children away from play to "do learning" — find the learning inside the play they're already doing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my preschooler is learning enough at home?

Developmental milestones (not academic benchmarks) are the appropriate assessment tool for preschoolers. Verify your child is meeting age-appropriate milestones for language, motor, social-emotional, and cognitive development using your pediatrician's well-child visit assessments. Preschoolers learning through play, conversation, books, and daily life engagement are learning more than their standardized test scores will later reflect. Concern is warranted if a child shows regression in skills previously mastered, or fails to meet speech and language milestones.

Related reading: See also our writing readiness guide and our alphabet activities for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 📖 Story Structure Understanding — Understanding that stories have a beginning, problem, solution, and ending develops narrative comprehension — the mental schema children use to make sense of increasingly complex texts throughout their school years.
• 📚 Pre-Reading Skills — Activities that involve letters, sounds, rhymes, and print directly build the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that are the two strongest predictors of successful reading development.
• 🧠 Memory & Recall — Remembering rules, retelling a story in sequence, and practicing skills to automaticity builds working memory and long-term recall — the cognitive foundation that learning in every subject depends on.
• ⚡ Executive Function — Planning, sequencing steps, holding rules in mind while acting, and stopping a prepotent response all build executive function — the cluster of cognitive skills most strongly predictive of long-term academic and life success.

Mary Had a Little Amp

Music's Biggest Stars * Childhood's Greatest Songs

A Preschool Education Benefit CD

From Mary Had a Little Amp

"Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you'll see into your imagination. We'll begin with a spin traveling in the world of my creation. What we'll see will defy explanation." - Pure Imagination

About Mary Had a Little Amp

"Proceeds from this benefit CD support Project Kid Smart and its work to mobilize voices and votes for kids. Put children first by telling candidates and elected officials to support government-funded preschool education for all children. Urge them to pass legislation like the Smart from the Start Preschool Education Fund for America that would designate $5 billion over five years to help states begin the process of providing high-quality, voluntary preschool for all four-year-old children whose parents want them to participate. Make sure your voice and your vote support the best future for all our children." - From the CD Jacket.

Visit www.projectkidsmart.org for more information about this wonderful cause to support preschool education across the country.