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Who is Raffi - Musical Fun For Little Ones

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About Raffi - The Children's Music Singer

Raffi as he is known is adored by millions of toddlers and pre-schoolers the world over.

Raffi is probably the best-known and instantly recognizable name for English speaking children globally. While there are many children's singers and music productions out there, none seem to have gained the momentum that Raffi's music has.

Raffi has a repretoire of songs - some that teach and some that are just plain silly with songs in between along the whole gamut.

From my years as a Head Start Teacher, I found Raffi and his music to be a mainstay in my Pre-K classroom. My children loved him! For many of my children, English was a second language and they came from Spanish speaking homes. I was amazed how even early on in the school year and their language development how Raffi reached them.

I will share more about Raffi in general, in raising my son and the use of his music in my classroom more in a bit.

But without further ado, Here's Raffi.....

First, Who Is Raffi?

Raffi is more than just a musician as he's become an advocate for the needs and education of children globally. He is also very environmentally conscious as evidenced by some of his songs and is a strong advocate for the environment.

Raffi as he is known is actually Raffi Cavoukian. He was born to Armenian parents in Egypt but immigrated to Canada early in his childhood. Raffi is a Canadian Citizen and resides in the province of British Columbia.

As a child, Raffi became interested in the guitar from visiting a local guitar store and began learning to play. The guitar store owners who acted as his teachers as he improved his playing skills were folk guitarists. Part of that early education is very reflective in Raffi's playing style.

Once he began singing for children at local schools, he was an immediate success. The Washington Post (May 31, 1992) referred to Raffi as "the most popular children's singer in the English-speaking world".

His career began with the children of the 1970s. However children of the 1980s, 1990's and even today know him for his popular children's songs.

Raffi's preference has always been playing in smaller, more intimate venues that allowed him to connect with children. As a matter of fact he once turned down a contract to play Madision Square Garden in New York because he feared the facility was too big for him to make that connection with his child audience.

His autobiography, The Life of a Children's Troubadour, documents the first part of his award-winning career.

Raffi's more recent work addresses more social and environmental issues through his music. People have often referred to children who grew up on his music as "Beluga Grads".

He co-edited an antholody called "Child Honouring: How To Turn This World Around" in 2006 with Dr. Sharna Olfman. This anthology which introduces Child Honouring as a philosophy for restoring communities and ecosystems. It contains chapters by Penelope Leach, Fritjof Capra, David Korten, Riane Eisler, Mary Gordon, Graca Machel, Joel Bakan, Matthew Fox, Barbara Kingsolver, and others. The book's foreword is by the Dalai Lama. Resisto Dancing: Songs of Compassionate Revolution is the companion music record album for that book.

Raffi is an openly expressive lover of children, an advocate for them and a great entertainer. Although he might not be as familiar to the children of today as he was generations past, his music speaks to children.

As a Mom and former teacher, Raffi ROCKS in my book and is worth adding to every toddler or pre-schoolers viewing or audio libraries.

Raffi Music In My Pre-K Classroom

Fun Learning With Raffi Music

I have always been a big believer that music is a great way to teach! Mainly because it's fun and often more subtle than formal instruction. Catchy tunes mixed with a few giggles often created successful learning moments for my children. Those moments were fun, unthreatening and often laughter filled discoveries.

For many of the children in my Head Start class, English was their second language. Most of my students began their year at age 4 and left me at age 5 as soon-to-be kindergarteners. While I understand a lot of Spanish (at least the important and essential words while communicating with children), I am far from bilingual or fluent in Spanish.

At the beginning of the school year, this usually presented me with some challenges. Often times multi-media learning environments with a lot of sensory stimulation (like music with pictures for example) bridged the gap for me and my students as they learned the language and I learned about them and their needs.

Raffi music was a weekly, and sometimes daily part of our early school year. There are certain things in my estimation that it brought to the table with my students and made learning our language and basic concepts fun.

For example, one of my students' favorite songs was Down By The Bay. I had a bunch of cute pictures I had developed to go along with the lyrics. For example, I mounted a coloring book page picture of a whale (from one of my son's coloring books) onto a small card stock page and added polka-dots to the tail for the line "Have you ever seen a whale with a polka-dot tail Down By The Bay?".

My kids "got it". The music, the associated pictures and the understanding grew to where the giggles came often. By about mid-year my students were making up their own verses to Down By The Bay. Fantastic!

Each part of the song where Raffi poses a question is actually a form of rhyming exercise so it was great to catch my children in those moments. They were fun, proud and to be celebrated. When a child is making rhyming combinations four months into the school year when English was their second language to me was a great form of accomplishment.

This went far beyond normal Head Start curriculum and showed incredible development. Same happened with the song Willoughby Wallaby Woo. My children would be on the playground singing the song and making up their own funny rhyming verses to a chorus of laughter. How cool is that?

The Raffi song "Brush Your Teeth" became a fun and often requested song in our classroom as well. I did incorporate that into a learning curriculum module about Dental Hygiene and Proper Teeth Brushing. It met with great results and the children often begged to hear that song. We had the motions and lyrics down pat early on in the school year and it was always fun.

I used Raffi's "Shake My Sllies Out" when my students were getting off-task and engaging in more boistrous play. I would call a little "time out" and suggest that we had some Sillies in our class. They knew what was coming and they knew what to do. We would get in the circle and literally shake our sillies out. It usually worked like a charm and often time physical movement has a way of allowing children to get things out of their systems so that they can re-group and concentrate.

These are just a few of my many Raffi experiences from a teaching perspective. His music was something I often relied on for learning experiences as well as just some good fun for the little ones.

Raffi At Home - From A Parent's Perspective With My Child

During my son's toddlerhood and Pre-K years, Raffi not only played during my working hours at school but often times in our home as well.

As I said earlier, I believe music is a fantastic way to teach on many levels. Not only was that true in my Head Start classroom but at home as well.

My son was diagnosed prior to age 2 with sensory integration and a speech delay. Coupled with a natural shyness he had in his toddlerhood, he was once diagnosed by one professional as mildly autistic.

As a mother, music and other mediums became not only a form of communicating and stimulating my child but also a form of expression. I believe today that my son is as artistic as he is because he was non-verbal and often times learned other ways to express himself - through drawing, chalking, painting, dance and more.

My two favorites for engaging in music related learning experiences with my child were the music of Raffi and Hap Palmer. (Gee what a wonderful idea for another lens!). They both provided a balance of learning and laughter and often times I don't think my son had a clue I was actually trying to work with him on speech and language. I think he saw it as a form of play.

Today, my son is a normal very vocal, verbal and much more outgoing 8 year old child. Part of it was just that he grew up and grew out of it. That earlier in life he just wasn't ready and didn't take the development track a textbook would say a child should be on. There was work involved on my part because I did a lot of language bombardment and learning experiences through other mediums in subtle ways that seemed more like play than learning. Those were fun moments with my child and I look back at them fondly.

We also played Raffi and Hap Palmer's Baby Songs videos in our house in lieu of normal cartoons. My son loved both of them and it was a much less threatening learning environment than when I played a video that was designed strictly for speech development.

My son remembers those days and now that he's verbal talks about things he remembered from those toddlerhood and non-verbal years. I have yet to convince him to part with either the Raffi or Hap Palmer videos. I guess that is okay because he feels an attachment to them as part of his growing up. Sometimes I even catch him popping one into the VCR and taking them in just like he did when he was a little guy. I guess I'm going to have to keep them. God help my video cabinet because we need room but those are ones I can't part with yet.

Love Raffi? Come Visit Our Top Favorite Raffi Songs Countdown Lens.....

More Raffi Fun For You - Great To Share With The Kids

Come on over to Our Top Favorite Raffi Songs Countdown lens and find out what our favorites are!

Includes song lyrics, video clips and offers for those song items on such sites as Amazon and Ebay.

Lots of Raffi fun! Rock On!

Raffi On The Internet

Here are some links to Raffi news, biographies and information as seen around the world wide web. Enjoy!

Raffinews.com: About Raffi, his music, his teachings and his programs.
Biographical Raffi Information at Last.fm: Short biography and more recent information about Raffi.
Raffi Music Lyrics: Get all your favorite Raffi music lyrics at Metro Lyrics on the internet.

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Recommend Your Raffi Favorites

Here are some of Raffi's most popular DVDs, VHS and Music selections from Amazon. Give a shout out for your faves and be sure to recommend any we missed.

Who is Raffi - Musical Fun For Little Ones

About Raffi - The Children's Music Singer

First, Who Is Raffi?

Raffi Music In My Pre-K Classroom

Fun Learning With Raffi Music

Raffi At Home - From A Parent's Perspective With My Child

Love Raffi? Come Visit Our Top Favorite Raffi Songs Countdown Lens.....

More Raffi Fun For You - Great To Share With The Kids

Raffi On The Internet

So Have You Enjoyed My Raffi Lens?

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Purchase A Raffi Item and Support Juvenille Diabetes Research

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