This recording is interactive and filled with many original folk-based children's songs by Jenkins, which is perfect for an afternoon sit-down or driving in the car. Jenkins is joined in most songs by children from the Mary Crane Center. The primary song style is call-and-response and sing-along, but there are also a few spoken words, a chant, and instrumentals. Throughout the CD, listeners will hear guitar, ukulele, kazoo, banjo, and a metronome.

Children will be singing along with the songs quickly because there is plenty of repetition and guidance form Jenkins throughout the songs. The tunes are simplistic with a steady beat in traditional 4/4 time. Jenkins tells listeners exactly what she wants them to do in each song, whether it's listening to her sing a verse first, repeat after her, sing along with her, fill-in-the-blank, or make a specific noise or action. The songs can be listened to in any order, and easily picked back up after a break.

Your child will love listening to this CD anywhere, as the activities will keep them entertained and engaged. The "Greeting and Farewell Song" teaches all about names, where you little one gets to fill in their own first, middle, and last name. "I got a job" covers quite a few different professions and what they do all day long. "Farmer Brown Had Ten Green Apples" And "Ten Green Bottles" work with numbers and provide practice counting backward from ten. The song, "Show Me" asks listeners to demonstrate an activity such as skipping, walking, jumping, and tip-toeing but the catch is that the children should only do the activity when the kazoo is playing. Your little one is also encouraged to join in on other songs by counting, singing, whispering, slapping thighs, tapping toes, lifting knees, snapping fingers, and clapping hands. Even the familiar nursery rhyme, "Hickory Dickory Dock" is given a new twist when Jenkins directs listeners to listen very carefully and identify what she changes in each; she changes the clock to a cookoo clock, and alarm clock, and a Grandfather's clock, as well as changing the time when the clock strikes.

My three-year-old friend, Sam, is sure to pop this CD in whenever he's on a car ride. He loves to sing along with "Inside and Outside" at the top of his lungs, and he thinks the squeaking noise for the mouse is hilarious. Sam also likes the "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" song because he says it reminds him of SpongeBob Squarepants.

--Audra

Ella Jenkins is a prominent children's folk singer, whose career has spanned four decades and visited all seven continents. She was dubbed, "The first lady of the Children's folk song" by The Wisconsin State Journal and has appeared on Mr. Rogers and Barney. Jenkins has released a total of 28 records and 2 videos since 1957. Jenkins was also rewarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy. "Growing Up" was released in 1969 from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

"You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song" is Ella Jenkin's best-selling record, as well as the best-selling record ever for the record label, Folkway Labels. The recor's title song was added to the National Recording Registry in 2007, joining other collections of sounds that are considered culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.

1 - A Neighborhood is a Friendly Place (2:45)

2 - Greeting and Farewell Song (1:09)

3 - Names (2:18)

4 - I got a Job (2:14)

5 - I'm Changing (3:22)

6 - Big, Bigger, Biggest (with children) (1:36)

7 - Big, Bigger, Biggest (with Buy and Ella) (2:27)

8 - Ten Green Bottles (1:43)

9 - Farmer Brown Had Ten Green Apples (2:55)

10 - Show Me (5:02)

11 - I Wonder Who's Outside My Door (2:13)

12 - Barnacle Bill the Sailor (1:15)

13 - A Sailor Went to Sea (1:40)

14 - A Seashell Poem from My Grandpa (1:26)

15 - Swinging in the Grapevine Swing (2:08)

16 - Little Orphan Annie (1:37)

17 - Inside and Outside (1:29)

18 - Hickory Dickory Dock (1:33)