Cool Music Presents My Kids Got

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Usually toy instruments are useless, but Hearth Song's Melody Lap Harp is the real deal. What I particularly like about it was that you can tune it with an accompanying tuning hammer; so many children's musical toys either clang horribly upon arrival or go out of tune quickly. You don't need much skill to start: it comes with tablature sheets that sit just underneath the strings. My daughter's really into it.

Our Christmas-Eve visit to church left my son a little rattled; he took solace the next day in They Might Be Giants's Here Comes Science. 

The group's Here Come the 123's was a pre-Christmas gift for our daughter. The songs are catchy, groovy, and even at times poignant:

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