Kids Songs Around the World
House of Nursery Rhymes
Mama Lisa's World Blog
Wizard of Oz Audiobook
Poetry for Kids
Books for Kids
Mama Lisa's Hub
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What is Mama Lisa's World?
Mama Lisa's World is the internet's premier destination for children's songs from around the globe and for discussions of international culture. It features thousands of traditional songs from over a hundred countries and cultures and a major collection of English Mother Goose Rhymes. Mama Lisa's Blog focuses on global recipes and cuisine, holiday traditions, and lively conversations about childhood and customs around the world.
What was the guiding principle behind Mama Lisa's World?
The intent of this site is to give people a sense of the nursery rhymes and songs sung by or to children in cultures around the world. For example, "Yankee Doodle" is a little rhyme that all American children know and experience as a part of their childhood. Non-Americans can get a sense of a small part of the culture of the United States by reading or singing it.
How do you deal with the issue of translations?
We see the spirit of the rhyme as being more important than the literal meanings of the words. Obviously, no translation can do full justice to all the nuances and senses a rhyme or any other piece of art hits in its native language and culture. But we make do with what we can...
There are no rhymes from my country or culture. Why not?
Our ultimate goal is to post nursery rhymes and children's songs from every country and culture in existence! We know that's a tall order, but we can try. If your country/culture is not featured here and you'd like to contribute a children's song or rhyme, please write us.
Do you accept contributions of new songs for countries or cultures already featured on the site?
Yes! We are glad to accept new material, even if we already have some songs from a country or culture. If you'd like to contribute, please write us.
Are the comments presented with some of the songs and rhymes all from professionals who have studied them?
No. We're happy to accept interesting commentary from all sources. The materials presented on this site are very much part of popular, folk traditions. We do not believe any special knowledge is needed to contribute to our shared understanding of their places in all our lives and cultures.
Who is Mama Lisa?
Mama Lisa's real name is Lisa Yannucci. Lisa was inspired to start Mama Lisa's World in the late nineties when her young son first became interested in nursery rhymes. She recorded several Mother Goose songs onto a computer and programmed them to play when he clicked an image. He loved it and she became fascinated with the power of the internet to enrich the lives of children. She made the site public and has since used her background in languages and culture, and her talent as an illustrator, to oversee it's tremendous growth.
Does anyone else work on Mama Lisa's World?
The business and technical side of the site is managed by Lisa's husband, Jason Pomerantz, of Fiddle and Burn. Jason has worked in magazine, book and web publishing for nearly twenty years. He is also a writer, and his personal projects have included several websites and podcasts.
Our chief translator is Monique Palomares. Monique grew up at the crossroads of three cultures in the Occitan region of France. She is fluent in French, Spanish, English and Occitan and has a working knowledge of many other languages. Her years as a first grade teacher and her love of children and linguistics give her a unique insight into the power of music and song all over the world.
Some of the piano music seems pretty basic. Why not use more elaborate arrangements?
We purposely chose to present only the melody line for many of the songs. This was to give listeners who would like to learn them the simplest possible sources to begin with. If you would like to provide your own performance of a song, we're happy to post it.
How do I listen to the music on Mama Lisa's World?
There are two formats for the music on MLW. The first is midi, which pretty much all computers can play. Just press any button on the site that says midi format and you should be able to hear it. The main purpose of midi music is to let you hear the tune of the song.
The second format is MP3. If you see MP3 listed next to a song, that means that song has either a vocal or an instrumental recording that you can listen to.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank everyone who helped me with this site, especially the contributors without whom none of this would have been possible.
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A Note From Mama Lisa...
I always welcome new contributions of traditional kids songs, nursery rhymes and folk songs. Please CLICK HERE to email Mama Lisa if you are interested and write "New Song" as the subject of the email.
Also, if anyone would like to sing any of these songs in the original language, or play any of the tunes on an instrument, I would love to post a recording on Mama Lisa's World. You could send me an audio cassette or you could record it directly onto the computer and email it to me. Remember... you don't have to be a professional singer or musician to contribute!
If you enjoy this site, click below to visit...
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