Name Your Tune: Take Your Kids Platinum

As much as you may protest, there are a few classic children’s songs that you secretly enjoy as much as your kids do. Just watching your daughter’s ebulliant face as she makes the ‘people on the bus go up and down’ hand and body movements are enough to endear you to the oldies. Enter Candace Alper and Name Your Tune. As Candace’s year-long maternity leave was coming to an end, the thought of going back to work and leaving her daughter in full-time day care inspired her to propell a creative business idea forward at full speed.”The idea for Name Your Tune came from many places. My husband, Eric, had a vinyl record when he was a kid that was a personalized birthday song,” says Candace. “His mother still brings it out for his birthday dinners….30 years later! We sang and played music for Hannah since she was born (and before that too, if that counts) and she has always loved it and been very responsive. At the park, just the two of us, I used to sing many of the songs that are now on Name Your Tune to her with her name in it to get her attention and to make her smile…it worked everytime! My husband works in the music business and we have a host of talented friends and colleagues, so the ultimate creation of Name Your Tune, was really quite organic.”

So what exactly is Name Your Tune? Name Your Tune is a personalized CD for children that features the child’s name in each of 9 much-loved classics including Old MacDonald, Wheels on the Bus, Head and Shoulders, The ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Every song becomes a song about your child: “Old MacDonald had a farm….” becomes “Little Hannah had a farm…” And Name Your Tune has its own place in the celebrity spotlight thanks to moms like Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Teri Hatcher and Soledad O’Brien singing the CD’s praises.

Clever Parents caught up with Candace to talk about exposing children to music, the Here Hear FunFest and the importance of being musically-gifted (hint: it’s not).

Clever Parents: Have you always been musically-inclined?
Candace Alper: I have always loved music….all kinds of music. Sadly though, I think this different from being musically-inclined. Truth be told, I cannot carry a note and have made several failed attempts to learn to play guitar. I am so envious of people who are blessed with beautiful voices and a natural inclination to play music.

The beauty of Name Your Tune is that you don’t need to be musically-inclined to enjoy it and sing a long….our kids are much less judgemental about our ability to carry a tune…they just want to enjoy the music and have fun doing it. Whether your singing, dancing or playing with your kids…you really check your inhibitions at the door.

Clever Parents: How important is exposing music to children and why?
Candace Alper: Music has the ablility to inspire us to do, feel and express so many different things…joyous, silly and fun…but also relaxed and emotional too. For children especially, music can also inspire learning. I think that there are very few among us who can recite the alphabet without singing that familiar tune of the ABCs. The popular School House Rock series was founded on this idea - we remember things through tunes and songs so why not put the lessons of mathematics and grammar to music….”conjunction junction what’s your function?”

The songs that make up Name Your Tune were carefully selected for what they can bring out in children. There are songs that inspire learning such as The ABCs, The Rainbow Song to teach the colours of the rainbow and There are Seven Days to teach the days of the week. There are songs that inspire activity and interaction such as The Wheels on the Bus and Head and Shoulders. And there are songs that are just plain fun to sing and dance with such as the Elvis inspired Down by the Bay.

Clever Parents: Tell us about the Hear Here Funfest – how did you get involved?
Candace Alper: The Hear Here Funfest was dreamed up by my husband Eric and his audiologists a number of years ago. They initiated a foundation through the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the funds raised purchased hearing aids for children. The annual funfest is a great day filled with music, rides and activities for children and families and raises much awareness for hearing impairments for children as well as highlighting the advances in technology and audiology that aid.

Clever Parents: What’s next for Name Your Tune?
Candace Alper: What’s next? We’re all set to keep doing what we’ve been doing! I get a lot of great feedback from customers and am always on the lookout for new personalized products to add to our offering.

Clever Parents: When you’re not busy running a company and raising a family, what do you like to do?
Candace Alper: Running my company and raising my family really does take up most of my time…and if there more hours in a day or more days in the week…I’d likely divide it well between them. I have wonderful friends and when we can all make time in our now busy lives…dinner out with the girls is the ultimate treat!

So how did Hannah respond when she first heard her special song? “Hannah, like most children, reacts with a mix of wonder, awe and excitement realizing that the songs are all about her,” exclaims Candace! “It really makes them feel so special…truly what I love the most about what I do!”

Visit the Name Your Tune website at www.nameyourtune.com. where you can listen to sample recordings like this one - Little Hannah Had a Farm.