WHEN JESUS WAS A KID It’s Christmas time again D And the mall is really weird. Everyone gets stressed out Christmas shopping every year. D-A7 I have to stop and wonder, Looking at my Christmas list When Jesus was a kid, Would He be doing this? A7-D I know He was a baby, But did He ever cry? Did Jesus wet His diapers, Or were they always dry? Did He…

When my buddy Utah Phillips recorded my song, ‘It’s Only A Wee-Wee, So What’s The Big Deal?’, he introduced it by saying, “Now here’s my idea of a kids’ song folks! Full bore, overhead cam, spoke wire-wheels, no holds barred damn kids’ song! None of that ‘knicky-knacky-nu’ stuff we were stuck with when we were kids. When’s the last time you actuall…

Today's 'Song To Chew' is YECCH! from my “Wha'D'Ya Wanna Do?" album. I play this song at almost every family concert because almost veryone loves screaming "Yecch!" at the top of their lungs! It's a 'scream-along' so you can join in with us! It's full of make-believe and playfulness, and it's an example of how story and oral tradition grab our atte…

Today's 'Song To Chew' is LET'S FACE IT! from my “In The Hospital" album. It addresses facial disfigurement, and all the unsettling emotions that we go through when we feel that we're different than others around us. It's difficult emotionally, whether we're an adult or a child, to figure out how we're going to behave when others stare at us and fe…

Today's 'Song To Chew' is INSPECTION. I wrote it with Penny Pefley, one of the pediatric nurses who helped us make our “In The Hospital"album. My buddy Bill Harley and I 'rap' this one. Our personal privacy is challenged regularly in a hospital by doctors, nurses and assistants who want to make sure we're okay. They even wake us up at night to make…

Today's 'Song To Chew' is JUICE, from my “Stayin Over" album. It's an uncomplicated song, about the complicated concepts of 'love' and 'energy'. When we feel we’re not loved, we feel empty, and we search for any kind of 'juice' to fill us up, like booze, sex, drugs, money, food or approval from others. But when we’re actually filled up with 'love',…

Today we'll 'Chew' on the title song from my STAYIN' OVER album. Do you remember the first night you went to 'stay over' at a friend's house? Maybe it was a camping trip with other families. These adventures are loaded with memories and lessons we learned from our social interactions with others. It's a big step in independence for most kids. When …

Today's 'Song To Chew' is WIGGLE. It's a song about freedom! We all “wiggle” when someone won’t let us do what we want to do. 'Being alive!" means that in one form or another, we just need to "wiggle"! Some of us wiggle emotionally because we don't want to be 'pinned down'. Some wiggle physically because we'll jump out of our skin if we can't get d…

Today's 'Song To Chew' is THE PRIZE from my “Did You Walk?" album. It's song lyrics without any music, so actually, it's a poem. We're constantly being taught that it's important to 'come in first', to 'win the game', to 'win the race!' Some of us do it to get approval from others. Some think we have to do it so we can become financially independen…

Today's 'Song To Chew', SANDWICHES, was written by Bob King. One of the subjects that kids love to sing about is food!! We'll 'chew on' ideas about kids and food and the interconnectedness of all the human things we do in our lives. There's 'enjoyment' and 'sharing'. There's 'mooching', which is trying to get something that someone else has, but no…

Today's 'Song To Chew' is NEEDLE-EE NOODLE-EE. I wrote it with Penny Pefley, one of the two pediatric nurses who initiated our "In The Hospital" album! "Pokes" or "shots" are probably the number one fear children have about being in the hospital. Few children escape this experience, whether as an injection, an IV start, or a blood test. It may be i…

Our Song To Chew today is MY DAD'S A JUNGLE GYM from my “Uh-Oh!" album. I used to carry my daughters around on my shoulders, or under my arms when they were little. Sometimes they'd get tired on a walk, and I'd carry them on my back. Eventually they'd wiggle free, hop down and run around again. Dads are generally less 'risk-adverse' than Moms, whic…

Today's 'Song To Chew' is MY BODY RUNS, from my “Did You Walk?" album. I wrote this song at the request of two women who were marketing their Digi-Walker Pedometer, a small device for one's belt or pocket that counts the steps we take to be sure we get enough exercise every day. Kids have lots of questions about their own bodies and how they seem t…

Today's 'Song To Chew', WHA'D'YA WANNA DO?, is about 'wanting to have fun with a buddy'. As I listen to the lyrics more than 40 years after I wrote them, they're about being joyous. That's mostly what kids wanna do, 'find support as we go through our lives joyously'. Support makes it less scary to take risks, so when we take a risk, even if it does…

This week's 'Song To Chew' is THAT'S MY THANG! We get a "fire in our belly" about something that involves all our attention, often to the exclusion of everything else around us. Our 'thang' is something we want to achieve, or simply a task we want to complete. Our 'thang' isn't really 'work' because we enjoy doing it. Many of us love the work we do…

Today we'll "chew on" the song, COVERS ON OUR HEARTS from our musical play "Pie In The Sky". It takes place in a small town with a big nuclear reactor. The kids in town want to get rid of it because there are so many health problems, but the grown-ups are slow to respond. It's based on the Pied Piper fable, about a magical piper who's hired to rid …

Our 'Song To Chew' today is WHILE I'M SLEEPING, written with Diane Gates. She and Penny Pefley are pediatric nurses from Seattle Children's Hospital who encouraged me to write and record our 'In The Hospital' album. I got my buddy Bill Harley to join us, and we won Parent's Choice 'Best Album'! This song addresses difficulties we face with going to…

Our 'Song To Chew' today is UNDER THE RAINBOW. Some might call it a 'woke' song, because it's full of hope. There are some very mystifying things in this world. I haven't got a clue about how they happen, so I don't rule out prayer, magic, supernatural religions, being "woke" or anything else that might help us all survive together! I know that 'wh…

Today's 'Song To Chew' is NEVER SPEAK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL! It seems like a 'fun little song', but it opens doors to deeper topics like, 'Where do our rules come from?' and 'How do they become laws?' Kids deal with 'grown-up rules' all the time. We teach children rules, so they'll learn to be socially responsible adults; people who care about other…

Our 'Song To Chew' today is I'M A LITTLE COOKIE, written by Larry Penn. It reframes the concept of 'having a disability' for kids and grown-ups. When a traumatic event happens, and something in us changes or 'breaks', we can feel like we're 'un-whole'! It's true that as we change and grow and learn, difficult things do happen to us, but we're still…

Our SONG TO CHEW this week is PEACEFUL FEET, from my 'Grow It At Home' album. I wrote it as part of a challenge sent out from Rounder Kids Records asking some of the best artists in children's and family music to create a one-minute song for an album called "HEAR AND GONE IN 60 SECONDS" It included my friends Bill Harley, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer,…

This week's 'Song To Chew' is GNARLY DUDE. 'Gnarly' means 'twisted and knobby', but it's also slang for 'something unpleasant or unattractive', or for the opposite, 'something excellent or very good'. To be a 'gnarly dude', we have to figure out how to be tough and cool at the same time! Sounds challenging! One of the unwritten lessons we learn in …

This week's Song To Chew, 'HOME WHERE THE HEART IS', opens the musical stage play I wrote with Ellen Geer, “Pie In The Sky", which ran as part of our 1987 theater season at the Theatricum Botanicum. It takes place in a small American town that has its own nuclear reactor. The kids of the town want to get rid of it because it's creating health probl…

My SAMIT AND THE DRAGON song comes from our “In The Hospital" album, recorded with my buddy Bill Harley and the two pediatric nurses from Seattle Children's Hospital who instigated the whole project, Diane Gates and Penny Pefley. We won the Best Children's Album of the Year Award from the National Assn of Independent Record Distributors in 1983! Do…

Our SONG TO CHEW this week, is STRANGERS, from my 1992 child abuse prevention concert with KidPower and actor John Ritter. Before people turn 18, one out of four of us will have been sexually abused. Our feelings are like an early warning system. If we feel uncomfortable about a situation, we need to listen to that little voice and get to safety! A…

Our 'Song To Chew' this week is 'NO, NO, NO!' Little kids like to say 'No!'. We learn that from the adults around us! "Can I have a puppy?" No! "Can my friend come here to play?" No! It's impossible to be a perfect parent. I was spanked as a kid, but I never hit my kids, and they turned our pretty great. With the world situation being what it is th…

Today's 'Song To Chew', "IF YOU LOVE A HIPPOPOTAMUS" was written by Connie Kaldor, a wonderful Canadian singer-songwriter. It brings up the delicate subject of our size and our behavior and our appearance. If we don't look or behave the way other people think we should, we can get excluded, and become overly-critical of ourselves. We beat ourselves…

WHERE WILL I GO WHEN I'M DEAD AND GONE? is one of my more controversial songs. Why write a song for kids about death and dying? Because it's a subject no one wants to talk about! Curiosity about death is completely human and understandable. Kids need safe people to talk with about it; to ask questions and process some of the huge feelings that come…

This week's SONG TO CHEW is ASK AWAY from my “Grow It At Home" album! The concept is simple! 'Ask others for help', but that can be difficult for some of us. We don't want to impose or look weak or confused. Some think it's gender-linked to men, as many men would rather drive around lost for hours instead of asking for directions, but we know this …

Our SONG TO CHEW this week is US KIDS BRUSH OUR TEETH from my 'Stayin' Over' album. A four-year-old doesn't brush their teeth just to get them clean! That's what adults do! Kids have a completely different agenda! If we get upset with our kids for "not acting like adults", we miss the delight and playfulness of how our children brush their teeth. I…

Our SONG TO CHEW this week, is a 'batch of songs'. We'll listen to the IRISH SEATBELT JIG, APPLE JUICE, ME-ME-ME, and SPIN AROUND. We'll 'chew on' how impactful these repetitive little children's songs can be! This kind of song gets into our heads, like some of the commercial jingles and 'ear worms' we find ourselves humming or singing to ourselves…

This week's 'Song To Chew' is I CRIED by Ruth Pelham from my 'Stayin' Over' album. I first heard Holly Near sing this wonderful song, then I met the wonderful Ruth Pelham in person. She's an educator, songwriter and performer and she's dedicated her life to helping children learn by using music. Her school programs and songs blend her years of expe…

Our 'Song To Chew' this week, PAT YOUR DADDY ON THE KNEE comes from my “Uh-Oh!" album. When we scratch the surface of these 'family music' songs, we find important life-lessons for adults too. Adults who don't have any kids tell me, they learn from 'chewin' on' these songs! Life-lessons for little kids can help big grown-ups too! Everybody in the w…

Our 'Song To Chew' this week, from my “Family Roles" album is THE NEWBORN, written by Rosita Perez. Technically, it's a 'Poem To Chew' from her book, "THE MUSIC IS YOU: A Guide to Thinking Less and Feeling More". I love this poem because it points out how the words 'belief' and 'faith' are different. When someone chooses to hold a 'belief' in somet…

This week's SONG TO CHEW is the title cut from my "Uh-Oh!" album, so of course it’s called 'UH-OH!' Making messes is something all humans do from time to time. Actually, when we make a mistake, it’s a great opportunity for us to practice forgiving ourselves! When we can do that, it makes it easier for us to accept and forgive others around us who m…

This week our 'Song To Chew' comes from my “Pluggin' Away" album. It’s called NO ONE'S NORMAL. I wrote it because if you tell someone they're 'normal', they can get insulted by that! But if you say they're 'abnormal', they don't like that either. Maybe we should get rid of these 'label' words and stick to action words! Tell me what someone does, no…

Our 'Song To Chew' this week is the title cut from my TAKE ME WITH YOU album. This song exemplifies the 'naughty child' themes that I find so appealing, and use so often in my family songs. Kids are really smart. They figure out what works best for them to get what they want from their parents. When we're little, we have to depend on big folks arou…

This week our 'Song To Chew' is MY GUMS GROW TEETH from my ““Uh-Oh!" album. One of the 'rites of passage' for all kids, is 'losing a tooth'! I thought I'd write a song about that for my 'pre-schoolers' album, but then I realized, pre-schoolers aren't losing their teeth, they're growing them! That's probably pretty scary, like, "How do my gums know …

Today, for your audio pleasure, we'll LISTEN TO THE BEET, as our 'Song To Chew' from my 'Grow It At Home' album. I entered this song in a contest put on by the L.A. Unified School District where the winning songs would be included in a CD compilation, to be distributed to all the elementary school kids in Los Angeles, to get them to eat and enjoy m…

Our Song To Chew this week, 'IF IT DOESN'T HAVE ME' was written by my buddy Bill Harley. It's from our “In The Hospital" album that helps kids understand more about hospitals and doctors and nurses, and builds compassion for other kids and people who have medical difficulties. The original inspiration for this project came from two wonderful pediat…

Today our Song To Chew' is SOMETIMES SI, SOMETIMES NO! from my 'Grow It At Home' album. It's originally from a DVD I made for the Loma Linda University Medical Center in San Bernardino, California. We made a video with my songs and stories to entertain andeducate the families of their patients. Most of their patients are families from local neighbo…

Our SONG TO CHEW this week is POOP GOES THE WEASEL. I wrote it to help parents engage their little kids in the process of getting toilet trained. When I perform this song live, I use a weasel or otter hand puppet to demonstrate as we sing together. Laughing at poop and fart jokes and anything to do with the toilet seems to appeal much more to guys …

From my “Chris Moose Holidays” album, our SONG TO CHEW this week is THE TOOTH FAIRY, EASTER BUNNY, SANTA & GOD. They're all stories that most of us have heard since we were little. Each of them a bit mysterious and none of them willing to simply show themselves, to prove to us that they're real. They require some level of belief. We've seen hints o…

Our 'Song To Chew' this week, is NO EXCUSE T'USE BOOZE from my “Stayin' Over” album. There are an estimated 5.3 million kids under the age of 17 in this country who have a serious drinking problem. When I wrote this song, 'Honky Boy Pete' popped into my mind, told he was a 'recovering alcoholic' and he wanted to talk to the kids, if I didn't mind. …

Our SONG TO CHEW this week, HIGH STANDARDS, was written by my dear friend Bob Blue. This song was part of my conference presentations and part of my personal story. Our parents who love us, want us to do the best we can, but sometimes they forget that kids need time to play and relax and explore our relationships. Getting straight 'A's' in school, …

This week's 'Song To Chew' is LET 'EM LAUGH from my "Take Me With You!“ album. One of the toughest things we face as humans is being laughed at and 'shunned' or ridiculed by others. Usually, the 'butt of the joke' is someone who appears or acts differently than most people. There's never a good excuse to single someone out for ridicule, especially …

Our 'Song To Chew' this week is IT'S NO FUN WHEN YA GOTTA EAT AN ONION. Our individual taste differences are tailored by what we learned to eat with our families when we were little. If we associate certain foods with comfort and good times, we look forward to having those experiences of chewing and savoring the taste of foods that reminds us of th…

Our Song To Chew this week is FAMILY OF FRIENDS, from my “Uh-Oh!" album. I wrote this song because we each hold a story about our family of origin. Some of us grew up in a family that was warm and safe. Some of us had a family that did not 'feel so safe'. Many of us had a family that was a mix of those two styles. And some of our families were scat…

Our Song To Chew this week is LET THE WOMAN IN YOU COME THROUGH from my “Asleep At The Helm” album. We're trained to perform as others of our birth gender have in the past. Boys and girls are told stories about how we should behave, and those stories guide us as we mature and grow. In fact, there are many other stories that might be 'our story', th…

WAS ST. PAT SCARED? Let's listen to our "Song To Chew" for today and find out! This song's from my “Grow It At Home” album, to help us understand how we humans have taken over most of the world by eliminating any other creatures that threaten us or our expansion. The Irish myth about St. Patrick, 'ridding Ireland of all the snakes' is a wonderful p…