WowoSpot Kids

Our 2023 story telling feature Alice in Wonderland has continued to wow our fans! In our latest episode, Alice escaped from the Whilte Rabbit's house, being so small that she was frightened by a hungry puppy. She must find a way to become bigger again. She luckily met a caterpillar smoking a hookah. Now what?

She drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could, and waited till she heard a little animal (she couldn't guess of what sort it was) scratching and scrambling about in the chimney close above her: then, saying to herself "This is Bill", she gave one sharp kick, and waited to see what would happen next. Trailer https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/chFC0NAzxyb

It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard it muttering to itself, "The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! She'll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets! Where can I have dropped them, I wonder?" Alice guessed in a moment that it was looking for the fan and the pair of white kid-gloves, and she very good-naturedly began hunting about for them, but they were nowhere to be seen - everything seemed to have changed since her swim in the pool; and the great hall, with the glass table and the little door, had vanished completely. #aliceinwonderland Trailer https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/chFC0NAzxyb

Alice in Wonderland #5 | A Queer Party:  Meeting and Caucus Race  After Alice swam with the whole party of animals to the bank they held a meeting, trying to figure out a way to get dry. Was Alice able to convince the Mouse to tell his long story? Was the Mouse finally becoming friendly to Alice? Let's find out. Trailer https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/chFC0NAzxyb

In the last episode we talked about Alice became small again after using the Rabbit's fan to fan herself. Oh dear, now she is so small and she slipped into her own pool of tears! (Remember how much she cried when whe was nine feel tall?) Let's see what happened after she slipped into the sea of salt water! Trailer https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/chFC0NAzxyb

"Goodbye, feet! Oh my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure I shall not be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can -- but I must be kind to them," thought Alice, "or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go! Let me see. I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas." Apparently after Alice ate the cake, she became very, vary large.... How is Alice going to handle the pool of her tears?

It was all very well to say "Drink me," but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. "No, I'll look first", she said, and see whether it's marked "poison" or not; for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they would not rememner the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will bur you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a botthle marked "poison", it is almost certain to disagree with you. What will happen after Alice drank the "DRINK ME" bottle? Listen to episode #2 on Alice in Wonderland! This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2022/12/15/alice-in-wonderland-2-chapter-1-alice-finding-the-door/

Is there a better way to celebrate Christmas time than telling and sharing a good story? Parents and children, we are thrilled to announce that we have just launched our new series of literary episodes: ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Down. Down. Down. What did Alice see and  do after falling into the rabbit hole? This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2022/12/13/alice-in-wonderland-down-the-rabbit-hole/

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2022/07/04/rapunzel-the-red-fairy-book-by-andrew-lang/

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2022/06/28/the-goose-and-the-golden-eggs/

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2022/06/28/the-wolf-and-the-donkey/

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2022/05/02/aesops-fables-the-owl-and-the-grasshopper/

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2022/03/04/aesops-fables-the-fox-and-the-grapes/

Wowospot Kids have been blogging Aesop's Fables classic stories. Today Wowospot Kids Podcast is ready to start telling the stories. Please join us to listen to The Wolf and the Goat and Bell the Cat. In this first Aesop's Fables episode, we would like to feature the music of "The Wolf Piping Song". Why did the Wolf make music? Listen on! About the wind blowing sound effect We would like to thank MIlos Vucicevis for his wind sound sound track from his Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/fujJx8FaPHo About the Wolf Piping Song Written by Lisa Ruping Cheng. Please go to Wowospot.ca to leave Lisa a message should you wish to know how to create a song on Noteflight.com.

Let's continue with the story. "As soon as he began to get near to the wood, all the great trees, the bushes, and brambles gave way of themselves to let him pass through. He walked up to the castle which he saw at the end of a large avenue; and you can imagine he was a good deal surprised when he saw none of his people following him because the trees closed again as soon as he had passed through them. However, he did not cease from continuing his way; a young prince in search of glory is ever valiant.

As an iconic and beloved fairytale, Sleeping Beauty has so ingrained in our culture that it represents an enchanting tale coming from a remote country full of imaginations, magics, wonders and charm. In the new year, what story will be more exciting for Wowospot to tell than Sleeping Beauty? Let me share with you this fascinating tale about a young princess who had been cursed before falling down in a swoon and sleeping for a hundred years, after accidentally touching a spindle. We are featuring two pieces of new music in this episode: "Sleeping Beauty", and "Dark Fairy, the Curse", both written by Lisa Cheng.  Enjoy the adventure!

When it comes to spooky stories, we often think of strange creatures living in the deep forests, unknown mysteries hidden in abandoned houses, dangers lingering in the darkness in the woods.... My early memories of spooky stories were all about ghosts. When I was a toddler, my father and my grandmother used to tell ghost stories, in the living room, after dinner time. Me and my brother and sister would hold our blankets, wide-eyed, listening to the stories, so quietly. Interestingly, ghosts in oriental culture are conceived in a much more serious way. We would worship spirits on the "ghost day" and avoid going out to catch anything unwanted on July 7, on the lunar calendar, the spirit day. Spooky stories do not seem to be out of fashion at any time in history. When I am trying to find a tale that is scary, chidren friendly and classic, I am glad to find "Little Thumb" from Mother Goose Fairytale book. The bad guy in the tale is mainly the Ogre. The hero? Little thumb, a brave and smart little boy. Let's take a good look at this story!

My early memories of spooky stories were all about ghosts. When I was a toddler, my father and my grandmother used to tell ghost stories, in the living room, after dinner time. Me and my brother and sister would hold our blankets, wide-eyed, listening to the stories, so quietly. Interestingly, ghosts in oriental culture are conceived in a much more serious way. We would worship spirits on the "ghost day" and avoid going out to catch anything unwanted on July 7, on the lunar calendar, the spirit day. Spooky stories do not seem to be out of fashion at any time in history. When I am trying to find a tale that is scary, chidren friendly and classic, I am glad to find "Little Thumb" from Mother Goose Fairytale book. The bad guy in the tale is mainly the Ogre. The hero? Little thumb, a brave and smart little boy. Let's take a good look at this story! In this episode you are going to listen to the part three of "Little Thumb". This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2021/11/24/a-story-about-ogre-little-thumb-mother-goose-fairytaleiii/

My early memories of spooky stories were all about ghosts. When I was a toddler, my father and my grandmother used to tell ghost stories, in the living room, after dinner time. Me and my brother and sister would hold our blankets, wide-eyed, listening to the stories, so quietly. Interestingly, ghosts in oriental culture are conceived in a much more serious way. We would worship spirits on the "ghost day" and avoid going out to catch anything unwanted on July 7, on the lunar calendar, the spirit day. Spooky stories do not seem to be out of fashion at any time in history. When I am trying to find a tale that is scary, chidren friendly and classic, I am glad to find "Little Thumb" from Mother Goose Fairytale book. The bad guy in the tale is mainly the Ogre. The hero? Little thumb, a brave and smart little boy. Let's take a good look at this story! In this episode you are going to listen to the part two of "Little Thumb".

When it comes to spooky stories, we often think of strange creatures living in the deep forests, unknown mysteries hidden in abandoned hourses, dangers lingering in the darkness in the woods.... It is Halloween today in Canada. Children are dressed up with their favorite costumes, going out knocking door to door to "trick or treat". We see every house creatively decorated with ghost themes: a human hand sticking out from the grass, witches and spiders, bats, monsters and wolves howling. My early memories of spooky stories were about all ghosts. When I was a toddler, my father and my grandmother used to tell ghost stories, in the living room, after dinner time. Me and my brother and sister would hold our blankets, wide-eyed, listening to the stories, so quietly. Interestingly, ghosts in oriental culture are conceived in a much more serious way. We would worship spirits on the "ghost day" and avoid going out to catch anything unwanted on July 7, on the lunar calendar, the spirit day. Spooky stories do not seem to be out of fashion overtime. When I amtrying to find a tale that is scarry, chidren friendly and classic, I am glad to find "Little Thumb" from Mother Goose Fairytale book. The bad guy in the tale is mainly the Ogre. I also think the parents are no so good either. The hero? Little thumb, a brave and smart little boy. Let's take a listen to the story!

The moral lesson in this tale makes me think of a great quote from one of the most admired actresses, Audrey Hepburn: “For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.”

Little Red Riding Hood is one of my favorite stories when I was a kid. I believe the story was told in Chinese when I first learned about it. To my surprise Little Red Riding Hood is part of the Mother Goose Fairytale collected by French author Charles Perrault in 1696. This tells us Little Red Riding-hood is a folklore tale that has been passed on from generation to generation. The characters of the big bad wolf, the grandmother, the little girl who wears a red riding-hood have been alive in my childhood memories. They were always found in the story books, in the cartoons, in the pop culture, in the movies. The history and popularity of the story makes the characters metaphoric to this day. It is not hard to understand why we have referred to "big bad wolf" as someone who appears to be gentle and smooth in appearance while is in fact dangerous. I often see morals and teachings embedded in folklore tales; Little Red Riding-hood is no exception. What is a riding hood? It refers to a hooded outdoor cloak worn when riging horses. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as "an enveloping hood or hooded cloak worn for riding and as an outdoor wrap by women and children". Obviously today we do not ride horses for commuting; the imageries of the red coloured riding hood has become symbolic, suggesting the characteristics of innocence, vulnerability, gullibility. Today I would like to visit the English version of this story from the book of the Tales of Mother Goose by Perrault in 1696 and share the story with Wowospot Kids podcast listeners by accounting it myself. In the episode, newly composed instrumental music will be heard to accompany the appearing of the big bad wolf. The music is written my Lisa Ruping Cheng, with the purpose of inviting the listeners to enter into the world of the little girl walking in the forest by herself and wonder what is going to happen to her....

Mother Goose Fairytale: Cinderella A folklore story that has been told to children for generations is worth being told again and again. I am lucky to have found the original texts of Cinderella in the book of Mother Goose Fairytale, first collected by Charles Perrault in 1696 and translated by Charles Welsh and published in the U. S. in 1901. Let me share with you the whole story by accounting it in WowoSpot Kids Podcast.

I remember watching 2015's Disney movie Cinderella with my daughters a few years ago and have loved it. What impressed me very much was the folk song sung by Cinderella in the movie: Lavender's Blue. The enchanted melody and the round form makes the melody echo beautifully. It feels like the song is never going to end. In this episode Lisa is going to discuss the origin, lyrics and meanings of the song Lavender's Blue and she will be sharing with you the recording of her singing of this song!

When I first heard Hickory Dickory Dock, it was when I taught my five-year-old daughter to play the piano. I was intrigued by the cute mouse who ran up the clock with the clicking and came down with the sound of the clock striking every hour. What a wonderful way to teach young children about numbers, with literature and music combined in an imaginary story! To read the blog post of the same title please click the link here.

Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini's hit opera Turandot (杜蘭多) adapted the tune of a very popular Chinese folk song Jasmine Flowers (茉莉花). I imagine Jasmine Flowers worked as a perfect material for Puccini to portray the princess as an oriental beauty. After the premiere  in 1926 in Milan, Italy, Turandot has become one of the most performed and celebrated operas to this day. It has always been the exotic settings of the stories and the hightened emotions that make Puccini's operas compelling and unforgettable. Turandot is no exception. The melody of Jasmine Flowers is made out of a pentatonic scale, very often referred to as a scale that gives oriental colors. In this episode I will demonstrate the singing of this folk song in solfege, as well as in Chinese.

Momotaro is an iconic Japanese folk song that my father and my grandmother can sing to this day. I grew up in Taiwan where Japanese culture became prevalent after the Chinese Chin dynasty lost the the first Sino-Japanese war in 1895 and ceded Taiwan islands to Japan. As a result, Japan had ruled Taiwan for fifty years until the new, modern China won the World War Two in 1945. Under this historical background, many elder people in Taiwan are fluent in Japanese and still remember the Japanese folk song Momotaro they learned to sing as a kid. This helps us understand how and why Japanese culture has been prevalent and popular in Taiwan. I have known the song Momotaro since I was a kid too, although I may not be very familiar with the lyrics, which are in Japanese and have not been translated into a Chinese version in known publications. Having living in Canada for more than twenty years, I observe and wonder why that numerous western folk songs have been adapted into eastern languages but rarely the other way round. To talk about and sing the Japanese folk song, I will need to introduce the original Japanese language lyrics. The lyrics and the story of Momotaro, the Peach Boy The Peach Boy (Image from Japanese Fairy book, public domain, published in 1908)

Frère Jacques | Are you sleeping | The story, lyrics and music Frère Jacques is a very familiar folk song well loved by children. It originates from France. My earliest memory about this tune goes back to my kindergarten days. I learned this song in Mandarin Chinese, not in English, and the meanings in the Chinese lyrics were entirely different from the English version. Let's take a look at the different versions of the lyrics.  In this episode I'll demonstrate the singing of this folk tune in English, French, and Chinese. Also I will present the recording of a four-hand piano duet I arranged for this tune. In addition, I will introduce the idea about a fun singing form: round. You will see how vocal music is performed in imitation and chase by multiple voices!

In this episode I would like to share with you how I came with the idea of writing the new children's song Little Puppy Lily's Magic Bone. Toys and magic has always been a popular theme in children's stories The imaginary world this song created reminds me of a TV cartoon show I used to love as a kid. In the show, this toy came to life after midnight when the little boy was asleep. And when the toy came to life, the clock stopped clicking and the whole world froze. Interestingly, there are in fact many children's stories describing toys coming alive. Take the beloved Tchaikovsky ballet Nutcracker for example, the little girl Clara's favorite Christmas present nutcracker turns into a handsome prince after midnight. Together they visit a snowy pine forest and then arrive at the Land of Sweets. They are charmed by the beautiful Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Little Puppy Lily's Magic Bone is the first children's song that I made as an audio recording. It was great fun to see how my creative work came to life. How I came up with the idea of the story of the song Originally I thought about writing a song based on the popular children's story Straga Nona.  Straga Nona is an enchanting children's story written by American author Tomie dePaola. It is about a grandma witch (Straga Nona) who owns a magic pot that can cook noodles if she casts a spell.  One day Straga Nona went out of town so she hired a boy to look after her home. The young boy, with a wandering mind, did what she had told him not to do: he chanted the spell to start the cooking pot. When Straga Nona came back to town and saw a disastrous scene—the town was quickly swollowed by mountains of noodles, she knew who did it. Apparently, the boy knew how to start the pot but did not know how to stop it. I remember reading this story with my daughters when they were younger and have always liked it. I was so excited about this idea. Before I fetched a piece of paper to write down the music notes, I had constructed the rhythm, the lyrics and the melody in my mind. After I googled this story, I was disappointed to find the story is a copyrighted work and is not in the public domain. It was a pity. The lyrics could have been awesome if it goes like "Straga-no-na has a magic cooking pot, she...." I loved the sound of the word straganona and how it would work perfectly with the rhythm I had in my mind. Well, knowing I could not use the story as my lyrics, I tried to sing new lyrics to the melody I'd created. While I was scratching my head, my eyes fixed on my dog Wowo, a new idea struck me. "Wowo loves her chewing bone, a toy she could play with all day long." I thought, and "I am going to make a dog's toy story!"

What is your first experience on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? You may have heard it from your childrens' singing or from the kids TV shows, or you may have heard it since you were very young but you can not pinpoint exactly where and when and how. That is the magic of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It has so ingrained in our culture and tradition. Like a traditional Christmas song Silent Night, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is part of our life and as we all are passing by the world, the song will stay for generations to come. What magic did Mozart do to make Twinkle Twinkle Little Star such an iconic tune that is still loved and known by almost everyone today? This week WowoSpot Kids Podcast is very excited to have our guest pianist Kim Yim in our show to talk about her personal experience on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. As well, she will discuss and perform selected variations from this famous Mozart's piano piece. 

Will we call a man who delivers muffins house-to-house a muffin man today? In older times we did. The popular nursery rhyme The Muffin Man is an English folk song. The lyrics are dynamic, easy to remember and they rhyme well. The melody is cheerful... If you were to change the lyrics into something else what would it sound like??

Who wrote Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? This beloved song has become a must-have lullaby nowadays in children’s song playlists. The tune comes from a French folk song ah vous dirai - je ma, maman (oh shall I tell you mama), written in the mid- 18th century. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart adapted the melody and composed twelve variations on it as a piano solo work when he was twenty-five, making this tune world famous. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2021/07/16/the-story-of-twinkle-twinkle-little-star/

"In my very remote memories, my earliest musical experience was about songs. We react to music and language most naturally through songs. Before I was made to sit on the piano bench at the age of five to learn to play the gigantic instrument, I had known music by singing and dancing along my favorite songs from the radio." This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2021/07/11/kids-songs-in-2021-the-ideas-about-wowospot/

In the spring this year, on a bright sunny Sunday morning, out of my desperation to have some comfort food, I lined up to buy a bag of Montreal style bagels from a new store that had just opened in downtown. I believed a bag of great bagels could definitely save me from feeling even more anxious about the on-and-off lockdown. Before noon I had eaten three bagels: sesame, cinnamon and blueberry. Yummy. I'd been reading articles about children's folk songs while compiling a beginners' piano book of popular folk tunes. While looking at the rest of the assorted bagels lying on my kitchen table, still wanting for more, I was struck by the idea that if I were a kid I would probably have imagined the bagles started to move and roll out of the table, running away to some where. I let myself daydream.  This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2021/07/30/hey-diddle-diddle-and-the-bagels-on-the-table-creativity-during-lockdown/

"Many years ago when I first heard the song Itsy Bitsy Spider, it was at the daycare my kids went everyday. I was impressed to see that more than fifteen toddlers following their caregiver teacher singing the song, smiling widely, walking back from the playground to their room for the nap time. I was fascinated by the high spirits among the little singers!" This episode talks about the hit kids song Itsy Bitsy Spider: its lyrics, melodies, and educational benefits for young learners. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://wowospot.ca/2021/07/25/the-story-about-itsy-bitsy-spider-treasure-found-in-simplicity/