Lisa Yannucci, also known as Mama Lisa, is the publisher of Mama Lisa's World, a treasure trove of nursery rhymes and children's songs from all around the world, presented both in English and in their native language.
Many people consider technology the enemy of good parenting. It's too easy for a harried mom or dad to plop their kid in front of the TV instead of spending time with them. It's too easy for a child to stay indoors with a video game instead of running around on a nice summer day. But it doesn't have to be that way! I've found that modern computers and the internet can be a great tool for teaching kids about their own and other cultures - and that's one of the reasons I set up Mama Lisa's World, a web site devoted to children's songs and nursery rhymes from around the world. .
Some of my earliest memories center on music. When I was little, I loved the song This Old Man. I can still remember watching the 78 LP on the record player spin in a circle as it played (and I still remember the classic logo of the dog by the gramophone on it!). Some other favorite songs and rhymes were: This Little Piggy, Oh, Little Playmate, Miss Suzy, Miss Mary Mack, and X Marks the Spot. All of them meant the world to me – they were the soundtrack of my childhood.
By the time the late 1990s arrived, I was a mother myself, with a three-year-old son. Those were the days when the internet first became popular. I decided to record myself singing some of my favorite Mother Goose rhymes onto a computer and to use them to build a simple website for my son. I designed it so that he could play the recording by clicking on a little picture with the mouse. He loved it! Thus, I became fascinated with the power of the internet to enrich the lives of children. In time, I made the site public so that others could benefit from it and it has been an ongoing project ever since: I am constantly adding more and more rhymes and songs to the site.
Since I have always been interested in other cultures, expanding the website to include rhymes from other countries came as natural development. I wrote to embassies and to websites from various countries, asking for traditional children's rhymes. The response was very enthusiastic! Today, Mama Lisa's World profiles songs and rhymes from over 100 countries and cultures and we continue to receive new contributions all the time.
I'm convinced that exposure to this material dramatically enriches the lives of children (and adults!). When songs from other countries are different from those in our own culture, it helps us to understand that there are other ways to think about and see the world. When songs are similar to the ones we're familiar with, we see that children all over the world, though they may be different from us in some ways, are still interested in many of the same things in childhood, like studying the bugs on the ground, the flowers, the sun, the rain – many of the things that are part of being a human on earth.
Now I have two kids who, along with neighborhood friends and with my nieces and nephews, are very involved in the site. When they sing a song or recite a rhyme, I record them and post their contributions to the website. I often post their drawings that relate to the rhymes and songs, as well. I think my involving them on the project has helped them realize the power and effect of sharing their work with the world in a real way.
I think my Mama Lisa website has given me a tool to introduce my children to world cultures. I've played many recordings from the site for them, so they can hear people singing from around the globe. Through the years, they have been exposed to a variety of rhythms and languages which they might otherwise not have known about or enjoyed.
So for my kids and me, technology has been a friend, not a foe: and it hasn't stopped them running around outside, enjoying the bugs on the ground, the flowers, the sun and the rain! In fact, through the songs and rhymes brought alive to them via the computer, the whole planet has opened up for them!
Posted August 2009
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