Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants

Here Comes Science by the alt-rock band The Might be Giants is a delightful CD/DVD set of kids music and video about...Science! The set comes with both a CD with all the music and a DVD with all the videos wrapped into a show with animated, light-hearted commentary and introduction by the two Giants, John Linnell and John Flansburgh.

Here's a list of the tunes, so you can get an idea of the breadth of topics covered. TMBG has a channel on YouTube where you can find many of the videos.

Overall, they're great: lively, interesting, educational and fun, with a good variety. The music is a breezy folky sound that will definitely appeal to most kids -- and most adults too. The science content is very good too, accurate and yet engaging. The videos were each created by different artists, so each has a different feel. But at the same time, they're not so different that there isn't an unified feel.

My favourites? Science is Real, Electric Car and Roy G. Biv.

I recommend this set without reservation. Your kids will love it, your friends' kids will love it, your kids' classmates will love it. It's aimed at kids younger than, say, grade 4 but older kids with a sense of fun will also enjoy it, although it may lose some of it's attraction during the "too cool" teen years. School and public libraries are a natural fit as well as resource libraries for education programs in colleges or universities.

The only thing I would have done differently would have been to add a karaoke option for the videos. I can easily imagine wanting to have family or class sing-a-longs!

It's also worth noting that TMBG has also produced a couple of other kids CD/DVD sets: Here Come The 123s and Here Come the ABCs.

(CD/DVD set provided by the artists.)

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My kids love it! They know the TMBG theme for CBS series, "The Big Bang" by heart and sing it loud and often. They're working on other songs now.

By winnebago (not verified) on 07 Oct 2009 #permalink