Bill Shontz, King of the Teddy Bear’s Picnic and one half of the internationally acclaimed duo RosenShontz, has once again centered himself as a leader and innovator in the children’s music world.  He has created an internet web site, the Children’s Music Hall of Fame.   www.childrensmusichalloffame.com connects children families and educators with age appropriate music from around the world.  He has combined the world of modern technology with a wonderful body of material from mainly independent artists to help to lessen the negative effects that the No Child Left Behind law is having on the music and arts programs in the public schools. 

It is a music download site, similar to other download sites, with a few major differences.  The first and most notable is that it is totally child safe.  All music has been previewed and reviewed for age appropriateness, content, production and musicality.  Let’s face it, on most music download sites a child can download “Gansta” rap as easily as clicking a button.  Not here!  Here you will find thousands of age appropriate recordings for kids from pre-birth to a hundred and two, written primarily by independent musicians and groups.  Silly songs, dance tunes, educational themes, sing a-longs and more, these artists and teachers have dedicated their lives to writing, performing and recording music that is especially designed for children and families. 

Of course www.Childrensmusichalloffame.com  has the .99 cent downloads, but it also has features that are unique in the music internet business.  One such feature is “Custom Designed CDs”.  Say Grandma wants to create a birthday present for Johnny.  She knows he likes train songs, so she uses the search function, listens to the songs, selects any songs she wants, and puts them in her shopping cart.  She writes her birthday wish “To Johnny on your 5^th birthday, with love, Grandma”.   She places her order and shortly afterwards Johnny receives his custom designed CD in the mail complete with Grandma’s wish!

Another unique feature is the Custom designed fundraiser CD for schools and businesses.  Many schools have a “theme” for each year.  All schools are on the lookout for new ways of raising money.  On www.childrensmusichalloffame.com web site, schools can order a customized CD that is specific to their theme for the year.  Whether it is Geography, being kind, or saving the Earth, the PTA person, the music teacher, the librarian, or any representative from the school can go and select appropriate songs, submit their artwork, their wording and pictures.  Children’s Music Hall of Fame then creates the one of a kind CD and makes as many copies as desired.  They can be given to each teacher to use in the classroom, sell them as a fundraiser, or give them away as a reward for a job well done.  The CD will also be a reminder, a chronicle if you will, of their year in school.  Some schools will do this every year and for many years, the child will have an instant reminder of what they learned in school that year.

The goal is to bring music to the classroom in an affordable and useful way with teacher’s budget accounts, educational musical computer games and even a newsletter for teachers and parents called “CHILDRENS INTERNET MUSIC EDUCATION NEWSLETTER” www.CHIMENEWS.com  .  This is a site filled with interesting articles, suggestions, links, reviews, games, puzzles and more, that will help parents and educators in their quest to make their classrooms and homes happier and healthier.

In spite of the fact that there is incontrovertible evidence in study after study, that music and a well rounded education actually HELPS test scores, schools all around the country have cut or eliminated funding for the arts and teachers, in deference to the necessity of passing tests.  Many schools are forced to focus solely on test scores in order to obtain a better rating in the so called national push to better our schools.  Notice that there is nothing mentioned about giving the children a better education.  However well intentioned, it is only about test scores.  For the full documentation and articles on the studies, please go to www.chimenews.com .

Bill Shontz believes we can do something to eliminate or change this program, but until then, and even after that, he has created a way to lessen the sting of the