Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Long Beach, CA

Kids and music go together like peanut butter and jelly. When she was still in the womb, my daughter would kick in time to anything with a heavy bass beat. In her colicky baby days, nothing soothed her like the sound of me singing. At eighteen months, she bounced up and down to the Mardi Gras Mambo. Now she sings a nonstop soundtrack to our lives, making up little ditties about whatever we're doing that day.

One of our favorite places to enjoy music is the Friday Farmer's Market. One of the regular musicians plays guitar and sings Johnny Cash and Hank Williams standards. On another corner, you can sit on a bench and eat a tamale or kettle corn while listening to traditional Latin folk music.

The Long Beach Parks and Recreation department offers several music classes for toddlers and preschoolers. I enrolled my daughter in Music and Movement for several consecutive sessions when she was a toddler. She loved banging on the triangle and galloping around the classroom like a horse. I was not so fond of the galloping, but afterward I felt like I'd run a 10K. The class is very structured, which I liked, but it might not be a good fit for a child who has trouble sitting in a circle and following instructions.

The Long Beach Public Library has a wide selection of children's music available to check out at no charge. Some of our favorites are Mary Had a Little Amp, No! by They Might be Giants, and Putumayo's World Playground. You can also check out picture-book versions of Raffi songs like Baby Beluga and This Little Light of Mine, or music-themed books like This Jazz Man, or Zin!Zin! a Violin.