Playground English teaches children English through their newly-released album

Frog Biscuits is the first official album of the ensemble Playground English. The album contains 27 songs for children in English ranging from simple nursery rhymes to more complicated tales. This disc brought out under Indies Scope is not only useful for teaching English but at the same time is fully and album of music to be listened to. The production of the album Frog Biscuits was the work of Ondřej Galuška (Eggnoise and The Odd Gifts).

Karolína Shipstead began to write her own English songs for children in the nursery school where she taught. Her sense of melody and appropriate lyrics for kids led to the creation of a whole song collection. The texts introduce children to basic vocabulary and sentence structure and thanks to the melodic songs they will find this information easier to remember.

Ondřej Galuška later took on the arrangements and the songs were recorded professionally. The individual melodies are easy to remember and sing and at the same time tasteful. Thanks to this the album is unique not just here but even worldwide. “Particularly with English songs for kids it is difficult to find something that isn’t tasteless or poorly recorded. And yet where else is it more important than with kids to cultivate taste and a sense of beauty,” says Ondřej Galuška.

Karolína Shipstead is an artist and the founder of the English school and art workshop Playground English. She lives in Lešany near Kralupy nad Vltavou with her family who also took part in the album. The CD Playground English was produced by Ondřej Galuška, musician (Eggnoise and The Odd Gifts) and philosopher (he has just published his book Tělo hudby). Among others playing on the album are Ivan Tatar, David Pavelka (Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra) and many other musicians and children. The disc contains 27 songs, of which some have simple lyric and can act as a pleasant aid to the teaching of English, while others are attractive for their gentle irony and more complex stories. “I would prefer if the songs were used in the teaching of English to little children, but they can also be used for school kids as we do it. And I would be really happy if someone listened to it just as normal music,” adds Shipstead.

The Album Frog Biscuits was recorded over several years in the studios of Fonografik, Faust and 3bees and it was mixed by Mishan Pajdiak in little m records.

Album released by the Indies Scope label on 16 November 2018.