Are your kids into audio?

Steve,

Good plan! :)

Luckily, my kids are still very young (girl=2 years and boy=6 months) and I started singing to them and playing them music in the womb. Yes, in part because we thought maybe classical music would actually improve their math skills (and with the parents they have Lord knows they'll need all the help they can get!) but also because I wanted them to love music and appreciate it in a way few people of the current generations do.

I still play them music every day, in addition to musical shows such as "The Wiggles" and they like it, although they have different tastes. My son likes quick-tempo classical, while my daughter is a big fan of big band jazz and classic rock (I've indoctrinated her since conception with Rush.) :-)

Who knows if they'll continue to love music. Hopefully the recent trend of pop music getting away from that rap garbage they call "music" and moving to acoustic stuff will continue, and they'll keep growing in their appreciation -even if only from pop music - but who knows. All we can do is guide and pray in this regard.

I think it's a burgeoning process and with my boy, I started when he was <1, playing music while I took care of him during the day. He has a modest system I put together for him but he uses his XPS for the source.

Maybe music at an early age does help with math, as he's in an engineering program, although I never played classical. I don't know if that means he'll be better with linear or non-linear mathematics.

My daughter has shown very limited interest but at least she has a little system to use & I do hear it playing.

My kids are young - 5, 7, both boys - thankfully, but they are more interested in gaming and hit list music when listening to the radio. I liken hi-fi adoption as I would think of (when you are young) getting into history, museums, and even Religion... When you are young, it is something you learn, observe, and do out of obligation, but when you get older and self-discover - you come around eventually and find Occam's Razor on your own...

My daughter, age 17, God bless her heart, is into music. I bought her a nice system for her room. A Music Hall MMF-5 and a Rotel Integrated, along with some PSB bookshelf speakers. She has an iPod, too, but she knows the difference. We go shopping the used record stores in Chicago, and I buy Green Day and Death Cab for Cutie, and she buys Sinatra and Billie Holiday records. Nice, huh!

Cheers.