Barbara Milne

Barbara Lorraine Walters Milne (born March 8, 1946) is an American educator, author, singer, and songwriter. Her skill set and passion were creating educational books and bedtime songs for children from prenatal to about eight years. Inspiration for her original ideas using slow and repetitious music was partially enlightened by research done by Georgi Lozanov, ‘the father of accelerated learning.’ Although unknown at the time Barbara wrote her music, today, her slow and repetitious songs have been shown to be very effective in early childhood learning by many leaders in the field of education.

Early life and education

Milne was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She graduated from North Phoenix High School in 1964, where she actively participated in the performance choir and National Honor Society. She holds a Childhood Education and Psychology degree from the University of Southern California, graduating from their School of Education with a lifetime teaching credential. At USC, she joined the Delta Gamma Sorority and was later chosen queen of the Phi Tau Fraternity. She attended the University of Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she studied Spanish for the bi-lingual program in the Santa Monica School District. Milne has taken postgraduate elementary and early childhood education classes at California State Northridge, UCLA, and California State Fullerton.

Career

Educator

Milne started her career as an elementary teacher in the Santa Monica School District. After pausing her teaching career to become a mother, she later resumed teaching in Cerritos, California, where she taught parent education at the ABC Adult School for over 25 years. She taught parents how to enhance their parenting skills and educate their children.

Milne is a content partner with HELIO, an educational night light projector system that emits LED light through a series of academic and entertaining discs.

Educational musician

Milne started her music career in 1980 and is known for educating young children through music. She initially wrote the songs for her young daughter, which inspired her to create educational bedtime songs for children. Originally available as tapes, her music is now available as CDs, musical downloads, and streaming on most platforms. All of her supplementary products are available as PDF downloads. With time, she launched musical videos, books, teaching aids, and educational games. She released her first album, Sounds Like Fun, in 1984.[6] Discovery Toys exclusively marketed it. Her albums, Sounds Like Fun and Sounds Like Learning, are the most successful educational music albums in the history of Discovery Toys.

Author

Milne collaborated with her friend JoAnne Brosnahan to create A Calendar of Home/School Activities. The book, designed for grades K-3, was originally published by Scott, Foresman, and Company and later by Goodyear Publishing.

Opposites Are Fun, a comprehensive book of opposites with music CD, was published by Tender Learning Concepts for Discovery Toys in 2005. The songs were written and sung by Barbara Milne. Illustrations were by Olga Munoz and music arrangements by Dana Morris.

Game Developer

Letter Fun Lotto, a board game developed by Milne exclusively for Discovery Toys in 2010, explores playful ways to learn alphabet letters and sounds. This game is part of Barbara’s ‘Sounds Like Phonics’ product collection, exclusive to Discovery Toys.

Short Vowel Fun, “Magic Monkey” developed exclusively for Discovery Toys in 2010, is a fun card game that matches first letter sounds and rhyming words. The game is a first step towards reading success by using “Hidden Letter” pictures that aid in phonemic awareness.

Personal life

Milne has been married to William Milne for 56 years, and they have one daughter.

Discography

• Sound Like Learning

• Fingerplays & Fun

• Christian Lullabyes

• Lullabyes

• Lullaby Counting

• No Fret Alphabet

• Skills With Frills

• Phonics & More

• Sounds Like Fun