I’m proud of my kids for a lot of reasons, but one of the things I’m most proud of as a parent is this: My kids know more songs by Mumford & Sons than they do songs by Justin Bieber. This makes me enormously happy.

Caveat #1: Nothing against the Biebs. That is one immensely talented teenager. But I don’t want to listen to his chirpy love songs every time we drive somewhere.

Caveat #2: No, my kids don’t go around singing “Little Lion Man.”

But I do love the fact that they have developed pretty broad musical tastes and have been exposed to some great music in their short lives. Yes, they tend to gravitate toward whomever the Disney Channel is promoting, from Hannah Montana a couple years ago to the current Lemonade Mouth soundtrack (which is pretty good). But they are also fans of Coldplay, R.E.M., Death Cab for Cutie, the Blackeyed Peas, U2, Gnarls Barkley, Paul Simon, Lyle Lovett, The Civil Wars, and even an early Kool Moe Dee track or two (“I Go to Work” is a driving-to-school favorite, and I’m still able to impress my kids by rapping every single verse along with Kool Moe’s high-speed delivery—thanks, cassette single I bought in 1989!).

Which is to say, I’m trying to give them a balanced musical palate. And I do it deliberately. My theory is that youngish kids aren’t drawn to certain songs because of the style of music or even the song’s “hook.” They are drawn to certain songs when the songs become familiar. They like a song because they hear it on the Disney Channel every day or two, or because it’s always playing in Mom’s car, or because it’s on their iPods. They are attracted to music they know, regardless of the quality of a song or artist.

So I do my best to facilitate that process of familiarity. The Disney Channel stuff will happen on its own. But what about the music I like? Here’s what I do:

1) I decide upon an artist and song I want my kids to know.

2) I locate the lyrics to that song online.

3) I print off a lyrics sheet for each one of my kids and put it in my car.

4) Then, on the way to school (or wherever), I tell the kids that we’re going to learn a new song and I play it, while they read along with their printed lyrics. This connects them to the song on a visual level and increases its familiarity exponentially. Every time I have done this, they’ve asked to listen to the song again…and again…and again…and eventually it becomes one of their favorites. The printed lyrics connect them to the artist and the music.

Even better, as a writer I like the way it encourages them to interact with the words of a song — to think about language and poetry and metaphors and all that stuff. (I let this happen organically, though. You won’t ever hear me say, “Observe, kids, how Steven Fromholz is making a social statement about acceptance of all people…with a song about bears! What a remarkable analogy!”)

Anyway, if you look in the little seat-back pockets where my kids sit, you’ll find a bunch of well-worn pages of printed song lyrics. All of them for good grown-up music.

Am I weird to do this? Probably. But when my kids hear a song that interests them, they almost always ask for a lyrics sheet. And my wife and I are happy to provide one.