Poetry is a topic that is often scary to people – even those who love to read. As a child, I thought poetry to be difficult to understand, uninteresting to read and in general, not for me. But, I have come to realize that there is lots of poetry I have always loved. Lyrics to songs are poetry, Shel Silverstein writes poetry, rhyming couplets such as in some Dr. Seuss books is poetry. I began to reconsider my views and now enjoy reading poetry often.

My Simply Music students have been doing some composing recently. The way I get them started (as most are resistant and think it difficult) is to help the write a Haiku (3 lines, 17 syllables total) and then create a 5 finger pattern melody to go with it. Most have branched out into writing their own verse, or taking longer poems and creating beautiful melodies to go with them. Two of my students have been using verses from Robert Lewis Stevenson’s “A Child’s Garden of Verse”. I decided to look on YouTube to see if anyone else has done this.

The music used in the following video is not newly composed, but I loved it because many of the tunes and melodies are ones we are using in Kindermusik. The verse is from RLS and the high school performers are top-notch. Enjoy….

I will be sharing more poetry and video throughout the month both here and on Facebook – enjoy!

Fun Family Friendly Videos for the 4th

Happy Birthday America! I love wearing red, white and blue, love LOVE all Patriotic music and, just in general, enjoy a 4th of July celebration. Though, our’s usually consist of staying home away from crowds and planned activities and just being together. And, as you can see, it can’t keep me out of the office for at least a little while. These two videos were just shared by friends on Facebook, and I wanted to take time to pop in and wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July and share them with you. Enjoy!

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day – Videos for Families

Yesterday I had the privilege of playing with close to 20 families for a Let Me Call You Sweetheart Playdate that featured Kindermusik Family Time activities. We had so much fun dancing, singing, and celebrating the love of families. The feedback has been amazing and all I can say is I had more fun than all of you! – Seriously!! Anyway, I thought it would be fun to put together a blog post of some of my favorite family friendly Valentine songs that I have found on YouTube.

The first two are by Suzi Shelton. Suzi is one of the best providers of childrens’ pop music today – if you ask me. This first video – Valentine Song – is a great one to get your children (and you) up and moving together.

This one is also Suzi and it is, by far, my all-time favorite love song for a parent to sing to a child. I can’t help getting a little lump in my throat when I hear it and think, primarily, of my own daughters, but also all the beautiful children I am blessed with in my classes. I know this says it is a Father’s Day video, but trust me, you are going to love it for Valentine’s Day too.

This one is from PBS Kids – Great nutrition video and fun!

Here’s one in Sign Language  for our Sign and Sing friends!

And finally one from Kindermusik

Enjoy the love of your family and all the children around you this Valentine’s Day. I love you too!

Me with many of my 'loves' from Parkersburg Spring 2010.

Momsense/Dadsense

Anita Renfro’s videos came up as a topic of discussion during gathering time this morning. That reminded me that I have been wanting to post her Dadsense video here in the sense of fairness to all the parents who come to class. So here is Momsense followed by Dadsense. Enjoy!

Need a morning laugh?

This is for all the women who have suffered the negative effects of childbirth, time, age and gravity. Enjoy a Thursday morning giggle.

Happy Birthday Luciano Pavarotti

Today would have been Luciano Pavarotti’s 73 birthday. Pavarotti is considered one of the world’s greatest tenors. He had a renowned career that spanned many operatic roles, recitals and recordings. He won many awards and accolades. In addition to being an incredible musician he was an accomplished equestrian. Pavarotti was dedicated to helping young singers and began a competition that has launched many singers careers. He continued to give voice lessons and auditions in his home until his death in September 2007. The official Luciano Pavarotti website has the details of these few accomplishments as well as recordings, photos, and videos of his work.

Enjoy this video of Pavarotti singing Puccini. Beautiful

Pete Seeger and Jean Ritchie

In Young Child 3 we have been learning to play the dulcimers, listening to music of Appalachia and doing some Appalachian dancing. I know that there are Young Child 3 classes all over the world doing the same thing right now, but Appalachian music and culture has always been very interesting to me and we live in Appalachia so it is music that plays close to home and heart.

In Milk and Cookies we have been singing and playing the play party game “Shake Them Simmons”. A ‘simmon is a persimmon which is a fruit that grows on trees and you shake them simmons down to cook them up. According to our Teacher’s Guide:

“The folk tradition of play party songs was a social event for many small communities. The tune Shakin’ Shakin is an adaptation of many similar tunes from the American Folk heritage. The last phrase, “Shake them simmons down” is found in songs from different cultures such as Scotch-Irish communities of the Appalachian Mountains and African -American communities of the South. This phrase refers to shaking the persimmons out of the tree. Other versions refer to shaking a naughty possum who has decided to make a feast of the tree’s fruit, down from the tree. In either case, the different variants of the song are danced in a circle dance.”

This week in Our Time we are going to dance to Pete Seeger’s version of Shake Them Simmons. This made me wonder if there was a YouTube video of it. I couldn’t find one of this song, but I found one of my favorite songs, Jenny Jenkins, performed by Pete Seeger and Jean Ritchie. I had the opportunity to meet Jean many years ago at an OMEA convention and I highly recommend her book. “Singing Family of the Cumberlands” for anyone interested in Appalachian living, music and stories. There is a wonderful website called the Pete Seeger Appreciation Page if you want more songs or information about this American legend. You can learn more about Jean Ritchie at her homepage.

I leave you hear with Jenny Jenkins – enjoy the music!

Video to get you smiling and moving

Greg just sent me the link to this video. Turn up the sound and enjoy!

It won’t be long…

I know we haven’t even celebrated Valentine’s Day yet, but spring will soon be upon us and with it comes the wonderful time of year when that fabulous treat, Peeps, appear in the store. Now I know in recent years you can buy sugar coated marshmallow treats for just about every holiday, but none taste as wonderful as the ones shaped like bunnies and chicks.

There are lots of websites dedicated to peeps. Googling the word will yield many choice sites. However, my husband sent me the following site last night and I thought, living in a college town, I would share it here.

Enjoy a good morning chuckle by visiting Millikin Library’s Peep Research Site.

Here’s a fun Peeps Video for you. This isn’t the kind of music I would normally post on this blog, but the stop motion animation is really neat.

And one more – Peeps Jousting. You want some fun? Go buy some Peeps and nuke them in the microwave after the kids go to bed.

Okay, I promise I’ll go back to work soon. See teaching Kindermusik keeps me off the internet.

What A Harmonica Player

Check out this video of Buddy Greene. It is amazing the music he can make on his little harmonica.