My Latest Pet Project

Over the past six weeks I've been working very hard in my spare moments on writing a preschool music and movement curriculum about the ocean.  Near the beginning of September I contacted one of the local assisted living facilities to see if they would be interested in hosting a group of parents and kids that would come in for a free toddler music class.  They were!  I have been so excited about the idea of uniting kids like my own who rarely have the opportunity to see elderly people with elderly people who rarely have the opportunity to see kids.  

I've been planning and planning all kinds of music and activities that incorporate boats, fish, octopi, eels, jellyfish, seagulls, and other sea creatures.  My supportive and generous husband just rolled his eyes when I told him I had ordered 45 guiros to use in class, along with two octabands.  I stumbled on the octabands accidentally while looking for another music therapy supply, and I am SOOOOOOO excited about using them.  We're going to do an awesome octopus dance with our elderly "watching friends."

It turned out that there was a tremendously supportive response from the moms at MOPS and other people they knew, and before I barely even blinked, the class was filled with families excited to come.  Then a second assisted living residence heard all about it, and asked if I might be interested in having a second class there, and that class filled up, too!  We began classes last Thursday and Friday, and it was every bit as terrific as I had hoped.  

The grandma and grandpa friends, as we call them, loved seeing the kids.  The kids did a terrific job helping to pass out instruments to the grandmas and grandpas, and the elderly residents had no hesitation about shaking egg shakers and scraping guiros just like the kids.  In fact, some of them even stood right up and pretended to fly like seagulls with scarf wings right along with the kids.  One lady was 106 years old!  She was delectably spritely.  Another lady came up to me with a big grin on her face and said, "I had eleven kids and forty grandchildren.  I taught kindergarten and first grade for thirty years, and now I live here and I haven't seen a kid in ages!"  The kids were excited, too.  There's nothing quite as joyful as a group of toddlers with chubby fingers clutching egg shakers and rhythm sticks.  

Let me tell you, The Banana nearly charmed their socks off.  She was just so excited to give them instruments and get instruments from them and be bop to the music like all the other kids.  She LOVES music, unlike her older brother who doesn't like music in a community setting at all.  

Now if only I could take pictures of the flurry of activity while I"m teaching!  Ha.