I really don't know where I went last month, sorry about that. We're rolling into the fall routine now, so I should get back to the blog a bit more now. I wanted to post a picture with this, but my camera is being uncooperative so I'll have to settle for some stories about Ela's grand return to preschool.
Preschool started Wednesday, but we've been building up to it for weeks now. I had a parent meeting a few weeks ago, and when I was telling Ela about it, I asked her if she was excited about being a frog this year (that's her class name). She replied, "Yes! I'll be a good frog. I'll go ribbit! Ribbit!" I nearly fell over laughing.
Last week, there was a room visit day, and Ela had fun looking at all the new toys in the room. She seemed less interested in the kids than I expected, but on the way home, all she could talk about was how she wanted Kate to come play at her house. We haven't ever done a playdate with anyone who couldn't just walk over, so I'm looking forward to setting that up.
This year, Ela's class gets to use the carpool at preschool, meaning parents just drop them off and teachers walk them in at the beginning of the day. At the end of the day, the teacher brings them out to the car too. The parent never has to leave the car, which for me and Lily, is awesome! The school has a great system, so it all runs very smoothly. Today when her teacher brought Ela out, she told me that Ela likes to eat lunch. I had to double check and make sure she was bringing me the right child, since Ela doesn't eat... ever. What we figured out was that she doesn't really eat much, she just really likes sitting at the table with the kids, and she's always the last one done.
I know Ela's enjoying preschool because she sings on the way there. Ela is not a performer by nature, but she'll sing to herself when she's happy. On the way to school lately, she's been singing "This Old Man." I've been impressed by her counting ability as the verses go on, but she doesn't really know all the words, so she makes some up. Her version goes something like this (I'll start with a middle verse to give you the idea with the counting):
This old man
He played five
He played knick knack on his lunchbox
with a (mumblemumble mumble) BONE
This old man went rolling home.
This old man
He played .... one two three four five six...
He played six
He played knick knack on his carseat
with a (mumbledybumble) BONE
This old man went rolling home.
If she's having half as much fun in the class as she is getting to and from it, then I'm happy.
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Story Time is Politically Correct
Every Wednesday, Ela and I go to story time at a library near our house. It's good for us in several ways. 1) It gets us both out of the house. 2) It gets me exercise, since we walk there. 3) It allows Ela to meet people her size. 4) It reinforces for Ela that books really are fun (not that she really needs it, but it doesn't hurt). 5) It teaches me, or reteaches me, the fun little rhymes and songs that people use with their babies. I have a pretty good memory, but most of what we sang as kids is gone from my head now. When I hear it in story time, it comes back pretty quickly, but I need that jump start to get to it. I'm growing a pretty good list of hand games and songs that Ela likes.
Once in awhile, though, I hear a song and I think "I know this" but discover it's been changed in the almost thirty (yikes!) years since I was young enough to appreciate it. Sometimes, it's an improvement. This was the case for "Ten Little Indians." It's a pretty basic counting song. When I was little, we held up our fingers and sang "one little two little three little indians" and so on up to ten. The library story time doesn't count indians. Most days, they count bubbles. At the end of the song, "Ten little bubbles go pop pop pop!" and we all clap our hands. This makes a little more sense than counting indians, in my opinion. In the other version, which can be sung in either Spanish or English, we sing "two little hands and ten little fingers" first, and then we count the fingers, which makes even more sense. Also, it gives kids a chance to practice a little bit of Spanish, and I'm always for encouraging multi-lingualism.
However, there are other songs that should have been left alone, and one of those is Little Bunny Foo Foo. I'll be honest, I can't remember all the words to this song as we sang it back in the day, but I do remember, quite clearly, that it involved scooping up some imaginary creature and boping it on the head. That part was fun. It was a story song about a bunny wandering around and being naughty. Occasionally the good fairy would come by and tell him to cut out the naughtiness. The song had a moral, too. The bunny eventually got turned into a goon for boping things on the head because hitting is wrong, right? And we all said that cheesy phrase, "Hare today, goon tomorrow." Not anymore. Now, the story is that Little Bunny Foo Foo wanders through the forest to play. No naughty behavior at all. Occasionally, for no apparent reason, the good fairy stops by and tells the Bunny to hurry up, so he wanders a bit faster. Finally, his mother calls him home, and off he goes.
I'm totally annoyed by this adjustment. For one thing, it's not nearly as fun. Sure, the kids get to walk, hop and run in place, but it just doesn't seem nearly as cool as the fun boping motion we used to have. I don't know why. May be that's just my perception because I like the old one better. The bigger issue, though, is that the story doesn't make sense any more. Also, I don't really know what was wrong with the old version. Sure, the kids used to practice that naughty behavior (and enjoy it) but 1) how naughty was it really? and 2) they were taught that this was wrong as they were listening. I can't figure out why it was changed, and I think it was changed for the worse. May be someone reading this will disagree and explain it to me.
My mom works at a church that has a preschool, and she assures me that Little Bunny Foo Foo is still sung in the old way there, so that makes me feel better, but I still feel a little irked every time we sing it at story time. I'll have to look up the old words and teach it to Ela the right way when she's old enough to enjoy it. In the mean time, we enjoy the other songs and games at story time. It's a good break in the middle of our week, and always educational!
Once in awhile, though, I hear a song and I think "I know this" but discover it's been changed in the almost thirty (yikes!) years since I was young enough to appreciate it. Sometimes, it's an improvement. This was the case for "Ten Little Indians." It's a pretty basic counting song. When I was little, we held up our fingers and sang "one little two little three little indians" and so on up to ten. The library story time doesn't count indians. Most days, they count bubbles. At the end of the song, "Ten little bubbles go pop pop pop!" and we all clap our hands. This makes a little more sense than counting indians, in my opinion. In the other version, which can be sung in either Spanish or English, we sing "two little hands and ten little fingers" first, and then we count the fingers, which makes even more sense. Also, it gives kids a chance to practice a little bit of Spanish, and I'm always for encouraging multi-lingualism.
However, there are other songs that should have been left alone, and one of those is Little Bunny Foo Foo. I'll be honest, I can't remember all the words to this song as we sang it back in the day, but I do remember, quite clearly, that it involved scooping up some imaginary creature and boping it on the head. That part was fun. It was a story song about a bunny wandering around and being naughty. Occasionally the good fairy would come by and tell him to cut out the naughtiness. The song had a moral, too. The bunny eventually got turned into a goon for boping things on the head because hitting is wrong, right? And we all said that cheesy phrase, "Hare today, goon tomorrow." Not anymore. Now, the story is that Little Bunny Foo Foo wanders through the forest to play. No naughty behavior at all. Occasionally, for no apparent reason, the good fairy stops by and tells the Bunny to hurry up, so he wanders a bit faster. Finally, his mother calls him home, and off he goes.
I'm totally annoyed by this adjustment. For one thing, it's not nearly as fun. Sure, the kids get to walk, hop and run in place, but it just doesn't seem nearly as cool as the fun boping motion we used to have. I don't know why. May be that's just my perception because I like the old one better. The bigger issue, though, is that the story doesn't make sense any more. Also, I don't really know what was wrong with the old version. Sure, the kids used to practice that naughty behavior (and enjoy it) but 1) how naughty was it really? and 2) they were taught that this was wrong as they were listening. I can't figure out why it was changed, and I think it was changed for the worse. May be someone reading this will disagree and explain it to me.
My mom works at a church that has a preschool, and she assures me that Little Bunny Foo Foo is still sung in the old way there, so that makes me feel better, but I still feel a little irked every time we sing it at story time. I'll have to look up the old words and teach it to Ela the right way when she's old enough to enjoy it. In the mean time, we enjoy the other songs and games at story time. It's a good break in the middle of our week, and always educational!
Monday, June 23, 2008
The things I remember...
Back when we were little, my sister Emily and I took Suzuki Piano Lessons. I could spend days talking about the many and conflicted feelings I have about piano and suzuki, but we'll skip that part, and get to the point. Suzuki is a method by which kids learn songs by hearing them over and over and over rather than by reading music. It's designed for kids too young to read music. As a result, Emily and I listened to a TON of classical music as kids. Either to make the music more memorable or more interesting for small children, a lot of the songs had words attached to the melodies that were of interest to small children. For example, there was a song about pizza, one about a horse named Flicka, one about a goose that was dead and going to be made into a feather pillow, you get the idea.
So the other day I was hanging out in my classroom with Tomoko (the woman who helps run JAFCO) and she was going through some of her English supplies and we were discussing what was and wasn't usable at this point. She had a CD of music with kids words that she was going through and she asked me if I knew a song. She said the melody was German, but there were English and Japanese words to it, but she only had the Japanese. She hummed a bar. Instantly the words came to my head "Buzz Buzz Buzz, goes the bumblebee. Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz. Buzz Buzz Buzz goes the bumblebee." It was a Suzuki song sure enough. The Japanese words as it turns out, translate "Buzz Buzz Buzz. The Bee flies." followed by more buzzing. Only for them, Bon is the sound of a bee flying instead of Buzz.
I was amused that I could still remember the melody and words to a song that I listened to when I was all of four years old (may be five?), so I went back through my memory looking for other songs that came up. Emily is much better at this than I am, but I was amazed at how many I could still bring up. There were the ones from the first paragraph as well as several others. I think it's weird the things we remember.
So the other day I was hanging out in my classroom with Tomoko (the woman who helps run JAFCO) and she was going through some of her English supplies and we were discussing what was and wasn't usable at this point. She had a CD of music with kids words that she was going through and she asked me if I knew a song. She said the melody was German, but there were English and Japanese words to it, but she only had the Japanese. She hummed a bar. Instantly the words came to my head "Buzz Buzz Buzz, goes the bumblebee. Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz. Buzz Buzz Buzz goes the bumblebee." It was a Suzuki song sure enough. The Japanese words as it turns out, translate "Buzz Buzz Buzz. The Bee flies." followed by more buzzing. Only for them, Bon is the sound of a bee flying instead of Buzz.
I was amused that I could still remember the melody and words to a song that I listened to when I was all of four years old (may be five?), so I went back through my memory looking for other songs that came up. Emily is much better at this than I am, but I was amazed at how many I could still bring up. There were the ones from the first paragraph as well as several others. I think it's weird the things we remember.
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