My son Jakob will be 2 in August. Today, while trying not to take his nap, he sang almost all the words to "Sing a Song" from Sesame Street. It was one of those "Aha" moments.
Starting in June, I will be offering music classes to children. Recently, my mind has been on preparing the ins and outs for this exciting new endeavor. People have been asking me to do it for years, because everybody knows I adore children and, well, music is my thing. I've always written it off as a nice, but daunting idea.
Children are the most honest critics there are. How will I keep them occupied? Aren't they tired of hearing all the same songs again?
I've been reading Elizabeth Schwartz's book Music, Therapy and Early Childhood in which she offers this suggestion for the aspiring teacher: Just Make Music.
Well, that I can do.
I envision the classes to be an opportunity to share music with kids in as many different ways as possible and in ways that are palatable to the different age groups. In some ways, we grow and learn the most from birth to age 5. While simple singing will be perfect for a 3 month old, with the older children, I'll will delve into performance art, games, movement, basic rhythms...
The possibilities are endless and the prospects are really exciting. The one thing I've got to remember is to take the advice from Jakob's new favorite tune.
Sing a song. Sing out loud. Sing out strong...
