Maren's cuddled under a heap of blankets with a near-empty box of tissues beside her and a heap of used ones in the trash can.
I'll let her off...today. We'll probably just sit around and do some reading. I'm not sure her brain can function well enough to do math or grammar--apparently it's too congested.
Instead, I'll take a minute to brainstorm some ideas for one of the areas of art that you might explore with JSWA.
Hmm. Randomly drawing.......MUSIC!!
Yay! Music is big in my house. I counted a little while ago and found that we have 16 instruments in our house (and our house is by NO means large--quite the opposite) that are used regularly. Plus another dozen that aren't currently being used much or not at all. When we open our front door, instruments fall out. ;-) Seriously, my house is not a quiet place. There is almost always music going on here or one sort or another.
But YOU don't need to spend all your retirement savings away to have music in your home. In fact, you don't have to spend much at all--if anything. Music is everywhere for FREE!
So, for JSWA, how about:
*Play something on a simple musical instrument—a slide whistle, recorder, penny whistle, harmonica, etc.
*Find objects around the house that can be used to make rhythm or sound--pan lids and wooden spoons, ice cream buckets or oatmeal boxes, a shoebox and rubber bands, a piece of 1/2 inch or larger hosing, pieces of PVC pipe cut to different lengths. Experiment making sounds through them with your voice, with the air from your lungs, by drumming on them or strumming them. Try making the rubber bands different lengths to see how the sound changes when you strum them.
*Make up a song using either a musical instrument or your voice.
*Make up new words for an old song you know.
*Make up a tune for a favorite poem.
*Search for and listen to a piece of Baroque music.
*Search for and listen to music from Africa or some other continent or culture, maybe from a country you are studying in school or a country from which a character in a book you're reading comes.
*Search for and listen to music played on a didgeridoo. Look up didgeridoo and learn about the instrument.
*Search for and listen to an Irish fiddle tune, like “Drowsy Maggie.”
*Find out something interesting about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
*Find and watch a video of “The Queen of the Night Aria” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
*Learn to trumpet like an elephant by tightly pursing the lips and blowing through them. Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTeKmPhequQ
*Find and watch a video on Youtube of a Drum Corps International performance
*Find and watch a video on Youtube of Bobby McFerrin.
*Learn about the five classes of instruments and why 60 years ago there were only four classes of instruments.
*Find and watch a video on Youtube of someone playing a particular instrument. You can cycle through lots of different instruments throughout the year. You may find one your child is interested in playing someday. There are some amazing videos of a Beat Box Flutist playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" and a pair of Cellists playing Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal."
Do you have something to add? I'd LOVE for you to share it with us!
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