Musicare, Day One

Greetings from the South! I'm down in Greensboro, NC this week, training with Musicare. The company offers preschool music classes for kids ages 18 months to 5 years old. The owner is a friend from CMN (the Children's Music Network - www.cmnonline org) Anyhoo, today I taught my first classes.

My very first class was a totally wild group of about 10 two-year-olds. Yep, ten two-year-olds, and me. And Marie, and the other girl training, Kelye. My goodness. It was a challenge, let's just say that. Now, don't get me wrong, it was a fun challenge! I loved all the songs I taught, which made it even better. The three- and four-year-old class was much smoother...but then again, I was one class more experienced. Same songs for that class, too, which was neat!

The first song I taught was one that is very near to my heart. It's called "Ticka Tacka Telephone," and I've been singing it since age seven. My friend Ashley and I would sing it on the playground, copying what we heard on our favorite TV show. Then at age eleven, I taught it to my then six-year-old neighbor. Well, Kelye helped me simplify the words for the kids - instead of two names per verse, we made it one - but the song was the same, and the chorus was EXACTLY the same, and I can't express how exciting it was to teach it. To share it with kids, who might some day go out on the playground and sing it like we did. Awesome.

The rest of the songs were the same in a lot of ways, in that I had to do some cutting and editing to make the song fit the activity - for example, to make a song about food fit as a regular zipper song instead of a cumulative song. (Translation: say only the food for that one child whose turn it is, rather than listing everyone's.)

Good fun. Tomorrow, more of the same, different kids!