Many families put off the bigger pet commitment (dog) and go for the easier.  First they choose a cat which can be left alone for long periods of time. Or, like our family, they move down the food chain; hamsters, birds, fish, reptiles, cockroaches.

In retrospect, I’m not sure that putting off the dog decision is really worth it.  I’m speaking 3 hamsters, 2 gerbils, 2 rabbits and 4 guinea pigs later. (I’m allergic to cats.) What if we had chosen to simply get a dog 6 years ago?  The potty training would have lasted a few months.  A few slippers may have been chewed to shreds and perhaps a furniture leg or two.  I’m not sure we gained much financially or time wise as we cycled through months of weekly cage cleaning. Plus, the accidental death, scent gland tumors, and old age took our most of our pets to heaven inside of a year.  My childhood dog lived 16 years!

How did our pet parade begin?  Some kids are born with an “I love animals” gene. When our daughter with the pet DNA lovingly adopted a lady bug (and cried her heart out when she accidentally dropped the bug in the grass and couldn’t find it) we decided it was TIME. But a dog “might tie us down.”  So we opted for our first hamster against my better judgment. I still wince thinking about how my sister’s hamster bit me. But a hamster is cute, lives in a small manageable cage and doesn’t require potty training or getting up at night. So we got one.

J.J. died while we were on vacation a couple months later. For the sake of our beloved, pet-sitting neighbor, the secret of J.J.’s passing will go with me to my grave.  (Hint: They have 5 dogs.) So we went back to the pet store, where we decided to upgrade to a cuddlier pet.  A giant hamster might fit better in a child’s hands, right?  We quickly learned that bigger hamsters simply have bigger teeth.  As were leaving the store, the hamster poked her nose through the air hole and took a chunk out of my daughter’s finger. As the blood dripped, we reconsidered.

Another family in the store that day convinced us of the charm and non-nocturnal nature of gerbils.  We happily came home with two. About a year later, both had succumbed to gerbil diseases and we were pet-free again.

Enter bunnies. Angus, a Holland Lop and Shiner, a Jersey Woolley, were purchased at the county fair. Now we had a pet of a known breed.  We had progressed.  Angus learned to “play tag” and put up with all sorts of other tortures at the hand of his 9 year old mistress.

This time the painful parting came because we were moving. As bunnies do not travel well (weak hearts,) Angus and Shiner were returned to the breeder the day before we moved. As if he knew, Angus inexplicably took a grumpy turn and bit and sprayed my daughter regularly in the last weeks, making their parting easier, although the memory of their happy relationship took on mythical proportions once distance made the heart grow fonder.

In our new location, my daughter survived without a pet for a year, but we realized she needed a pet to fill in the quiet moments of her day as well as feed her soul.

Having learned that hamsters bite and gerbils are not cuddly, we graduated to guinea pigs. And that is a story for my next blog.

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who has found it surprisingly insightful to chronicle her family’s pet history and thinks you writing-type readers should do the same!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image: artemisphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

2.  Our brass quintet hails from Central Washington University. And instead of a trombone, they have a euphonium. Isn’t that breaking some unwritten, unspoken, unplayable brass quintet rule? Nope! Did you know that if you unwound a euphonium and a trombone, they’d be exactly the same length? Want to see that done? Come to our concert on Saturday!

3.   For every minute a live production company spends on stage, an hour of rehearsal is required. But our rehearsals are never boring. Often they’re exactly like those funny outtakes you see at the end of movies. Or Psych.

4.   Miss Allison (the star of the show!) and Michael (our delightful tenor) are married. In fact, they met while playing the parts of Laurey and Curly in the musical Oklahoma! It was love at first sight. Still is. 22 years later.

5.  The 10:30 show is sold out, but there are a few tickets left for the 9:30 – so get them here!

 What show you say? Swing Me High and Swing Me Low, our next Symphony Serenade concert for families. It’s at Benaroya Hall (Seattle Symphony) on Saturday, May 12 at 9:30 and 10:30. You’re invited!

-posted by Miss Analiisa, aka The Story Fairy, who gets to wear bathtub fish on her head this weekend. And a new pair of wings! (But on her back, not on her head.)

“The Itsy Bitsy Spider” song is one of my earliest favorites. Remember the giddy pride the first time your fingers cooperated to make the spider climb forefinger to thumb, up, up, up? I also remember standing in a circle on the multi-colored oval braided rug in our Sunday school room as we sang and played “The Farmer in the Dell.” What songs bring back your childhood scenes? Tub songs? Bedtime songs? Car trip songs?  Consider adding those or a few new ones to your child’s daily routine.  You’ll be providing happy memories that will stick with them for life.

Even more important than placing tunes in their musical scrapbook, daily music will help your kids’ brains develop. But if you come to Kindermusik, you already knew that!  Kindermusik is based on the science of how music positively influences brain growth.  More sensory stimulation equals more neural connections, which is how intelligence develops. To get the most out of your Kindermusik investment, do your musical homework with your kids.  It’s fun that pays back.

Delight, pleasure, fun, joy….music adds all these to life. When we travelled, my parents sang their generation of pop songs. We enthusiastically learned them and sang along. (My mischievous father taught us his Navy drinking songs, too!)  What silly fun, all the more memorable for its benign naughtiness and how quickly  music made the miles whizz by.

When doing chores, “whistle while you work” turned drudgery to fun.  In my teen years, cleaning up the kitchen was my nightly job. I put on my favorite music (turned up loud, of course), which made the task fun. Named “Music-To-Do-Dishes-By,” the practice became a memorable part our family tradition. How has music sprinkled happiness into chapters of your life?  Consider passing those pleasures on to your children.

Quite simply, music makes life better. It creates happy memories and it’s good for us! Why not be more intentional about your child’s musical intake? Add more music into the nooks and crannies of your life. Sing, hum, whistle. Expose your kids to concerts in the park, classic CD’s–like Disney musicals, Tom Chapin, Farmer Jason, Putnamayo, and your own favorite playlist.  The possibilities are endless.

Cook up some music at home, too. As a child, an old ice cream tub held my cymbals, a triangle, tambourine, bongo drums, maracas and recorder flute, which made for endless musical creativity. Buy a keyboard, or a piano, or guitar so they can experiment. Musical fun helps create a happy family life.

 Make your house a place where your children can easily dish up all the music they want.

-posted by Donna Detweiler who is glad that through the library, radio, and community events, incorporating good music into her children’s lives can be very affordable!

With its rhythm, expression, emotion and meter, music is poetry without words. Just like poems, music expresses the thoughts and feelings of the composer. In fact, lyrical poems are the form of poetry set to music. (Some of the best at that were Lennon and McCartney.)

A couple of days ago, I asked our Studio3 staff and some good friends of mine from all over North America (who are also musicians) to tell me what their favorite authors were. Were they ever passionate! And prolific in their answers! Which is a great thing.

By far, their number one pick for kids’ poetry was Shel Silverstein. Which was not surprising. This beloved writer has “the official site for kids”, so check it out.

Jack Prelutsky was a new one for me, but I wish I’d found him sooner! He was born in Brooklyn, NY, but lives right here in Washington State. In his bio on the Scholastic website, he says, “I have always enjoyed playing with words, but I had no idea that I would be a writer. There was a time when I couldn’t stand poetry! In grade school, I had a teacher who left me with the impression that poetry was the literary equivalent of liver. I was told that it was good for me, but I wasn’t convinced.”

He also is a musician, and on the audio versions of his anthologies, he sets his poems to music, often singing and playing his guitar.  In 2006, the Poetry Foundation named Prelutsky the inaugural winner of the Children’s Poet Laureate award.

He’s written more than 50 collections. Here’s the name of just a couple to get you started at your library: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep, The Mean Old Hyena, Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems.

One of my favorite poets (when my sense of humor grew slightly more sophisticated) was Ogden Nash. He’s a lover of puns, and witticisms. Take his “Song to Be Sung by the Father of Infant Female Children”, for instance.

Poetry is good for grownups, too! Poetry can help us to slow down, think, appreciate, and express our own emotions more clearly.

Here is a list of favorites I collected (they were often mentioned my multiple people):

ee cummings, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Lewis Carroll, John Keats, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Naruda, Bob Dylan, John Lennon

Some of Robert Frost’s poetry was set to music by Randall Thompson in a collection called Frostiana. Worth a quick search on YouTube.

Love Poems From God is a translation by Daniel Ladinsky of great saints and mystics from both western and eastern religious traditions.

Ten Poems to Open Your Heart, compiled by Roger Housden.

Heartsongs, by Mattie Stepanek. Mattie was an American poet who had six books of poetry published before he passed away just before he turned 14. All six books reached The New York Times bestsellers list. He suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and all three of his siblings also died from the disease. He started writing poetry at the age of three when his older brother died. My friend said his poems always warm her heart with his innocence and belief in humanity.

Not sure where to start? Pick something new. Poems are generally shorter than novels, so it won’t take you long to decide if you like a particular poet. (And you’re not in high school AP English anymore – you get to read strictly for enjoyment!) Someone suggested the website www.poemhunter.com. When you choose a specific poem, the site suggests others you may enjoy as well.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who suggests to go kiss your mate, and then have some fun with poetry today. She leaves you with this short ditty from Odgen Nash – “God in His wisdom made the fly, and then forgot to tell us why.”

Many of us sprint through life like the hare. We have things to do, do, do!  We dash off, frantic to get stuff done—thinking that by this method we will eventually cross whatever finish line we hold in mind.  When we begin to lose momentum, we fuel up mid-stream with a double shot of whatever and take off again, only to eventually nap under some short-of-the-finish line-tree.  The next morning we paw at the starting line and BANG!  Off we go again.

Let me translate this into real life. I’m a hare.  I’m eager and ready to dash out into the world each morning.  The results? My kids have an active life. Besides home schooling, we have horseback riding lessons, drama class, piano lessons, choir, writing co-op, gym class, and worship team.  Field trips are sprinkled in when something irresistible crops up like the maple syrup making, state capital day and civil war reenactment. No two days are alike as we hop, hop, hop around the extra-curricular landscape.

Then the turtle comes into view. Quite simply, the turtle represents getting to someplace specific. (In other words – the finish line.) As the hare dashes around and arguably has more fun, enjoys his natural talent and sees more of the countryside, he doesn’t accomplish the ultimate goal, which is important at times!

My discovery: When I want to teach my children a set of specific skills or work on a character issue, the turtle has the right moves.   My hare-like nature has been surprised to watch this principle work out.  When my daughter was struggling with long division, it became apparent she hadn’t mastered her math facts. Discouraged, I dashed down several fix-it roads, considering changing curriculum mid-stream. But then the turtle came into view.  I began to simply work with her for 5-10 minutes every day. I watched amazed as she progressed.  Slow and steady wins the race.

I began to apply this to other areas of my children’s lives. With achievement testing approaching, I felt certain we needed extra preparation. Bounding down the path of several complex history curricula, I quickly tired. Then the turtle came into view. I found a simple summary of what 5^th graders should know about history and I began to read to her every day for 10 minutes, asking comprehension questions as a review. Hardly thinking that 10 minutes was worth it, I watched in amazement as she made steady progress. With that success, I began to plot a daily course for character issues needing attention:  doing basic chores without complaint, talking kindly to siblings.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Who knew the deep truth the simple fable of The Tortoise and the Hare has been hiding all these years!  My new hero the Tortoise has shown me how to succeed where I so often have failed. A little every day gets one a long way over time. Slow and steady does win the race.

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who knows that yes, hares also have their redeeming qualities, but that’s another blog!

I was sitting in a class of Jr. Highers when I started thinking about dreams. An adult couple had brought in some examples of things they meant a lot to them. One was made by one of his sons who was about 11 years old. This particular item was a little figurine that was made out of household stuff; pipe cleaners, toilet paper rolls, googly eyeballs, felt and a hot glue gun. The figurine was skating on a skateboard and had shoes and hair and everything. I was totally impressed!

I could tell that a lot of man-hours had been put into this craft.  After getting over the initial awe, there were two things that struck me most. First, it was how the dad was talking about his son. He was so proud of what his son created by himself, with just time and things around the house.  It was really neat to see this dad speak aloud what made him proud!

The second thing that hit my core was how the son (who was in the group), was excited to share his creation with his peers.  He was not embarrassed in the least to show off his piece of work.

I grew up with a lot of shame in me. I was often embarrassed about what I was good at or not good at. I never had a problem with standing up in front of a ton of people and singing a solo, but put me in a small group and I was mortified by what people would think of me. I’m a people pleaser and that sometimes gets the best of me. It’s only been in recent years I will ‘own’ who I am. I’m learning to not be ashamed of what my interests are and I am free to share that with people instead of keeping it in.

So, how does this relate to dreams? Well, knowing where I have come from, I know that I want my son to be proud of who he is. Watching this 11 year old be so proud of what he created is what I want my son to have.  Putting myself as a peer to this 11 year old, I would have totally thought that he was weird; as an adult, this is what I so admire about this kid! He stuck to his guns when sharing his creation amongst his peers and had no shame or embarrassment about what he’d done. There was an innocence that surrounded him. THIS is what I want for my son!

It wasn’t until this meeting that I really started dreaming for Miles. Whether it is music, art, math, or science, it’s going to be from him and it’s going to be great! I am so excited to see what he will become and I know that I will be a proud mama when he shares with the world who he is!

I’d like to end on a quote I read not to long ago. I saw it on Pinterest and it’s really stuck with me. In the corner of the quote there is a picture of a mother cradling her baby… The mother says, “I plan to give you love, nurturing, and just enough dysfunction to make you funny.”

I know that I’m not going to be the perfect mom and I’m going to make mistakes. I’m human. I need to be able to give myself grace in this parenting process. I also know that my child will not be the best at everything J But what I will strive to do is to love and support my son in whatever dreams he may have.

-posted by Miss Anna, who hopes her son will discover this world through a child’s eye, always.

Here I am flying my kite in Oregon.

Whenever I visit the beach in Oregon, I always bring a kite. I can usually count on having a windy day when the beach is filled with fellow kite flyers. There is something about holding on to the string of a kite when it’s gotten a good altitude- it makes me feel like I’m a part of the wind. Colorful, relaxing yet exhilarating, challenging….are all apt descriptions of the art of kiting. For it is an art, requiring some craftsmanship, a bit of skill and experience to be successful.

A Parafoil Kite

This past weekend, my kite of choice was a nylon parafoil design. It leapt high into the air immediately, and pulled hard as it flapped loudly high above me on Nye Beach.

The wind kept my kite way up in the sky for a long time, until it blew so hard that the string broke.  The beautiful kite flew away down the beach, where the end of the string caught onto a bush up on a steep bank.  I clambered up the hill where I retrieved it unharmed, (both me and the kite!), and packed my brave parafoil away to fly another day.

For hundreds of years, people have sung songs all around the world as they flew their kites. Here is one that you can sing.

My Kite Is Up So High
(Sing to the tune of “Farmer in the Dell”

 Verse 1
My kite is up so high,
My kite is up so high,
Oh me, Oh my, just watch it fly,
My kite is up so high.

Verse 2
My kite is falling down,
My kite is falling down,
I give a Shout, “Oh No, Watch OUT”,
My kite is falling down.

Verse 3
The wind has caught my kite,
The wind has caught my kite,
Oh what fun, I’m on the run,
The wind has caught my kite.

Verse 4
(repeat verse 1)

Here are some kite songs to download from play.kindermusik.com : Blow The Wind/My Kite and I Can’t See the Wind

Did you know that April is National Kite month? You don’t have to be a kid to experience the thrill of flying a kite, imagining what it would feel to fly far above the ground. Do something fun and different this month. Go fly a kite!

-posted by Miss Judy, who just got back from blustery Newport, Oregon.

My sister finds it annoying. I find it hilarious. Of course, I’ve been-there done-that three times, and it’s been five years since one of mine played that game. Because I’m the auntie, I can call it cute and be glad I’m no longer scraping food off the walls.

What this all means is that 11 month old Macie has moved from the this-is-all-about-picking-things-up stage, to the what-will-happen-if-I, what-does-it-feel-like, what-noise-does-it-make stage.

But let’s back up a moment. I’ve got to get you caught up. These fine motor skills began at about 2 to 4 months of age, when she inaccurately swiped at objects. Sometime after 3 months, she could hold small objects in her hand, and within a couple of months, could transfer those objects between her hands. Between 5 and 9 months Macie could first rake at objects with her whole hand to pick them up, and then moved on to picking up small objects using her thumb and index finger. We call this a pincer grasp.

She’ll use this grasp to string beads, close a Ziploc bag, color, hold her glockenspiel mallets in Kindermusik Young Child, build Lego creations, and cut with scissors.

As Macie’s grasp became more precise, she explored objects by moving, twisting, turning and shaking them. Now at almost a year, she’s just about ready for my favorite classic of baby toys – the Tupperware shape sorter, which combines the rotating, moving and flipping skills she learned earlier, which a little cognitive thinking.

When she first learned to sit, Macie would prop herself up on one arm, and explore her playthings with one hand and her mouth. As she learned sit without help, both hands became free to be used to answer her questions about the shape, texture, size, hardness, and weight of objects. She’s using her mouth less (though a lot of children remain really oral for a couple of years, and that’s perfectly okay).

Which brings us back to the cup throwing. And the banging, shaking, squeezing, tapping, twisting and flinging. Is my sister annoyed? You betcha. Her living room floor currently looks like a tornado hit it. So does Macie’s room. And the dining room. And sometimes even the bathroom. (And even the hallway, which occasionally gets mummified by an unwound roll of toilet paper.

But rather than get angry when our babes make a mess, keep this in mind: You already know what a balloon does when you kick it, what noise a cup makes when you throw it, just how fast you can unwind toilet paper (and how long it is!), how scratchy brush bristles feel on your skin – but your little one doesn’t. Someone, long ago, let you taste, touch, feel and manipulate objects. And then helped you learn how to pick up your tornado.

­-posted by Miss Analiisa, who suggests you make an ever-changing sensory box filled with varied objects like a sponge, a wooden spoon, a rock, a piece of sandpaper, a feather duster, and egg shaker, a pan lid, a real flower, a jingle bell stick and a stuffed animal for you to explore together.

For 10 hours a day, Suzanne Tidwell  of Sammamish knits. Sweater for trees. It’s otherwise known a “Guerilla Crochet”. Whatever you call it, the yarn stripes add much-welcomed color to our Pacific Northwest grey spring days.

Here’s the story that Evening Magazine did about Ms. Tidwell, her knitting machine, and penchant for this beautiful art form. And thanks to Werona A., Studio3 mommy, for sending us the pictures!

You see, my morning tea is supposed to be sipped slowly while sitting at the dining room table reading the celebrity gossip, err… news on my iPad. No rushing allowed. Without my tea, I was seriously out of sorts all morning long. (And it wasn’t the lack of caffeine; I only have one cup.)

If you’re not a morning beverage have-to drinker, perhaps you’ve sat down to watch your favorite TV show, and discovered it was on hiatus? Bet you turned into cranky pants. We grown-ups grow accustomed to our routines and rituals, and it can be aggravating and unsettling to be jolted out of them!

We’re born with a need for routine and ritual. Predictability is important to an infant, a toddler, a pre-schooler, a jr. higher, and adults. We like to know what comes next. It brings us comfort and security and makes us feel like we are in control of our circumstances.

Routines are the tasks or chores we regularly do. They are the typical or everyday activities that have little afterthought. Your workplace has a typical routine. (Think about what you do in your job, or what are the normal procedures you follow without really thinking about them.) I do laundry on Fridays, always lock the door when I leave the house, and start with long tones when I practice my Euphonium.

Your children need routines, too. In Kindermusik, we always start with the hello song and end with the goodbye song. Routines in the classroom allow children to feel safe and secure, and then learning can happen naturally.
Routines help babies solidify their eating and sleeping patters; routine transitions and rituals help preschoolers feel in control, and knowing what to expect enables them to act independently.

There is an interesting difference between routines and rituals. According to Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, a ritual is a detailed act or series of acts carried out by an individual to relieve anxiety or to forestall the development of anxiety.

That makes perfect sense. My morning tea ritual gives me a moment of peace before I enter the hectic pace of my day. It grounds me. The routine of the hello and goodbye song in a Kindermusik class becomes a ritual when we sing the same song each week. The familiarity and consistency of these songs lets the children know what’s coming, and so they eagerly ready themselves for fun and learning.

Rituals and routines shape a child’s behavior and development in a stable, secure and loving manner. Think bath time, cleanup time, bed time, family nights, Sunday morning waffles, summer vacations to the lake.  There is no shortage of research to suggest that routines and rituals are vitally important to the well-being and positive mental health of any child.

We can never underestimate the affect of the emotional imprint of loving routines and rituals in a child’s life, and the positive feelings they evoke in years to come. There is no shortage of research to suggest that routines and rituals are vitally important to the well-being and positive mental health of any child. What are some of your favorite memories of childhood? They likely involve a ritual or routine, which you may have repeated with your own family.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who now knows that her morning cup of tea is not really about the caffeine; it emotionally prepares her to face the day. So, drink up!

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net