Weekend Kat (and Daddy) Blogging, Part II: School of Rock

Kat’s love for music grows every day.

Yesterday, she used her first verb–”to dance.” And she used it as a verb, saying, “Dance!” and then, standing, with her back against the couch, she began to dance.

Not only does she like to dance, but she likes to play her Daddy’s flutes and guitars, with a little help from him, of course.

Whenever he gets his guitars down for her to play, she just beams with joy, clapping her hands and squealing with excitement.

The two of them have a great time together. Zak lets her explore all the parts of the guitar and shows her how to pluck and strum the strings. She is very fond of flipping the switches and turning the knobs, and he has a great time showing her how everything works.

And I have a great time taking pictures of the two of them at their play.

Next week, I’ll try and get photos of her dancing–she is so cute when she does it, and she has so much fun with it.

Oh, and here is her new favorite music–Zak found out the Medeski, Martin and Wood , an awesome, funky jazz trio, put out a kid’s album, called “Let’s Go Everywhere” and he had to get it. We all love it, and we have had it as our breakfast music for the past several days.

It is a great way to start the day, watching Kat bounce in her high chair, rocking out while she waits for me to cook her scrambled eggs.

It is just neat having kid’s music that doesn’t suck. I didn’t listen to too much sucky music as a kid–I loved “Peter and the Wolf,” and listened to that a lot, as well as a lot of compilations of Disney songs, the Nutcracker Suite, and lots and lots of The Ventures, Dave Brubeck, and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. (The last three were Dad’s music, but I loved them all the same. Surf guitar and jazz are the soundtrack of my childhood.)

While I listened to great music as a kid, most kids listen to kid music, and a lot of it is really sappy and, well–crap. So, it is exciting to find great music for kids that is done by real musicians. I think it is as important to introduce kids to great music early on it, as it is to introduce them to great food.

Because music, as we all know, is the food of the soul.

10 Comments »

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1. That’s so sweet.

   Have you heard some of Sandra Boynton and Michael Ford’s stuff? It’s great fun music for kids that grown-ups can enjoy, too.

   Here’s a link to her site.

   Comment by Kitt — March 23, 2008 #

2. More kids’ music that doesn’t stink: Singing Science Records. Now available online and free: http://www.acme.com/jef/singing_science/

   I know what you mean by lousy kids’ music. We have several CDs of kids’ songs and hated them all. They were decent kids’ music but sing very slowly so kids could follow it. Huh?!? Forget it. We reverted to folk music - familiar, suited to my singing ability (”each in his own key, of course”) and pleasing to our ears.

   Comment by Harry — March 24, 2008 #

3. Baltimore has a band for kids, Milkshake; their accordionist used to work with us at Borders. I have a librarian friend who makes kid oriented mix CDs for everyone. We’re also fond of They Might Be Giants for the smaller set.

   Comment by Amy — March 24, 2008 #

4. A member of one of my favorite bands, Eddie From Ohio, also does kids’ music:

   http://songsforkidslikeus.littlestarrecords.com/

   I haven’t heard the kids’ stuff but I would guess it’s clever and fun, because EFO stuff is clever and fun.

   Lots of EFO songs are good for kids too, though you want to watch for more adult-oriented content.

   http://www.efohio.com/

   Comment by Alexis — March 24, 2008 #

5. Oh, and I forgot to say, Kat looks adorably ecstatic in pics 2 & 3!

   Comment by Alexis — March 24, 2008 #

6. Yes, Yes, Yes, to They Might Be Giants for kids! Not only do they put out fantastic kid’s albums, but their regular albums were my favorite growing up as well! “Flood” has been my favorite album since I was 10 years old. I can’t tell you how many of my adult friends have kids who love The Giants as much as they do!

   Comment by Tammy — March 25, 2008 #

7. I can’t help but giggle at these pictures. She is such a card. You can tell she loves the camera

   Comment by Roxanne — March 25, 2008 #

8. It should not be legal to have a child as incredibly cute as that.
   I loved Peter and the Wolf when I was little. We used to listen to the music along with the story read by Boris Karloff or someone. I was the duck in a play (with the music) once. I also grew up on Haydn, Bach, Dvorak, Grieg, and all those other wonderful composers. And, yes, They Might Be Giants, though I’m not sure if I ever heard of them until just before high school (late 90s). And my mother would get tapes of children’s songs from other countries, so we also grew up singing in a random assortment of languages. I can still remember songs in Maori, Japanese, and a perfect Australian accent. I don’t have any memory of the kind of kids’ music you’re talking about. Any specifics?

   Comment by Christy — March 26, 2008 #

9. Raffi. I despise Raffi. Saccharine sweet and cute. Blah.

   And there were a couple of kid’s records I had when I was little that were every kind of annoying. They even bugged me when I was a kid. I can’t remember who did them, but they were terrible. One was a bunch of Easter and springtime songs done by musicians and singers who were the “masters of cheese,” and then there was one that was by the Vienna Boy’s Choir that my Dad finally made disappear. I heard it years later and it was awful.

   He replaced it with Handel’s Messiah, which I listened to, enrapt, for, well, ever.

   What I think is best with kids is to introduce them to all sorts of music, not just “kid’s” music. You know, it is just like “kid’s food”–there doesn’t have to be a separate category for kid’s music and food. In our house, there is mostly just music and food. There is stuff that kids particularly like, but none of it here is stuff that adults don’t or wouldn’t like.

   They Might Be Giants is a great idea!

   Comment by Barbara — March 26, 2008 #

10. As a child I was a passionate listener to “Peter and the Wolf.” It was read by Hans Conried (who did voices for many things, such as the original “Horton hears a Who”, Snidely Whiplash of Dudley Do-Right).

    Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass were one of the my other favorites too.

    Victor Borge’s TV appearances were another favorite of mine.

    I found the kids’ music of the day to be of no interest, when I had so many more interesting things to listen to.

    Thank you all for reminding of this. I’ll be picking up some musical gifts for my nephews and nieces.

    Comment by Dan Jenkins — April 6, 2008 #

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