Garner State Park

 Isn't it great having family traditions?

My mother-in-law and her family have been coming to Garner State Park every summer 

since they were kids.  Then she met Daddy Joe, got married and the tradition continued.  This was the first year we were able to take the girls and we all had a blast.

Every time I go I feel like I've been transported to the 60's.  We ride our bikes everywhere, play games as a family and even play a bit of putt putt golf.

In the early afternoon we find ourselves at the pavilion, where we fill the jukebox full of quarters and practice our two step.

Here we are working on the steps to "Rockin' Robin"

Then of course we are all hot and tired so we need to take an ice cream break.

Then we head to the Frio, were we hang all afternoon.

Finally we all get hungry and head to our campsites for dinner.

We spend our days looking like average campers, no make up, ratty hair and dirty feet.  But when the sun goes down, everyone dusts off their cowboy boots and gets all gussied up.  

Because every night around 8 o'clock, everyone heads to the pavilion for the dance.  

Every man, women and child are out on the floor doing the two-step and everyone knows the line dances to songs like "wip it".  Everyone dances with everyone it's like a giant social.  You wont find any of the latest pop hits on the jukebox because thats just not Garner's style.  Even if your not a country music fan you most likely find yourself falling in love with songs and singing along all week.

Here is a video I found on youtube, notice how it gets more and more crowded.  By 9 o'clock the floor is packed. 

Here is a few pictures from the 60's

The only thing that has changed is the styles.

Then we ended our trip with a trip to the gift shop.

 Estee choose this shirt, it says,

"Sorry, I only like boys who two-step"

Thank you Mamah and Peapa for a wonderful family vacation once again and for keeping the tradition going.  We love you so much!

Barnyard Jazz

Seeing as how this week is "Barnyard Boogie"

I thought this book would be a perfect read for music day.

In the girls musical program (children's Musical Journey) there is a listening room where they can listen to different types of music and most recently Jazz has been the favorite.

This book is a wonderful way to introduce Jazz to your children.

you can hear the whole book read here.  

I love the video I posted because it shared video's of the musicians talked about in the story.

To start class off right we had to get into character.

say "Jazz"

We played a part of Old McDonald on the piano.

Using our left hand and reading notes from the bass clef 

E-I-E-I-O

and then using our right hands and reading the notes from the treble clef

E-I-E-I-O

Then we combined a bit of dance with our music.

I'll post that tomorrow.

Then we added to our music program

The Barnyard Friends

The creator is Anne Crosby Gaudet, 

she is a piano teacher who holds a master in piano performance and pedagogy.

You can download it and print it all from your computer and

the best part is...

It's Free!!!

She does have a paypal account where you can donate if you choose (I did)

This women has an amazing blog with tones of activity idea's and teaching tools, including computer games and animated video's.

If you have any interest in teaching your child or students music 

do yourself a favor and download her program!

Just for fun I thought I'd share with you our current 

Jazz playlist

1 - Flat Foot Floogie - The Mills Brothers and Louis Armstrong

2 - Cheek to Cheek - Ella Fitzgerald

3 - It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) - Duke Ellington

4 - Hit That Jive, Jack! - Diana Krall

5 - A Wink and a Smile - Harry Connick Jr.

6 - Straighten Up and Fly Right - King Cole Trio

7 - I Just Found Our About Love - Shirley Horn

8 - They All Laughed - Carmen McRae

9 - Here Comes The Big Parade - Harry Connick Jr.

Barnyard Boogie & Guest Artist

This weeks theme is Barnyard Boogie.

Since my parents have been in town I decided it would be a fun treat to feature one of their hidden talents and give the girls a guest teacher.  So today we had Papa school.

On top of my Dad being an amazing speaker, counselor and Dad to so many he also has a hidden talent.  He draws the most awesome pig!

So with the girls holding their drawing pads, colored pencils and listening to his instruction they followed along to create a masterpiece.

Our french girl pig.

Thank you Papa and Nana for coming to visit this week!

your granddaughters adore you!

on a side note our circus is still in the works but we will post it soon!

here is a sneak peek at our dress rehearsal

I love them dearly but I think they look like scary clowns!

Closed Rehearsal

Closed Rehearsal 

We are busy at work choreographing and rehearsing for our circus show...

Musical Measures and Treat for Nana

Today we took a closer look at our music.  

I showed the girls the bar that separated each measure of music.

Currently I am only teaching them music in 4/4 time (4 beats to each measure).  We use this for our reward system too. Here is the link to that earlier post.  

How many beats earns a mommy dollar?  

answer: 4

So even though they may struggle with number recognition, I know they fully understand the concept of math since they are already working on simple fractions. 

We then used our rhythm sticks to tap out a few different measures.

I then gave the girls a project, giving them notes, sticks and Lego's.

Each beat got 1 Lego.  So a half note got 2 Lego's and a whole note got 4 and so on.

Each measure of music could only hold 4 beats or Lego's.  Once they had used up their 4 beats or Lego's they laid down a stick to start a new measure.

Each girl made their own musical score.

Next we warmed up our vocals singing the intro to Do-re-mi from 

"The Sound of Music"

"Let's start at the very beginning, 

a very good place to start.

When you read you begin with ABC.

When you sing you begin with Do-re-mi

Do-re-mi

The first three notes just happen to be

Do-re-mi"

After we warmed up our vocals we warmed up our fingers with our finger play song.

remember this post?

1- Thumpkin

2- Pointer

3- Tall man

4- Ring man

5- Pinkie

Next we combined the two using a song from our music for little Mozart program.

Then we had a chance to bring our 1,2,3's and Do-re-mi's to the piano.

26 years ago my mom started giving me piano lessons,

 Because Nana and Papa came to visit us this week 

I thought it would be fun to let the girls play their very first song in front of Nana. 

The very same song she began my lessons with.

a song I will never forget.

Under the Big Top

Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of all ages, 

be amazed, be enchanted, be mystified and be amused.

For this week Mommy's Performing Art School proudly welcomes you

to the greatest show on earth.

Every great circus must have an equally great Ringmaster.  

So today we practiced the art of of both story telling and drawing,

with a draw and tell story.

I told the story of my trip to the circus.

Inside the tent their was a giant ring and inside that ring was the ringmaster who introduced us to the lions and lion tamer.  There were elephants, trapeze artists and even a high diver.  But our favorite act of all was ...

THE CLOWNS!

I told this story one time and then during the second time I had the girls follow along with a pad of paper and a marker making the simple shapes.

Their first attempt.

I really should have drawn the picture a third time and had them repeat the story back to me, but I didn't think of that till they were already at the chalk board.

they had fun.

There isn't many books out there that I could find but I ended up

ordered this tell and draw story book.

Although there is a clown story in this book I didn't love it and ended up making up my own story and picture.  But the book does have many good tell and draw stories to choose from.  

During one of Estee's speech therapy sessions at the local elementary school Coppelia and I sat in the Library. The Librarian did these with a class and Coppelia was completely entranced and soaking in the stories.  When we got home she pulled out a pad of paper and was telling stories to her sister.  I'm sure we will have hours of fun as we continue to find more stories to tell.