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Christmas tunes

Post author By Esther
Post date December 15, 2015

Carols, carols, carols! That’s what we should be singing right now. A couple of years ago I recorded a Christmas CD with Audrey Johnson, Bristol chanteuse and ex-Rhymetimer who hails from the South of France.

She runs Les Petits Zouzous which I would describe as a French Rhymetime, and my music recommendation this month Audrey’s first CD Chansons pour s’amuser. Ranging from traditional tunes to new songs, her music sparkles with fun and you may get the added bonus of learning a little French too. C’est magnifique!

musical culture Rhymetime

Getting it wrong

Post author By Esther
Post date December 8, 2015

Sometimes I notice that we are not singing the same words, such as in Wind the Bobbin up. There are even certain songs where we sing slightly different tunes. If Rhymetime were a performance, this would be a disaster. But it’s not. I love the way we all have learnt our own versions, from our parents or sometimes from other English-speaking countries, but that we can still sing them together, the disparity meaning less than the experience of singing in community.

I suppose it’s like a patchwork quilt, or rag rug. Way back in the summer holidays, when the sun was warm and the days were long, I took up a new project. Using the instructions on this video, I cut up old duvets and pieces of fabric bought for long-forgotten crafts, and spent hours pulling and tugging the material into a rug. It’s made of odds and ends of material. Some I bought at a charity shop. Others hold memories. The deep orange section is made of a duvet cover my mother-in-law bought me when Graham and I first got a flat together. The pale blue is a curtain I used as a bedspread when at University. The green section was a cover used by my daughter when she first slept in a proper bed, with only a duvet rather than cot bars to keep her from tumbling to the floor at night. It became threadbare and torn several years ago but I didn’t want to throw it away.

Now, when I see my children lying on it while they read, I see all those memories woven together. And when you sing ‘hokey pokey’ as I sing ‘hokey cokey’, I hear your childhood songs woven together with mine. Vive la difference!

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Back in my happy place.

Post author By Esther
Post date December 2, 2015

I woke up in a foul mood this morning. I’d been worrying in the night about the future of everything, and was not ready when the alarm went. I spilt coffee on the stairs. We didn’t have enough milk. An important piece of homework had been torn and crumpled and school jumpers were still damp from the wash. I felt like the worst mother in the world, and it was only Wednesday! We made it to school on time. Just.

To be honest, at that point I would have loved to creep home and curl up under the duvet for a couple of hours. A cup of tea and a bar of chocolate would have been perfect. But I had a Rhymetime session to run. The hall needed sweeping and the room to be prepared.

Then all of you arrived. “Hello, everybody,” we sang. Your lovely children’s faces beamed at me and our voices joined in song. As we wriggled and bounced, and stretched and clapped, everything was alright again. I’ve been doing this for years, and I am still amazed at how singing with a group of people can lift me out of one state of mind and propel me into focusing on the songs and the people.

I didn’t need the tea or the chocolate. Rhymetime was enough to get me into a happy place. Thank you everyone.

Music recommendations

Is beautiful folk your cup of tea?

Post author By Esther
Post date November 24, 2015

Next in my series of recommendations, it’s …… drumroll……

Elizabeth Mitchell, You are my little bird. When it comes to children’s folk, this woman is the real deal and her music is a huge influence on me. With a soft, gentle voice she sings traditional US folk songs, interspersed with song from Japan, Indonesia and other cultures. She’s collaborated with Lisa Loeb and Dan Zanes, but is most often accompanied by her daughter and husband who play on many of her albums. Watch out if you are sleepy because her mellifuous voice could lull most into sweet dreams.

What have you been listening to in November? Let me know!

Joining in Rhymetime

What’s your name?

Post author By Esther
Post date November 17, 2015

‘When you first sang Ben’s name in the hello song,’ Joanna confided, ‘I thought I was going to cry!’

Whenever the group is small enough, we sing hello around the circle, greeting each child and baby by name. We’re noticing them, accepting them, and by naming them we are making them part of the group.

I don’t think Joanna’s experience is uncommon. It’s powerful to hear our baby being noticed and to hear aloud the name we have chosen after hours of discussion. Sometimes it’s also the first time that our child is the participant of a group, rather than us, the adult.

I’m only human, and do sometimes forget names, but I try really hard to remember because I know it makes a difference. We all deserve to be named.

Tags babies, names

education

What do you teach in Rhymetime?

Post author By Esther
Post date November 10, 2015

Nothing.

I hope that doesn’t disappoint you but I teach absolutely nothing. I sing, jump about, and wriggle my bottom. I don’t teach.

Your amazing child won’t be stopped by that! Despite the lack of a teacher they will learn a huge amount, as if by magic.

First there’s language. They’ll be absorbing speech patterns as we sing along to the hello song, and as they get older they start to be able to recognise rhyming words. Singing it again and again helps them practise forming words. When we sing Bubblegum, they start to offer their own ideas and we can develop what they suggest. Do they mean one knee or both knees? And are their hands stuck to their legs or their thighs? Or calves? Vocabulary building like this is fun!

Then there are musical ideas such as loud and quiet, slow and fast. Children soon learn to to feel and keep in time to a beat as we hammer to fix our tractor, or chop and snip in the chop chop choppity chop rhyme (not to mention developing and practising fine motor skills and their jumping/stomping skills).

Socially, of course, we all continue to learn about being together in a group and how to manage the many small, but strong, personalities in the circle. Is it your turn on my lap, or his turn? Can you hold the parachute still until it’s time for everyone to shake it? These are acquired skills!

There’s a huge amount of learning happening in Rhymetime. And absolutely no teaching.

Tags children, pre-schoolers, Rhymetime, toddlers

Joining in musical culture Rhymetime

Donkey voices welcome

Post author By Esther
Post date November 3, 2015

Rhymetime is an activity you do together. Each week your voice and your child’s voice join the greater sound that we make as a group, whether you are singing, laughing, blowing your nose or yawning. But some people feel very self-conscious about their singing and they tell me that they really do have a ‘bad voice’, and that their attempts at karaoke have always sounded like a donkey in pain.

My answer? Do it anyway. There’s a place for donkeys’ voices alongside those of angels and mortals! Most importantly, just doing it can help improve your voice especially when you are surrounded by other people all singing the tune. Singing out of tune is only extremely rarely caused by a physiological problem (if you are human, you have all the vocal chords you need) and can be because you are too nervous to listen and really hear the note. Have a cuddle with your little one, let yourself absorb the tune, and you find that slowly your singing will improve.

Don’t forget, too, that at Rhymetime everyone is so focussed on their child that it’s unlikely that they’ll care how you sound. They’re negotiating peace treaties with the child next to them, avoiding over-enthusiastic bouncing and making sure no-one runs out of the door, not judging The Voice.

After all, if your child could articulate it, they would tell you that they’re not bothered by my voice, or anyone else’s in the group, but that they want YOU to sing. They can, and do, recognise and prefer their parents’ voices over anyone else’s. So they really don’t care how you sound, they just want you to sing.

Sing in the shower. Sing when you’re emptying the dishwasher. Sing when you’re wiping poo off bottoms. Just sing!

Holidays Music recommendations musical culture

I need new music!

Post author By Esther
Post date October 27, 2015

Perhaps you’ve bought all three Rhymetime CDs, and listened to them on loop for weeks on end. You might want some other music for a change. I’ll let you into a secret. A couple of years ago I made some of the music on my blog available to buy or even just to stream. So that’s an option for you.

But ok, I can see that even the most ardent Rhymetime fan might like a break now and then. Most children will listen to your music quite happily but when you want something specifically for them, there is a huge range of music to choose from. Unfortunately there’s a lot of twee rubbish out there and plenty of electronic music that gets old very quickly. Never fear! Every month I will come to your rescue with a recommendation. This month it’s………

Barenaked Ladies, Snacktime

This is a Canadian band who turned their hand to children’s music when they had their own little ones. We first came upon them through a Nodcast podcast which kept us all chortling in the car, journey after journey. From that it was one small step to the Snacktime CD and Barenaked for the Holidays, both albums that entertain a wide age range. Their music is eminently listenable with funny lyrics (with jokes for grown-ups) catchy tunes and energy. Try There’s a word for that and 7,8,9.

Let me know what you think, and what you are listening to these days.

PS. You can get the first Rhymetime CD digitally now. Hurrah!

musical culture repetition Rhymetime

What’s Rhymetime? A musical comfort blanket.

Post author By Esther
Post date October 20, 2015

Parents often come to Rhymetime saying that they need to learn new songs, and new verses, but actually I think we all have a memory bank of songs in our brains, tucked away, ready to be revitalised. Those songs we learned as children, with our parents or at school, are usually bursting to get out. Constant repetition of Old MacDonald is wearing, I give you that, but when we sing the tunes that our mothers and fathers sang to us, even if we don’t remember it consciously, we sink into the feeling of being safe, as if we are being wrapped in a musical comfort blanket.

By coming to Rhymetime and singing at home we are rebuilding this musical culture, reappropriating old songs, drawing in the new, and weaving a new blanket for our own children. As our families grow, these songs, sung together, are musical rituals that bond us. The simple tunes become common currency to smooth our course through the day. We can sing them with different words (“This is the way we zip our coat”), or bellow them to distract a hungry child as we tramp through East Street. These songs become part of our lives, to sing again and again and again and again.

Have a good week!

Joining in

“My child loves it, but just won’t join in when we’re here.”

Post author By Esther
Post date October 13, 2015
No Comments on “My child loves it, but just won’t join in when we’re here.”

Tom sat silently through many sessions, curled in his grandma’s arms, eyes never moving from my guitar. The other children bounced around him, offering their hands for Ring a Ring of Roses and flinging their bodies down on the floor when it was time for ‘all the little bunnies to go to sleep’. He shrank back, and just watched, silently, resisting any attempt to get him to join in. In all honesty, I wasn’t entirely sure he was enjoying it. He didn’t cry, or cover his ears, but there were no smiles.

Despite this, his grandparents assured me that he loved it, and that Rhymetime was all he talked about at home. Sure enough, one day, several months after he first began to come to Rhymetime, he started to sing. And do the actions. And sit by me and practically co-lead the session! He got a ukelele, and became my sidekick for a couple of years, mirroring my every move and mimicking even the way I tapped the guitar and the strumming patterns. Now, with hindsight, I think he was just concentrating really hard in those first months. He was taking it all in, learning and absorbing it.

This was a couple of years ago and Tom is now at school (I haven’t used his real name). He’s not the only one, and I could have told this story about several other children. So please don’t worry if your child says they enjoy Rhymetime but keeps themselves to themselves during the sessions. Of course, if they don’t want to come then a trip to the park would be better, but otherwise, let them sit. Let them listen. Let them take at their own pace. Trust the process.