Picking Favorites

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I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how fiercely my students become attached to certain books, songs, and activities, but it never ceases to amaze me that they can be just as amused today with “Eight Silly Monkeys” as they were 18 months ago.

One of my students in particular is very attached to that book, along with “Down by the Station”. Every week, I pull out new books in the hopes that he will move on, but it just hasn’t happened yet. He will happily listen to the new book, even participate and answer my questions, but when it’s over, he will without fail walk over to my bookshelf and pull out the two old standbys. He will flip through the pages, hum the melody to himself, even answer the questions he remembers me asking about the book. Then he’ll close the first one and move on to the second book, doing the same.

I’ve considered my options: 1) remove the books from the shelf, 2) stop him when he goes to take them off the shelf, or 3) continue to let him do what he’s been doing. For now, I’m sticking with option 3 because he is not resitant to the new books, and his skimming through the old ones only adds about three minutes total to the session. He completes every task I present to him, and his behavior is almost always impeccable during individual music therapy.

So what would you do?

Happy Easter!

by | Listen & Learn Music, Uncategorized

I hope you all are enjoying your Easter Sunday. Mine started with a beautiful church service, which included a great sermon and lots of music. On the way home, my mom and I were discussing how Easter celebrations have changed over the years, now that my brother and I are adults and we have no other children in our family.

No more Easter baskets, chocolate bunnies, or egg hunts, though hopefully that will change once Zach and I have kids of our own…far, far down the road! Until then, I’m content with church and a delicious meal :)

Speaking of delicious meals, I better get going! But I just wanted to stop by and wish you all a happy Easter, and leave you with this cute little tune about Easter eggs.

I take an egg
All shiny white
And then I dip
It out of sight.
I leave it there
Within the cup
Then after a minute
I pick it up.

And oh!
It’s a lovely
Shade of green!
The prettiest Easter egg
I’ve ever seen.

CHORUS

And oh!
It’s a lovely
Shade of blue!
What a perfect color
For me and you!

CHORUS

And oh!
It’s a lovely
Shade of pink!
The best Easter Egg
of all, I think!

Ten Little…Eggs!

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I know we just counted bunnies yesterday, but I had to share this cute book with you that just happens to feature counting, as well. It’s called Ten Little Eggs by Jean Marzollo, and the best thing about this book is the 3-D colored eggs on each page. As the story progresses, a bird hatches from each egg…take a look:

This continues until there are no eggs left, just birds.


I made up a simple little tune to go along with this story, but really anything will do. All of the verses rhyme, which makes it nice and simple. This is the perfect book for my kiddos who are working on counting, because the objects being counted are pretty and tactile.

Oh, and about those bunnies we were counting yesterday…they must read my blog, because yesterday when I looked out my office window, I saw five of them sitting neatly in a row on my lawn. I tried to get a picture of them, but they scampered off too soon. I did manage to get two of them, though:


Too cute! Sometimes I feel like I live in a Disney movie, because my yard is always full of birds, bunnies, and all kinds of other cute little animals :)

Counting Time: Bunnies

by | Listen & Learn Music


Easter is on its way, which means we’ve been singing about all things related. Bunnies are an especially hot topic, and that is what we’re counting today. Here we go!

Counting time, it’s counting time,
So let’s all sing this simple rhyme.
Ten little bunnies in a row,
Now let’s count them nice and slow:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Again!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

How many bunnies?
Ten little bunnies.
All lined up in a row!

What songs or activities do you use around Easter? I know that at many schools, celebrating certain holidays is not allowed…good thing there are plenty of spring songs out there if this is the case! I have a great book I’ll share with you tomorrow, so make sure you stop by and check it out. Have a fantastic day!

Playing Catch-Up

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Yesterday was the first official day of Spring Break, and I packed a whole lot into just a few hours. I took my mom out to lunch for her birthday, ran errands, snuck in a nap, taught two piano lessons and led one music therapy group, all before 6 pm. After a quick dinner, my friend Victoria came over and we watched a movie and talked. I went to bed early, because I knew that today was the day to get down to work. This is what my desk looked like by 10 am:

I finally have some time to finish a project I’ve been working on for the past couple of months…a project with a deadline looming over me! I am super excited about it, and there will be more to come on this soon. Here’s a close-up of the chaos:

I have been holed up in my office all day, and am just now taking a break to write this post. However, I really can’t complain too much; after all, I do have these beautiful windows which provide me with a view of the sunny day outside:

My office at school is the size of a closet and has no windows, so I am enjoying every second of working at home. Now I think I have procrastinated enough – back to work for me!