Musical Birdie

The bambini are in music classes at our MacPhail Center for Music Saturday mornings. Music class with Clara is pretty much one charming moment after another. Birdie is all about music class. Each class has an instrument and musical concept associated with it, but there are some things that are done every time.

Class starts off with the hello song on the guitar during which each child gets a chance to put his or her hand on the guitar to feel the vibrations. Then, everyone walks in a circle to Skip To My Loo, on tippy toes and with great big steps, too. Clara can't do tippy toes yet, but she understands the great big steps and while she can't alternate legs, she takes great big step after great big step with one leg (charming moment 1). Then it's rhythm stick time, followed by scarf time, followed by ribbon wand time. Birdie pounds and plays peek-a-boo and waves, twirls, and shakes (charming moments 2, 3, and 4). She loves them all and looks especially cute when she plays peek-a-boo to Someone Is Hiding through the sheer scarf. Then the parachute comes out, which the kids go under and shake before grabbing the balls that are usually tossed on top (charming moments 5 and 6). Yesterday, cotton balls were tossed on there instead. They went flying everywhere and Clara said "Uh-oh," and immediately went about trying to pick them up and get them back on the parachute (charming moment 7). The last bit of business is, of course, the good-bye song. Clara always returns to Julie as home base at the transition between activities. Sometimes Birdie plunges headlong at Julie; sometimes she marches over to Julie, all smiles, turns, and plops herself down on Julie's lap facing out; and sometimes, like yesterday when she had a tooth coming through, she turns and wads herself all up in Julie's arms until its her turn to touch the guitar again (charming moments 8, 9, and 10).

So Birdie really digs the music! We should add here, that sometimes, on the way home from school, if we don't have the radio on, Birdie will grunt and point at it until one of us turns it on, and then she bops for a bit to pretty much whatever comes on. Oh Brigade. You should see her. It'd just melt your heart. (We keep trying to take some video but if it isn't to dark, Birdie is mesmerized by the recording light, so you have to use your imagination.)