Many families put off the bigger pet commitment (dog) and go for the easier.  First they choose a cat which can be left alone for long periods of time. Or, like our family, they move down the food chain; hamsters, birds, fish, reptiles, cockroaches.

In retrospect, I’m not sure that putting off the dog decision is really worth it.  I’m speaking 3 hamsters, 2 gerbils, 2 rabbits and 4 guinea pigs later. (I’m allergic to cats.) What if we had chosen to simply get a dog 6 years ago?  The potty training would have lasted a few months.  A few slippers may have been chewed to shreds and perhaps a furniture leg or two.  I’m not sure we gained much financially or time wise as we cycled through months of weekly cage cleaning. Plus, the accidental death, scent gland tumors, and old age took our most of our pets to heaven inside of a year.  My childhood dog lived 16 years!

How did our pet parade begin?  Some kids are born with an “I love animals” gene. When our daughter with the pet DNA lovingly adopted a lady bug (and cried her heart out when she accidentally dropped the bug in the grass and couldn’t find it) we decided it was TIME. But a dog “might tie us down.”  So we opted for our first hamster against my better judgment. I still wince thinking about how my sister’s hamster bit me. But a hamster is cute, lives in a small manageable cage and doesn’t require potty training or getting up at night. So we got one.

J.J. died while we were on vacation a couple months later. For the sake of our beloved, pet-sitting neighbor, the secret of J.J.’s passing will go with me to my grave.  (Hint: They have 5 dogs.) So we went back to the pet store, where we decided to upgrade to a cuddlier pet.  A giant hamster might fit better in a child’s hands, right?  We quickly learned that bigger hamsters simply have bigger teeth.  As were leaving the store, the hamster poked her nose through the air hole and took a chunk out of my daughter’s finger. As the blood dripped, we reconsidered.

Another family in the store that day convinced us of the charm and non-nocturnal nature of gerbils.  We happily came home with two. About a year later, both had succumbed to gerbil diseases and we were pet-free again.

Enter bunnies. Angus, a Holland Lop and Shiner, a Jersey Woolley, were purchased at the county fair. Now we had a pet of a known breed.  We had progressed.  Angus learned to “play tag” and put up with all sorts of other tortures at the hand of his 9 year old mistress.

This time the painful parting came because we were moving. As bunnies do not travel well (weak hearts,) Angus and Shiner were returned to the breeder the day before we moved. As if he knew, Angus inexplicably took a grumpy turn and bit and sprayed my daughter regularly in the last weeks, making their parting easier, although the memory of their happy relationship took on mythical proportions once distance made the heart grow fonder.

In our new location, my daughter survived without a pet for a year, but we realized she needed a pet to fill in the quiet moments of her day as well as feed her soul.

Having learned that hamsters bite and gerbils are not cuddly, we graduated to guinea pigs. And that is a story for my next blog.

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who has found it surprisingly insightful to chronicle her family’s pet history and thinks you writing-type readers should do the same!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image: artemisphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

2.  Our brass quintet hails from Central Washington University. And instead of a trombone, they have a euphonium. Isn’t that breaking some unwritten, unspoken, unplayable brass quintet rule? Nope! Did you know that if you unwound a euphonium and a trombone, they’d be exactly the same length? Want to see that done? Come to our concert on Saturday!

3.   For every minute a live production company spends on stage, an hour of rehearsal is required. But our rehearsals are never boring. Often they’re exactly like those funny outtakes you see at the end of movies. Or Psych.

4.   Miss Allison (the star of the show!) and Michael (our delightful tenor) are married. In fact, they met while playing the parts of Laurey and Curly in the musical Oklahoma! It was love at first sight. Still is. 22 years later.

5.  The 10:30 show is sold out, but there are a few tickets left for the 9:30 – so get them here!

 What show you say? Swing Me High and Swing Me Low, our next Symphony Serenade concert for families. It’s at Benaroya Hall (Seattle Symphony) on Saturday, May 12 at 9:30 and 10:30. You’re invited!

-posted by Miss Analiisa, aka The Story Fairy, who gets to wear bathtub fish on her head this weekend. And a new pair of wings! (But on her back, not on her head.)

While I’m no expert at theater, and though my 1/2 hour teaching slot at our drama class is anything but fancy or refined, kids love it. Theater games and improve exercises are very free form.  Implication:  You can do it too. But be prepared to embrace some chaos.  Kids who are alive with imaginative fun are not sitting around quietly!

Here are a few of my class’ favorite games. Next time you have a group of bored kids around, try a couple of these and see how quickly time passes and how much fun you all have. But leave your perfectionism behind.

Duck Duck Animal—A twist on the familiar game Duck, Duck, Goose. Instead of saying, “Goose,” the child says the name of another animal and that child must become that animal as he/she races around the circle and tries to tag “it” before he/she reaches their spot in the circle.  Smart kids quickly say slow animals such as “snail” or “turtle.”

Statue Maker—A classic game. One child is the statue shop owner.  Another is the shopper. All other kids are statues. As the game begins all statues dance and wiggle until the statue maker says, “freeze.”  The shopper, who has been outside the room, reenters and is shown the statues one by one. The shop owner turns on each statue and it performs its function and is then turned off. After each statue has performed, the shopper picks his/her favorite. The chosen statue becomes the next shopper and a new shop owner is chosen. This is my group’s favorite game. It is raucous and fun.  (Young children will usually imitate each other and often end up chasing the shopper until turned off. It can help to suggest a theme for the statues, such as animals or sports.  It is also helpful to remind children they are not to touch any other children.)

New York, New York—(Also called Lemonade) Divide your kids into two groups of at least 3 each.  Each team goes to opposite sides of the room or designated outdoor area and decides on a vocation or activity, for example skiing or gardening.  Both teams come up to the middle line. Team A says: “New York, New York,” Team B replies: “What’s your trade?” Team A: “Lemonade!” Team B: “Show us some if you’re not afraid.” At this point Team A begins to act out their agreed upon vocation and the other team tries to guess what they are doing. Once a correct guess is shouted out, Team A tries to run back to their base before being tagged out by members of Team B who are chasing them. Teams then switch roles.

Tangled Knot–(at least 10 kids) All children stand in a small circle. Next, they reach across the circle with closed eyes and find two hands to hold.  Then the game begins.  The children must untangle the giant knot created without letting go of anyone’s hands.  Going slow is the key!

Detective–All children stand in a circle.  One child is chosen as the detective and leaves the room. Another child is chosen to be the leader. He/she will lead the group in motions, similar to Simon Says—clapping, hopping, patting head, and turning around—when the detective returns. The detective is invited back into the room and stands in the center of the circle. He/she must guess who the leader is. The group must try and keep that knowledge from the detective by not making eye contact with the leader, and the leader must be careful to change up the motion only when the detective’s back is turned.  Subtlety is the key.  Once the detective correctly guesses the leader, a new detective and leader is chosen.

Mirror–Children pair up, and face one another.  They take turns being the leader and the mirror.  The leader moves his/her body very slowly and the mirror must “mirror” the actions. The game is to mirror so well that an observer can’t tell who the leader is and who the mirror is.  Then kids switch roles.

For more ideas, check out: On Stage: Theater Games & Activities for Kids by Lisa Bany-Winters.

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who volunteers to do theater games with kids because of how she LOVED playing these games as a child. She wants to pass it on!

Growing up, I remember mom singing all the time. In church, in the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, at home on our piano, going about her everyday life. And singing me to sleep every night. She was the reason I became a musician.

So, when I am with her now, I sing, I play ukulele, I lead music time in the recreation room, and we listen to old musicals and Handel’s Messiah, one of her favorites. And mom sings back. She hums all day. Her sentences begin rationally, turn to randomness, and end up as song.

The part of her brain (the left side) where language lives has been damaged, but mom still reacts, responds to and participates when there is music.

I am not an expert in Alzheimer’s research, but I know what I have experienced with my mother. On my last visit, a nurse’s aide was leading the dementia patients in a sing along of old favorites. One of the most lucid comments my mother made during this visit was, “She can’t carry a tune,” referring to the aide. And she said this three times!

I asked the aide if she had another song sheet so I could follow along, and she happily turned over the song-leading to me. (Just try to keep a Kindermusik teacher from singing!) The group joined me happily in song, most of them remembering every word of their old favorite tunes.

Afterwards, I asked mom if I was on pitch, to which she said, “most of the time.” Well, she always was a perfectionist! For the rest of the day, I heard her singing, “Take me Out to the Ballgame.” Those were some of my happiest moments in an otherwise difficult time.

-posted by Miss Judy, who says, “My mother’s name is Annabelle, and she has always had a beautiful voice.”

Here is an article from someone who is an expert, and the author of several wonderful books about the brain, and an amazing video of a man who is revitalized with music.

Dr. Oliver Sacks, Professor of Neurology & Psychiatry, Columbia University

Where I work at a hospital and at a number of old age homes, there are a lot of people who have Alzheimer’s or other dementias of one sort or another. Some of them are confused, some are agitated, some are lethargic, some have almost lost language. But all of them, without exception, respond to music. This is especially true of old songs and songs they once knew. Read more…

There is one restaurant in the Seattle area that resonates with almost every “type” of customer, from the casual lunch, to the eclectic date night, to the business outing – and that’s the Purple Café. Purple Café, owned by Heavy Restaurant Group, has expanded to four Purple Café satellite locations (all located in corresponding Studio3Music studios) of Kirkland, Woodinville, Seattle and Bellevue. In addition to the Purple Café, they added a little spice to the mix and introduced a Mexican cuisine restaurant, Barrio, to the Capitol Hill neighborhood and an Americana fare restaurant, Lot No.3, to downtown Bellevue.

One of my favorite questions to ask our Studio3Music families is where they enjoy a date night in the Greater Seattle area. The Purple Café is continuously referenced and the daydreaming begins as everyone rattles off their favorite menu dish and recommended wine pairing.

• “Basil Pesto Pasta is divine!”
• “The large wood table you can reserve at the Woodinville location. It really sets the mood for a gathering.”
• “The Apple, Walnut, and Stilton Salad!”
• “The way they help you choose just the wine you’re in the mood for.”
• “The salted caramels. Melt in your mouth goodness.”

This year, we proudly partner with the Purple Café and encourage you to visit this savvy, distinctive, rustic-inspired restaurant the next time you are entertaining a date night, a luncheon after a Symphony Serenade concert, or a business meeting. The cuisine, the atmosphere and service are bar-none. The Purple Café, Barrio and Lot No. 3 all exemplify the very best of dining in the Pacific Northwest.

-posted by Miss Kim, a frequent Heavy Restaurant Group patron (always seeking a date night with a hubby and a little chicken marsala).

“The Itsy Bitsy Spider” song is one of my earliest favorites. Remember the giddy pride the first time your fingers cooperated to make the spider climb forefinger to thumb, up, up, up? I also remember standing in a circle on the multi-colored oval braided rug in our Sunday school room as we sang and played “The Farmer in the Dell.” What songs bring back your childhood scenes? Tub songs? Bedtime songs? Car trip songs?  Consider adding those or a few new ones to your child’s daily routine.  You’ll be providing happy memories that will stick with them for life.

Even more important than placing tunes in their musical scrapbook, daily music will help your kids’ brains develop. But if you come to Kindermusik, you already knew that!  Kindermusik is based on the science of how music positively influences brain growth.  More sensory stimulation equals more neural connections, which is how intelligence develops. To get the most out of your Kindermusik investment, do your musical homework with your kids.  It’s fun that pays back.

Delight, pleasure, fun, joy….music adds all these to life. When we travelled, my parents sang their generation of pop songs. We enthusiastically learned them and sang along. (My mischievous father taught us his Navy drinking songs, too!)  What silly fun, all the more memorable for its benign naughtiness and how quickly  music made the miles whizz by.

When doing chores, “whistle while you work” turned drudgery to fun.  In my teen years, cleaning up the kitchen was my nightly job. I put on my favorite music (turned up loud, of course), which made the task fun. Named “Music-To-Do-Dishes-By,” the practice became a memorable part our family tradition. How has music sprinkled happiness into chapters of your life?  Consider passing those pleasures on to your children.

Quite simply, music makes life better. It creates happy memories and it’s good for us! Why not be more intentional about your child’s musical intake? Add more music into the nooks and crannies of your life. Sing, hum, whistle. Expose your kids to concerts in the park, classic CD’s–like Disney musicals, Tom Chapin, Farmer Jason, Putnamayo, and your own favorite playlist.  The possibilities are endless.

Cook up some music at home, too. As a child, an old ice cream tub held my cymbals, a triangle, tambourine, bongo drums, maracas and recorder flute, which made for endless musical creativity. Buy a keyboard, or a piano, or guitar so they can experiment. Musical fun helps create a happy family life.

 Make your house a place where your children can easily dish up all the music they want.

-posted by Donna Detweiler who is glad that through the library, radio, and community events, incorporating good music into her children’s lives can be very affordable!

With its rhythm, expression, emotion and meter, music is poetry without words. Just like poems, music expresses the thoughts and feelings of the composer. In fact, lyrical poems are the form of poetry set to music. (Some of the best at that were Lennon and McCartney.)

A couple of days ago, I asked our Studio3 staff and some good friends of mine from all over North America (who are also musicians) to tell me what their favorite authors were. Were they ever passionate! And prolific in their answers! Which is a great thing.

By far, their number one pick for kids’ poetry was Shel Silverstein. Which was not surprising. This beloved writer has “the official site for kids”, so check it out.

Jack Prelutsky was a new one for me, but I wish I’d found him sooner! He was born in Brooklyn, NY, but lives right here in Washington State. In his bio on the Scholastic website, he says, “I have always enjoyed playing with words, but I had no idea that I would be a writer. There was a time when I couldn’t stand poetry! In grade school, I had a teacher who left me with the impression that poetry was the literary equivalent of liver. I was told that it was good for me, but I wasn’t convinced.”

He also is a musician, and on the audio versions of his anthologies, he sets his poems to music, often singing and playing his guitar.  In 2006, the Poetry Foundation named Prelutsky the inaugural winner of the Children’s Poet Laureate award.

He’s written more than 50 collections. Here’s the name of just a couple to get you started at your library: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep, The Mean Old Hyena, Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems.

One of my favorite poets (when my sense of humor grew slightly more sophisticated) was Ogden Nash. He’s a lover of puns, and witticisms. Take his “Song to Be Sung by the Father of Infant Female Children”, for instance.

Poetry is good for grownups, too! Poetry can help us to slow down, think, appreciate, and express our own emotions more clearly.

Here is a list of favorites I collected (they were often mentioned my multiple people):

ee cummings, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Lewis Carroll, John Keats, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Naruda, Bob Dylan, John Lennon

Some of Robert Frost’s poetry was set to music by Randall Thompson in a collection called Frostiana. Worth a quick search on YouTube.

Love Poems From God is a translation by Daniel Ladinsky of great saints and mystics from both western and eastern religious traditions.

Ten Poems to Open Your Heart, compiled by Roger Housden.

Heartsongs, by Mattie Stepanek. Mattie was an American poet who had six books of poetry published before he passed away just before he turned 14. All six books reached The New York Times bestsellers list. He suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and all three of his siblings also died from the disease. He started writing poetry at the age of three when his older brother died. My friend said his poems always warm her heart with his innocence and belief in humanity.

Not sure where to start? Pick something new. Poems are generally shorter than novels, so it won’t take you long to decide if you like a particular poet. (And you’re not in high school AP English anymore – you get to read strictly for enjoyment!) Someone suggested the website www.poemhunter.com. When you choose a specific poem, the site suggests others you may enjoy as well.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who suggests to go kiss your mate, and then have some fun with poetry today. She leaves you with this short ditty from Odgen Nash – “God in His wisdom made the fly, and then forgot to tell us why.”

A week into class, I was thinking my SAT scores had put me in the wrong class. I double checked, but nope, I was where I was supposed to be. It had been SIX years since I had cracked a math textbook. And yet, this stuff called Algebra was easy! I finally understood math. It was all about patterns.

Halfway through the semester, my math professor called me into her office, and said that I really should be in a much higher level math, and had I considered a math minor? Uh, nope. I hated math. Well, wait a minute. I didn’t really hate math anymore. It made sense, and I actually liked being successful at it.

It didn’t take me long to figure out why. If you’ve ever spent time in the dungeons of a music department, you’ll soon discover that 95% of the double majors are music and some sort of math or math-heavy science. The french horn and bassoon players (being generally both the smartest and funniest and strangest of the music breeds) are the astrophysicists, the biochemists, and the aeronautical engineers. (Oh, please, don’t send me nasty emails if you are a clarinet player with a job in the field of quantum mechanics. I’m sure there are brilliant clarinetists out there, too!)

I realized that my 5 years of music theory was, like math, all about patterns. The music had somehow trained my brain to comprehend math.

Years later, when I started learning about how music helps develops the brain, I found a much more sophisticated answer. Imaging studies have shown that mathematical processing and musical training activate the same areas of the brain.

It appears that early musical training begins to build the same neural networks that will later be used to complete mathematical tasks. Although I played an instrument starting in 5^th grade, I didn’t really have any good musical training – theory, private lessons, Kindermusik, etc.

So, my years of music theory, ear training, piano, conducting, private lessons and singing in college really did help those neural networks to grow. How I wish I’d had music training when I was very young, all the way through high school. I might have liked math better.

Of all the academic subjects, music and math are the most closely related. Music and math both require lots of counting. Within that counting, there are musical intervals, (the difference in pitch between two notes), and the math counterpart, arithmetic and geometric sequences.

Playing music also requires an good understanding of fractions, including adding and subtracting them. Reading music notes is dependant on comprehension of ratios and proportions – how long is a half note compared to a quarter note? How do you play triplets against sixteenth notes?  Geometry is used when remembering finger and slide positions.

My heart introduced my children to music for love, and joy, and pleasure. My head introduced music to my children so I could give them the very best start in life. Even if they don’t follow in my footsteps and become a music major, they’ll still reap the benefits their musical experiences.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is tickled when her violin playing 4^th grader asks his instructor to “teach him some theory”.

One such moment arose about a month ago in my Tuesday Village class in Kirkland.  Toward the end of class we were discussing birthdays, since little Kaitlyn was about to have her 1^st birthday party that weekend.  The discussion turned to birthday cakes and which bakeries in the Kirkland area people had used and liked best.  This led to the ever popular topic of cupcakes.  Everyone was quite enthusiastic about which bakery made their favorite cupcakes.

Before I knew it, someone proposed that the group have a cupcake tasting and suggested we could do it after class the next week.  I was happy to facilitate.  It was agreed that each grown –up would bring cupcakes from a different bakery and we would rate which ones we liked best.  Judy, Kaitlyn’s Mom, wondered if anyone in the group blogged since this would make such a great story.  I immediately volunteered to write about it for the Studio3 Blog.

Later that week, I received an email from Judy saying that a friend of hers from Currently Kirkland TV thought our story was so cute that she wanted to come film a piece about it.  What began as a simple unexpected conversation in Village class grew into a full-fledged media-covered cupcake extravaganza!

The following week, all were assembled dressed in their finest daywear; ready for the camera, class and, of course, the very serious business of cupcakes.  Camera Man Mike filmed us in all our Kindermusik glory.  Throughout class, every one beamed in delightful expectation of things to come.

Once class time was over, out came the cupcakes.  We ended up with confections from eight different bakeries.  The contestants were Trophy, Lisa Du Pare, Pasta & Co, NY Cupcakes, QFC, Cupcake Royale, PCC, and Pinkabella.  Many had other places and appointments to get to soon, so a frenzy of cupcake tasting, judging, and interviews by Reporter Pamm ensued.  Participants were allowed to vote for both favorite cake and favorite frosting.  After many sugary sweet samples and all was said and done, the clear winner of the day was, ahem, drum roll please, Pinkabella cupcakes, in both the frosting and cake categories.

After the sugary bacchanalia of it all, I was left feeling a bit woozy.  Quite frankly, I don’t care to look at another cupcake for a long time, but I am boosted by the fact that every one, both babies and grown-ups, were in high form that day, and I couldn’t possibly have been more proud of them or more delighted with what was born of one magical moment in Village class.

You can watch the final story, too! If you click on the link, you can see the episode right online.

-posted by Miss Meresa, who is looking forward to the next spontaneous and unexpected magical moment in class.

Many of us sprint through life like the hare. We have things to do, do, do!  We dash off, frantic to get stuff done—thinking that by this method we will eventually cross whatever finish line we hold in mind.  When we begin to lose momentum, we fuel up mid-stream with a double shot of whatever and take off again, only to eventually nap under some short-of-the-finish line-tree.  The next morning we paw at the starting line and BANG!  Off we go again.

Let me translate this into real life. I’m a hare.  I’m eager and ready to dash out into the world each morning.  The results? My kids have an active life. Besides home schooling, we have horseback riding lessons, drama class, piano lessons, choir, writing co-op, gym class, and worship team.  Field trips are sprinkled in when something irresistible crops up like the maple syrup making, state capital day and civil war reenactment. No two days are alike as we hop, hop, hop around the extra-curricular landscape.

Then the turtle comes into view. Quite simply, the turtle represents getting to someplace specific. (In other words – the finish line.) As the hare dashes around and arguably has more fun, enjoys his natural talent and sees more of the countryside, he doesn’t accomplish the ultimate goal, which is important at times!

My discovery: When I want to teach my children a set of specific skills or work on a character issue, the turtle has the right moves.   My hare-like nature has been surprised to watch this principle work out.  When my daughter was struggling with long division, it became apparent she hadn’t mastered her math facts. Discouraged, I dashed down several fix-it roads, considering changing curriculum mid-stream. But then the turtle came into view.  I began to simply work with her for 5-10 minutes every day. I watched amazed as she progressed.  Slow and steady wins the race.

I began to apply this to other areas of my children’s lives. With achievement testing approaching, I felt certain we needed extra preparation. Bounding down the path of several complex history curricula, I quickly tired. Then the turtle came into view. I found a simple summary of what 5^th graders should know about history and I began to read to her every day for 10 minutes, asking comprehension questions as a review. Hardly thinking that 10 minutes was worth it, I watched in amazement as she made steady progress. With that success, I began to plot a daily course for character issues needing attention:  doing basic chores without complaint, talking kindly to siblings.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Who knew the deep truth the simple fable of The Tortoise and the Hare has been hiding all these years!  My new hero the Tortoise has shown me how to succeed where I so often have failed. A little every day gets one a long way over time. Slow and steady does win the race.

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who knows that yes, hares also have their redeeming qualities, but that’s another blog!