Goldie Makes a Visit

Boys and girls!!!!

This is the first song I ever wrote!!!!!

This is my first YouTube video ever shot and posted!!!!

Thanks to Rhonda for shooting it, midsong.

Thanks to everyone at the center for helping me post it!

(How many novices does it take to post a YouTube video)

I love it!!

Simple, upbeat, rockin' early intervention.

All of the children are under three years old.

Goldie has two sections, the slow waltz

followed by the rockin' ending.

Other posts about Goldie, including art project responses, click here.

Here's the vault of all of my YouTube videos, click here.

Other posts on Early Intervention, click here.

Here's a "Linkie-Party" to a fellow blogger,
with a post asking teachers for their fave songs, click here
to go over to "Learning Ahoy!!"

EI = Early Intervention

Last month I put up some pictures of my "biggest" kids and today I thought I'd take you down the hall to visit with my youngest friends. These children are in the EI program (Early Intervention) which means that they are less than three years old. We are just getting all organized in the first photo. Then before you know it, it's time to play the guitar and sing our name-in-song. The final shot is of my favorite verse of the 'Hokey Pokie' when: ya put your tongue in, ya put your tongue out. It doesn't take a lot to impress my littlest pips. It's their favorite verse as well!

Parker-the-Elf & HoHoHo!

Have I told you how much fun it is to have a blog? Have I told you just how much I enjoy it? What fun to have a visual journal to keep, update and share. The responsibility of reporting my amazing days, my incredible travels and my delightful visits is the single most glorious treasure of my year's professional growth. I ADORE the idea of looking at what I'm doing thru the lens of sharing the experience with you: the days with children, the days in front of & among teachers and librarians, the days in my studio, the days of creativity-tending: be they cloud counting, restorative hikes, sunset watching, wave walking, or the herding of grandchildren..... all of these days are woven together, quilted, and make up the actual fabric of my life. [Editor's note: as of now, today I have my first "officially-registered" blog-follower!! Welcome Timalia!!!! WOW. Another first...... who wants to be second??]

Follow me down the hall at The Childhood League Center (the program which genuinely launched me: in all truth, both literal and figurative. The place of my very first full-time employment, right out of college, circa-last-century-1979.) The extreme windchill factor on Monday necessitated a change in plans.... no school on Monday, rearrange my trip till yesterday, Dec. 23rd. I wear all of my festive finery, bundle up and get downtown in time to be greeted by "Parker-the-Elf", fourth grade son of the very man-in-the-red-suit himself. Parker's fan club of extended family came to see the fun unfold. His grandparents were particularly appreciative of Parker's kindness toward the young children with special needs and their parents.

We had an entire morning together traveling from room-to-room, in an effort to help the children be as comfortable as possible with all of the excitement. With guitar in hand we started our visits singing our traditional songs of welcome and then introducing seasonal songs (did you hear the jingle of the bells?) Then Parker and I helped Santa garner as many hugs and high fives as possible. There are pictures from the E.I. crew (early intervention: younger than 3) and also from the preschool classrooms as well.

I can hardly wait till next year! Fa la la la la.

Mid-Michigan Family Fun

OOOOOOPS. In all of my preparing for my Chicago adventure last weekend, I completely forgot to share my adventure into the heartlands of MI from last week. My brain was joggled, what with all of the local discussion of the OSU vs. MI annual football-extravaganza this weekend. So even tho it's entry is chronologically out of order, I wanted you to see a peek over my shoulder: to share the fun of my under-3 year old fan club, their parents and a smidgen of the happiness we created together. [If there's a blogger-pro out there, that can teach me how to rearrange posts, I'd sure appreciate that tutorial.]

Youngest of my Pips

Look at my happy morning. It always starts with the very youngest. I call them my "Pips." I go into their classroom and we have a guitar-based "sing-a-long." (Of course not one child has said their first word on Planet Earth yet.) With today being my third visit of the new school year, they're getting braver. We had a volunteer that was willing to play/strum my guitar! Then I move across the hall into the large muscle room and the toddlers come to me. Before every new surprise that I pull out of the surprise box, I have the children cover their eyes to heighten the suspense. The last picture is of the oldest of the toddlers participating in their favorite verse of the 'Hokey Pokey'..... can you guess? You put your tongue in, you put your tongue out. Oh what fun we have together. Am I fortunate or what?