As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been working hard to get the music of the Beatles deeply ingrained in my daughters’ heads. I figure if they get a solid base of Beatles, even with whatever regrettable music they listen to in their teen years (Hey, I’m just as guilty as the next person), they’ll eventually gravitate towards good music and be better people because of it.
We now have a new lunchtime routine, at least on the days when S. is working or otherwise out of the house. The kids get put into their respective chairs, I hand them their milk, and then I crank up either Revolver or the Blue Album on the stereo. C. just moves her shoulders up-and-down since she’s all latched in. She’s quite the dancer when she’s upright, though, so I know she’d really be shaking her booty if she was out of her chair. M. has a different reaction, though. For any song that doesn’t appear on her Beatles for Kids CD, she asks, “Hey Dad, what’s this liberry yousic?” That’s how she says music most of the time, yousic. When I tell her it’s the Beatles, she smiles and laughs and nods her head while she eats. But, when a song that is also on her CD comes on, her eyebrows raise, her eyes shine, and a smile of recognition slowly forms on her face as she identifies the song. “Hey Dad, is this the Love song?” she asks for “All You Need is Love”. Then she sings along, at least through the first verse and chorus.
Good stuff, seems like my plan is working.
One of the songs she loves most on her CD is “All Together Now.” We have no idea why, but she calls the song “Bowl of Guinness.” I like Guinness, but I haven’t had any in the house for a long time, so I have no idea where she gets that. As soon as the song comes on, she asks, “Hey Dad. Is this One, two, three, four, bowl of guinness, all together now?” “Yes, M., it is.” She laughs and starts clapping along with it. When we listen in the car (and that CD has become our only car music for now), as the song builds in the final chorus, I like to snap my fingers along with the tempo. She screams and kicks her legs and moves her head side-to-side as fast as she can. Occasionally, she’ll walk up to something in the house and say, “Dad, can I do bowl of guinness on this?” and act like she wants to play the drums on a table, couch, whatever. I say sure and she drums with her hands while I sing, she switching from slow to fast tempos. I don’t know if I’ve described that well, but trust me, it makes her happy and is a ton of fun.