For these reasons (and because he absolutely loves and thrives in music therapy), Sheridan's second Christmas was FULL of music. He has enough instruments now that he will either (a) form his own one-man band or (b) form a family band.
My mom came over the morning of Christmas Eve so Sheridan could open her gifts (including a sweet set of wheels) and my dad and Gary's mom and brother came over to celebrate Christmas morning by having breakfast together and opening gifts.
Sheridan got everything from drums, a recorder, and zig zag blocks, to sandblocks, a xylophone, maracas, jingle bells, a parachute for musical games to... wait for it... a ukulele. He needed a child-sized "guitar" to go with our big family gift... an acoustic guitar.
I don't know what it is about the guitar specifically, but he is drawn to it. Almost obsessed with it at times - even during music therapy. Sometimes he tries to "escape" whatever we're doing in music therapy to sneak behind the therapist and strum her guitar. He loves it. Strum strum strum. He's actually getting quite good strumming the guitar, so we opted to buy one for the whole family (neither Gary nor I play at all, so I'm hoping to take a couple lessons to at least learn common chords in children's music).
One day, if Sheridan wants it, the acoustic guitar is his. That was my intention when I bought it. For now, he can enjoy strumming it... or strumming along with is ukulele. He LOVES his ukulele. Better yet, he loves strumming the ukulele, pausing only to bang the drum a few times, then returning to the strings.
I'm pretty excited about having so many instruments around for him. He's so happy and energetic exploring each instrument. Of course, one of his favorite things to do is "ride" in his big gathering drum while I push him back forth and spin him around while singing "row row row your boat..." - a little trick we learned in music therapy :) He also likes putting his Grover puppet in the smaller drum and pushing Grover around. Awesome.
I was bummed I didn't get more pictures of Christmas morning, but that just means we were having too much fun to take pictures! Here's what we did capture:
If you can manage C, F and G chords, you will have a good start! I went to a one-hour workshop presentation on "basic guitar skills for the classroom" and walked out of the door knowing how to play those three and it did indeed cover me for 3/4 of the songs I taught at school! Merry Christmas and happy new year! - Jen @ only who i am
ReplyDeleteWow, Lisa, looks like we can quit music therapy and just come over to play w/ Sheridan! I'm jealous at the cool drums he has! So glad your and his Christmas was fun and musical. And, no, you don't sound horrible! Sheridan is lucky to have his mom sing to him round the clock. It makes "ouchies" better much quicker. Take care!
ReplyDelete@Jen: thanks for chord information! I'd heard that most children's music uses the same 3-4 chords over and over again but I didn't know which chords :)
ReplyDelete@Monica: we'd love to have you and JM over for a jam session!
Omg, that picture of Sheridan under the parachute is waaayyyy too cute!! What a fun Christmas :)
ReplyDeleteLove that big drum! Music is an amazing thing.
ReplyDeletewhat a fun Christmas with all the musical instruments!
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