Time for a silly but musical post…

With all this talk of Spring Cleaning and just being domestic in general, I find myself wondering if any of you out there are as crazy as me when it comes to having the music on.

LOUD.

When I’m cleaning and I’m alone in the house, I can’t bear the silence so I put my favourite tunes on whether it’s just turning the radio on, a favourite music CD or sometimes even YouTube on my phone for those songs I haven’t gotten around to getting yet.

I grew up listening to all sorts of music, from Classical, to Rock, to Pop with all the other bits in between.  Every sunday I would record the Top 40 on cassette and replay all my favourite songs pretending I had the precise choreography of Five Star or singing into my hairbrush with my ultra permed hair flying behind me a la Heart (or Europe for that matter).

Music is massively important to me, and whilst I like to think I’ve grown up in some ways, I find myself wallowing in musical nostalgia when I get the chance to pump up the volume (see what I did there?…).

*Here’s my top ten list of the old stuff to bop to in no particular order.  Do these songs ring a bell for any of you?

1. Baywatch Theme: I’m always here
2. Bros: I owe you nothing
3. A Flock of Seagulls: Wishing
4. Janet Jackson: What Have You Done for Me Lately
5. Human League (Phil Oakey): Electric Dreams
6. Madonna: You can Dance
7. Heaven 17: Temptation
8. The Communards: Don’t Leave me This Way
9. Jane Wiedlin: Rush Hour
10. Bros: When Will I Be Famous

*My Top Ten of the *Modern* stuff

1. Lost Prophets: Where We Belong
2. Breathe Carolina: Blackout
3. Avril Lavigne: What The Hell
4. DJ Fresh: Hot Right Now
5. Rihanna: We Found Love
6. All American Rejects: I wanna
7. Pendulum: Watercolour
8. David Guetta: Titanium
9. Lloyd: Dedication to my Ex
10. Maroon 5: Moves Like Jagger

So as far as a silly blog goes, this is a little insight in how I cope with the housework at home. I’m also a big fan of Adele and Lana Del Rey but I find when I listen to them, I have to sit down and immerse myself in their voices!  Does anyone have any new funky suggestions for me to add to my lists?  Feel free to comment and tell me which tracks get you bopping around the house doing the housework!

*Just in case anyone was wondering…No, I don’t play these tracks loud or otherwise when the children are about.  Some of them have questionable lyrics and/or videos which are fine for me being on the wrong side of 35 but not for my children.

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Extra-curricular gripe

I have a gripe.  A moan, if you will.  It isn’t an uncommon one as I think most parents will at some point complain about what their school offers by way of extra curricular activities for primary age children.

My daughter is in Year 1 and there is nothing…I mean NOTHING for them.  Before the year started, we were promised spanish lessons, french classes, tennis, cheerleading and so on.  None of this materialised but by way of an apology, they offered morris dancing, and jazz dance, in school hours. My daughter does the jazz dance as it appears that it is mandatory.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a ‘tiger mom’ in any way, but I thought perhaps something different would be fun for her and it would only be a couple of half hours after school during the week.  Alas, it is not meant to be.

Being musically inclined from the age of four, I often wondered if any of my children would follow my path and inherit my love of music as well as my pitch and ability to learn (not the ability to carry on as it would seem that I lack the motivation to move myself forward in this respect) so I dug out the huge Yamaha keyboards out for them to play.  It boasts of the latest technology of it’s day, a 16 track digital recording studio onto…wait for it…FLOPPY DISC!

But I digress, the kids LOVED it, they make alot of noise but after sitting down with my daughter for two 10 minute sessions, she now knows where middle C is and four major chords.  I am by no means a teacher but this fills me with confidence that she enjoyed what she was doing enough to be bothered to learn it.

Armed with this information I asked the school if they did something a bit easier, namely, the recorder. Oh no, they said, we don’t teach that until year 4! Year 4??! She’ll be eight! I finished with the recorder and was onto the piano by the time I was five! I told them this and was told that this particular council doesn’t offer anything like that until the children are older.

Pffft.

Because I have wandered past the threshold of remembering my youth clearly, I asked my mother for confirmation that I was indeed only 4 when I learned how to play the recorder and she replied that this was indeed so. I am miffed, there is nothing for my children to learn at this school bar morris dancing.  I have taken to ordering what I think will be a fabulous book to teach ME how to teach my daughter to play the recorder and to learn the simple rudiments of reading music.  I accept the challenge and await the grey hairs to appear on my head!

My question to you is this, what, if any, extra curricular activities do your schools provide for your children? Is there anything you’d really like but they don’t have? I look forward to reading your comments below.

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