3.02.2009

Win 4 Tickets to the Swingset Mamas Show on March 8th in Stamford


Lizzie Swan, one half of the Swingset Mamas duo, is a local mom and passionate musician. If you've never seen the Swingset Mamas live, do your family a favor and check them out at the JCC in Stamford this Sunday, March 8 at 3pm (a few tickets are still available).  Promise promise you and kids of all ages will have a blast. We saw Lizzie perform at the SMNC last fall and we've been jamming out to her cd's in the car and at home for almost a year now. We're like groupies minus the sex and drugs. 

I asked Lizzie to step in as a guest blogger today and share her thoughts about making music with kids. Read on for some great ideas (thanks Lizzie!) and to win 4 tickets to this Sunday's show.

Ticket Giveaway Rules
To win 4 tickets to this Sunday's show, just leave a comment below with your first name and town. Let us know what music your family loves or what you think of Lizzie's ideas for making music a bigger part of your lives. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday March 4 so check back then.


Making Music With Your Family by Lizzie Swan
As a mother, pre-school music teacher and founding member of the Swingset Mamas, I am often asked the question from new parents “How can I make music a big part of my child’s life?”

If there is one point that I hope to get across in my career as a “children’s music artist”, it would be to get rid of the notion that performance has anything to do with making music as a family. Parents often tell me that because they are not "musicians", they can’t sing with their children. or “My child tells me to stop singing, because I have such a bad voice”. These types of self-critical statements are truly limiting to the development of creative expression in our children and couldn’t be farther from the truth. Parents are the first and biggest role models for our kids in all aspects of life. If our children see us comfortable with expressing ourselves musically, then they will feel free to do the same.

Often at Swingset Mamas shows, I see well-intentioned parents nudging their child towards the stage to dance and sing along but not getting up and joining in the experience themselves. 

To me, the simplest way to incorporate music into your child’s life is to dance and sing with them whenever you can. Live music shows, the playground, neighborhood, the kitchen, the car, at the bus-stop, or grocery store check-out, play-dates, these are all places and times where there is opportunity to make up songs, hear rhythms and sing out loud.

As a culture, we have moved from evenings spent with people of all ages gathered around the piano connecting, rhyming and singing together, to a time where everyone can be found in their respective rooms passively and individually being entertained by video screens, and/or ipods with headphones on. I find this lack of family music time sad because when I look back on my own childhood, I remember most fondly the moments spent singing together with my grandparents, parents, siblings and friends. Often times we had no accompaniment, just our voices and hands clapping along. I am sure that most people can hear a certain song, and be instantly brought back to the time, place and people that they were with when this song came out. These are the song foundations and opportunities that I am hopeful that today’s families will keep passing on to their children. If there is one thing I know for sure, it is that making music with your children, family and friends is easy and FUN!!!! Here are a few simple ways to incorporate music into your family life:

Have a dance party!!! At our house, we like dancing to Earth Wind and Fire. Sometimes, we do this for 15 minutes before we get started on our homework.

On road trips, we play a game called “Pass the ipod”. It’s fun to give each person in the car a chance to pick a song. This is one way to mix it up and introduce music new ands old to everyone.

Make up rhymes as you talk to your kids and go about your day together. You’d be surprised at how the simplest rhymes can quickly become chants and then morph into songs.

Have a parade. We like to march around our neighborhood with tamborines and drums. Often we find that simply marching in time together can spark a rhyme or song idea about the day.

What do you think of Lizzie's ideas? How do you make music a part of your family's day-to-day life? Post a comment below and win 4 tix to this Sunday's show at the JCC in Stamford at 3pm.  

8 comments:

meg said...

Ever since my 4 year old nephew told me I have a "tewwible voice" I'm not gonna lie, it's hard for me to sing in front of a crowd. But when it's just me and my daughter, I have no shame and I sing and dance like a fool!
Meg, Stamford

Anonymous said...

My daughter loves to sing, she particularly loves the Wiggles and right now is riding around the house on her tricycle singing Hot Potato!

Lynn- Rowayton

Anonymous said...

I ALWAYS have music playin gin my house. You'll rarely ever find the TV on. We sing and dance while dinner is being made. It's great fun for the family, and our special tradition.

Angie said...

We are a major dance-party family! The first time my now-21-month-old daughter "communicated" to me was to tell me she wanted to play music and dance! She walked over to the CD player and tried to turn it on. When I told her not to touch it, she motioned up and down with her hands, which was her primary dance move at the time. Her meaning could not have been clearer if she'd known how to speak - so of course I put on music and we danced!
~Angie, Stamford

anne said...

My 2-year-old son is an enormous fan of the Beatles. At home, in the car, anywhere at all. We have lots of toy instruments for him to play with, but his favorite is a child-size guitar which he tucks under his arm to sing "Love Me Do" and "Yellow Submarine."

And at night, we cuddle and calm down to some wonderful lullaby music.

~ Anne from Stamford

Anonymous said...

I grew up dancing and my 2 daughters have been dancing since they were 3. They both want love musicals and dance and sing around the house. We would love to have a outing with the whole family.

Anonymous said...

We sing and dance all the time. We are also using music to teach our daughters about their heritage/religion (through CDs like Shira Kline's Sh-La-La Shabbat). A family musical outing would be awesome.

AmyBow, Norwalk, CT

Anonymous said...

My almost 3 year old loves music. He can say "Swingset Mama" when I turn on the music. He even says "I'm a drummer". We love to listen to classical, hard rock and music from different culturs. We would love to see Swingset Mamas live.

Aimee, Stamford