Raffi Comes to Malaysia

I am delighted that I found a way to get Raffi music for Malaysia.  Soon the little people here will be chanting Robin in the Rain and Baby Beluga just like my own children many years ago.  Thanks to Jason who got this ball rolling and to Raffi who made it happen.

I will definitely post a You Tube of the singers once the music is here, practiced, and performed.  Maybe Down by the Bay will be the first recital - watermelons are everywhere. It is funny how the songs have been stored in my bean over the years. When I think of Raffi I can (badly) sing all the tunes because they never leave one's memory.  My grandson can attest to that from the various car trips we took together and sang along with his and my own favourites.

This morning I will be visiting classrooms and having photos taken of me with the kiddos.  Guess I better figure out a way to tame my unruly hair. The M o E wants pictures of me interacting with the children.  I have tons of photos of the children, but being the photographer; none of myself.  Yesterday I visited a class that remembered me reading Hand Hand Fingers Thumbs to an entire school assembly. After playing several learning games and reading a book, they kept pounding on their desks and saying monkeys.  They loved that story and wanted it now! It was quite fun, and very loud.  I did not have the book with me but that did not matter. We sang it from memory and I was accompanied by all of them with actions and voice.  The applause when it is over makes me think that I might just trick myself into thinking I am a gifted singer.

I got the best feedback yesterday regarding my travelling library.  While at a school, the teacher approached me and said that her students would not settle down for the class she had prepared.  Many students were handing her story books that they brought from home and wanted her to read them. Seems that what I intended to happen with the library books they read in the little cart is happening here.  Once she read one of the stories, they settled into working.  I pointed out that what I wanted was for the children to 'want to read, not have to read' and that is exactly what is happening.  A very nice way to end a week, huh?

I now am imagining Raffi songs and various books that have been burned into the hard drive of the brains of these kids being chanted throughout the corridors of the schools in the very near future. The books are already being chanted; now time for the songs.