It all started because we were looking for Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet for Catherine. She's dancing to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in ballet class this month and wanted the music so she could dance to it dance at home. While we were looking for Tchaikovsky we came across a bunch of other holiday music that we wanted to get too. (More than we could get on our card, as a matter of fact, so we had to put back a few that we really wanted.) We didn't have anywhere to be today, so we decided to hang out in our pj's and make cookies and tea while listening to all the crazy music we picked out. We started off the morning with The Brian Setzer Orchestra's Boogie Woogie Christmas, then moved on to a compilation of Doo Wop Christmas songs. Now we're listening to Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Christmas Novelty CD of All-time.
I started swing dancing around the living room to Boogie Woogie Christmas, so in order to prove to my son that I wasn't completely insane we took a break from our premature holiday celebration to watch a bunch of swing dancers on youtube. We talked about things like prohibition and fashion for a while, then we talked about the changes in the way people dressed and wore their hair from the 20's to today and why some fashions that don't seem bad by today's standards were considered risque back then. We talked about women voting again (that's been a frequent topic the laste month or so) and racism. We talked about the way dancing has changed too, which brought up dance dance revolution and the kids' wish lists. (Cameron recently became hooked on DDR and it's at the top of his list.) That led us to talking about what they would like to get for other people, so Cameron called his friend's mom to ask some questions about what her baby brother would like. That sort of stuff went on for a while, then we put in Doo Wop Christmas and a similar thing happened. We stopped listening to it for a while to watch some Sha Na Na, Chubby Checker's The Twist, Elvis, and a few others. We talked about their clothes and hair again and discussed when Elvis went off to war, which sent us off on a tangents on the Viet Nam war and tuberculosis, then WWII, and several other things that I don't even remember anymore.
I've said many times and I'll say it again...ANYTHING can send us off on a learning streak, and this is a good example. We started out going to the library to get a book, ended up getting The Nutcracker Ballet on video, which reminded us we wanted to look for the music. We ended up with music we didn't even plan on getting, which led us to all sorts of questions and discussions on everything from history to the origins of words. It always starts off so simply. Something sparks a conversation or question, which leads to explanations and searching for answers, which leads to even more conversation and questions, etc. and before you know it...KABOOM! A learning explosion! This is just the way learning happens for us. Very naturally and effortlessly and based on whatever our interests are at the moment. Even though I've watched this process more more times than I could possibly count, it's always interesting to see where one will lead because you never know where they will lead. Who would believe that Doo Wap Christmas music could lead to a discussion on tuberculosis hopitals? LOL
I'm sure we'll be having lots more conversations and looking up many other things today as we listen to our music and go about our day. We've still got several Celtic Christmas CDs, the Bob Rivers Comedy Group's Twisted Christmas, and Windham Hill's Winter Solstice to listen to. (Oh, and New Wave Halloween too. LOL)
And yes, amazingly enough, we actually DID remember to get the Tchaikovsky CD!
No comments:
Post a Comment