Daily Dance Party Let’s TALK Kids Claudia Quigg ------

A young mother I know They are learning music discovered a great way to beat appreciation, but it just feels the doldrums after a long like play. They get a glimpse winter of snow and sniffles. that their mom is really funny—a goofball, actually— She’d had it with being cooped in a way that they don’t see up with little children all day when she is doing laundry and long staring at the same four wiping their noses. Her walls. They’d read every exaggerated dance movements book, played with every toy, entice them to try new steps watched every DVD in their themselves. collection. They couldn’t really get out because one of the babies seemed to Music provides a great way to learn about our own always have a virus. By the end of every afternoon, culture and others’, too. Children can first learn they were cranky and bored. about Argentina and Jamaica as parents turn on the exotic sounds. Lyrics sung in foreign languages So she established the Daily Dance Party. Every introduce children to the sounds of other tongues. afternoon at four, they push the furniture back, clear We can share the enjoyment of other people’s music away the toys and other childhood debris, and crank and wonder what it must be like to be them. I know a up the stereo to the sounds of music. little Jewish boy who most loved listening to Mahalia Jackson singing gospel music when he was a toddler. From Bill Hailey and the Comets, Gladys Knight and the Pips and the London Symphony to Harry What began as a transition into a happier evening has Belafonte, the Andrews Sisters and the Beach Boys, become a beloved daily ritual for the Dance Party they listen and they dance their legs off. They put family. The children of this family are proud of their silly dramatic expressions on their faces as they dancing prowess and look forward to the dance party attempt the tango. They hold their bodies erect as every day. Once again, I am inspired by parents’ they count to three and waltz. They point their creative solutions for their families’ lives. There are fingers a la John Travolta as they disco. They do many opportunities for parents to show their children ballet to Debussy. They do the swim and the shag how much they care. So crank it up, break out the with the Dave Clark Five. They move and they disco ball, and prepare for merry memories in the move, in wild abandon. Even the baby gets involved, making. waving his chubby arms and bouncing his head in time to the beat. Claudia Quigg is Founder and Executive They have learned that music has charms that soothe Director of Baby TALK www.babytalk.org. the savage beast. The arsenic hour that creeps in late Contact her at [email protected] in the day for most of us can be banished by music and dancing. The endorphins elevate their mood, and Let’s TALK, Copyright © 2012 by Claudia Quigg. the sweat shining on their brows indicates that they All Rights Reserved. are getting some pretty good exercise.