Now that Mack is getting a bit older, and becoming more interested in socialization with other kids, we enrolled her in a musical playgroup that takes place down the street every Wednesday morning. Because Stefan was on vacation, he got to come with us last week so we actually had the opportunity to snap a few photos instead of usual routine of just trying to remember the lyrics and all the motions that go with each song.
As you may have noticed, Mackenzie looks pretty skeptical about what’s going on. She often looks like that during the playgroup. It lasts 1 hour and the first 45 minutes are spent singing and dancing…with the last 15 being a free-for-all on the toys in the house. Moms, dads and other caregivers stay during the entire session and we do all the hard work…the kids may or may not be interested in what we’re doing and, even though most of them are older than Mack by at least 6 months, they also don’t participate all that much in what’s going on. Some of them just run around the room…others act really shy like Mack. But where else is she going to learn to play the bongos at such a young age?
It’s a bit weird to sing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” in German…but sometimes I just sing the song in English anyway because the melody still flows the same. And I’m having to learn more songs and therefore more German which is never a bad thing. Every opportunity for Mack and myself to absorb more German is a good thing.
Stefan was actually a bit put off about the group because the one song he was familiar with actually had to be edited to protect innocent ears. One line of a song about a hunter and a rabbit talks about the hunter shooting the rabbit “dead.” But apparently using that word, even when the kids likely have no idea what it means or are even paying attention, is strictly verboten in this group. What’s funny is that the first time I heard the song, I was wondering what in the world the song meant since everyone just sings “the hunter shoots the rabbit BEEP.” But somehow on this particular day, it all started to make sense to me since I was finally starting to learn the words. Have we really started censoring kids songs now? I can hardly believe it.
It’s hard to say whether Mackenzie really likes the group. But she doesn’t scream or protest going so that must be a good sign. And I know she likes the last 15 minutes of play time since one of the toys that always gets brought out is a plastic farm that has all sorts of sound triggers in the horse pens, the chicken coop and more. It’s very cute and apparently also very fun to play with since most of the kids seem to find it entertaining. I’m pretty sure this last picture was taken just before it was announced that the toys were on their way out since she’s actually kinda smiling a bit. 😉
Over the next several weeks we’ll see if Mack really seems to get interested in the group or not. I was told by the group leader that it takes kids 10-20 sessions before they start to join in…and we’ve only signed up for 8 so far until the summer is over. After that, we’ll just be playing by ear (pardon the pun) as we see whether Mack warms up to it all or not. Maybe by then I will have learned the words to all the songs, too.
I’m glad I’m not the only one singing itsy bitsy spider in English… 🙂
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The problem is not at Mack’s age, or yours. The problem is when the older kids start “shooting each other dead”. My German brother-in-law is a mighty hunter (really) and his kids are not allowed to shoot each other, but they do indeed get the unexpurgated songs. There are a lot of them.
You know, my mother sent me “Babar” for my daughter and I started to read it. I had forgotten that his mother is shot dead in the first few pages and I just read along. Several sets of hysterics later, I do believe that I don’t want to discuss shooting and killing things with my children in a generic way. Specifically, we have talked about where meat comes from, how animals are killed to be eaten, what types of animals we eat, and so on. But casual killing talk is not part of our stories and, at the moment, I expurgate lots of stories for them (just like Disney). One of my stronger cildhood memories is the months of nightmares I had after my mom read me The Little Matchstick Girl (am I seeing a pattern here?).
Everyone makes their own judgments, but we also have our girls aware that they shouldn’t tell all the other children that the Easter Rabbit and Santa Claus are lies: we try to be gentle with other people’s foibles and parental ideas.
.-= G´s last blog ..Rolling with the Changes =-.
@Jentry — too bad we don’t live close to one another, we could teach the class a few songs in English as well as the German basics! 😉
@G — I don’t know exactly how old T1 & T2 are but I am certainly not suggesting that there should be anything casual about the discussion of killing or death. If they are old enough to understand the concept of death, then they should know that is a permanent thing. And thus one should not playfully kill another person — because that is indeed how accidents happen and children die. The images that a young child drew on the sidewalk outside his grandpa’s house down the street from us still haunt me months later…two armies lined up next to each other, all carrying huge weapons. And the kid can’t be more than 7 or 8. Whatever he’s being taught or watching at home makes me concerned.
As you mention, each parent has to decide for their child(ren) (and perhaps even per each child if they are very sensitive) what they should or should not be seeing or hearing. But if we’re going to just “bleep” out the words in the song that may be upsetting or cause parents to have conversations they wish to avoid, why not select a different song entirely that has nothing to do with hunters at all? There certainly must be 100’s of others that don’t deal with the subject.
The problem is, these are traditional German songs. I have a lot of books of such songs (gifts- we have more than 5 at a casual glance)and these are really traditional songs.And there are a lot of songs with hunters killing things. I think you are seeing a generational change and folks haven’t dealt with the issue with forethought (they might rewrite the songs if used on Sesame Street).
Look at Red Riding Hood. Here the Hunter kills the wolf and cuts the Oma out. The wolf is most thoroughly dead. My daughter has a party and invites the wolf because the first time I tried the traditional ending she said the wolf was just misunderstood.
People haven’t thought about it and then they need to handle it.
In a stranger way, I had the same issue with the word”pigtails” If only I spoke German, this would not have been an issue (here it would be a Zopf). My daughter wouldn’t wear a pigtail because pigs aren’t kosher. So we called it a spidertail. And now she loves spiders.
Ah, the unforeseen consequences (I have a phobia).
.-= G´s last blog ..Rolling with the Changes =-.
The question in my mind is whether these stories were really ever intended for the small children they are now read/sung to… Or maybe parents just did not care that kids were scared by the stories and/or told them to teach a lesson? Most of the Brothers’ Grimm tales are definitely not intended for kids — even Hansel & Gretel has kids throwing a witch into an oven. Sure she’s a witch who tries to eat them, and it was self defense…but I’m sure you see where I’m going with that. I don’t doubt that there’s a big generational change…but I don’t know whether it’s all for the best. And I fear that just as with many issues in life, parents today will often choose to just overlook things or hope someone else teaches their kids everything instead of bearing that responsibility themselves. When the new generation can sit in front of a PC or the TV all day and kill things but is upset about a song they hear in school, we have problems. Of course, we have problems just because those kids are inside all day melting their brains instead of outside burning up energy, learning how to get their hands dirty and exploring. But I digress. I’m sure we’ll have plenty to discuss at the meetup 😉
At least with the songs- my in-laws do sing (and play instruments!) just about every night and they do use these songs (with hunters and killing). My in-law is a 1-3 grade teacher: hunting used to be an accepted part of this (and many other) culture. Definitely, parents need to think about it.
But I often feel like I play a wildly catch up game as they get older. I’m grateful that we live in a very controlled environment because it would be much harder in the US.
Sometimes, you don’t know what you think about something until you have to actually think about how it impacts others (especially children). And of course, age dependency is wildly variable.
Looking forward to the meet up- my older will be all over M- she adores babies.
.-= G´s last blog ..Rolling with the Changes =-.
I grew up in Texas…I went hunting as a child (under 5yo) and my family still hunts — for meat, not sport. There are lots of photos of me with a deer head in front of me after we’d gotten it home. I think that those families that still hunt & trap are bound to have kids with a better understanding of what it means to kill. Guns were all over my house growing up but I knew from a very early age that they weren’t toys. Kids that live in the city and have never been exposed to stuff like that will certainly have a harder time. I mean we have kids in America (and probably here as well) that don’t even know hamburger meat comes from cows and milk does too — not just from some carton in the grocery store which magically appears. I’m all for protecting your children and being sensitive to the feelings of everyone, and I’m sure my thoughts may change as Mack grows older…but I do worry that many of the changes in modern society are not for the better but for the much, much worse.
I’m sure Mack will be thrilled to meet your girls. She loves kids of all ages right now 🙂