Musical Musings

Grace came to work with me last night. This is not an unusual thing. Much of what I do consists of meetings, games, and performances at night and on weekends. At some points during this last year I felt like Grace was becoming our school's mascot since she was coming to many things. There are some events that really are not appropriate for her, but working in a school, most people encourage (or at least don't mind) when kids are around. After all, kids are our "business".What made last night unique was that it was a district meeting for parents of gifted and talented kids. Now, I didn't attend because I think Grace is gifted. (Of course she IS, but that was not my motivation for going). I went there to learn about a part of the educational system that I don't have much experience with. I oversee the special education in my school, so I don't often get exposure to the other end of the spectrum. One thing I learned last night was that in order for a child to receive "gifted enrichment" they need to demonstrate a cognitive ability (IQ) of 130 and above. Wow! That seems high. But in our district the average IQ is over 110 so it stands to reason you would need to be pretty far beyond that to qualify as gifted.

So, where am I going with this?

It was interesting to listen to the parents of these exceptional children who were always looking for ways to nurture and challenge their kids. One parent mentioned how her son excelled in math and science and the presenter talked about 2nd graders who had book study groups where they discussed novels they were reading. Again, Wow! So it got me to thinking....once a child is in school the teachers will figure out if they excel in a certain area, but what about before then?

I have said before that Grace loves music and it worries me a little because that is an area where I have absolutely no talent and no experience. I have been buying her CDs (three came today: Bach for Babies, The Mozart Effect, and (my favorite so far) Beethoven Lives Upstairs - all of which I discovered from searching the internet about nurturing a love of music in toddlers. Kyle looked into piano lessons and I contacted a Suzuki music school in our area. She could start those when she is 3 but the teachers encouraged having her listen to all kinds of music, as often as possible. Not a problem. She asks for music all the time. I started wondering if there was an Mp3 player made for toddlers. It would make her independent when she wanted to listen to music instead of having to ask me for "me-miss" (her word for music) and we could take it with us wherever we go. I have never seen any of these Mp3 players in the stores but at Sweet Pea (a Canadian company) I found this:

It is an Mp3 player for toddlers with only 3 buttons . You can download age-appropriate stories and music from the internet. The reviews are pretty good and they say that kids even younger than Grace manage to learn to turn it on/off and sort through the songs. It doesn't have a ton of memory and it uses regular batteries, but those don't seem to be huge impediments for people who have purchased it. So, what do you think? Does Grace need one of these?

Okay, I know she doesn't need it but it could be a good birthday present....