Representing The Nields

Lucy's Nields project is still going strong, and it is so exciting to see all the many ways she's found to pursue this passion.  In just one day this week, she:

Told imaginative stories with Nerissa and Katryna as the main characters.  (I didn't write them down, and am wishing I had!  Will return to that...).  She tells stories about "when Nerissa and Katryna were little" or about the reasons they did what they did in concert. 

Imagined how Katryna might do things: "I think Katryna would do it like this, don't you?"  (Katryna has a unique loose-limbed way of dancing, a quick smile, and a sense of humor that Lucy appreciates, and she's applying those characteristics to aspects of her own life, like how Katryna might paint.)

Pretended to be Nerissa in dramatic play, asking me to be Katryna.  "I like doing them.  I mean making--doing it with ourselves.  With our bodies."

Painted several pictures of them.  I was preparing materials for the kids to paint something else, and she told me "I'm going to do something different.   I'm going to paint Nerissa and Katryna."  I asked if she'd like to look at their photo for reference, and photocopied it from their book. She cut around the photo and clipped it to the easel. 

She began with the portrait, and then added imaginative elements:

Katryna, in red, has just stepped out of the shower, and water is spiraling down from her hair and puddling below.  Nerissa, in blue, is holding a guitar and dripping from the shower, too.

Her next painting showed Katryna and her daughter on a path, across the street from a building where they were to have a concert, with a crosswalk leading to the building.   She was thrilled with how it came out:

She was much less thrilled when she tried to draw clasped hands ("I think Katryna and Nerissa would hold hands, don't you?") and Nerissa's guitar.  She's not very confident in her drawing abilities yet, but was motivated by this passionate interest to keep trying through the tears.  (Below, she's starting again, after scribbling out one attempt.)
 
Read her book to a friend.  Here, she's showing a picture she drew of Katryna throwing up (she's fascinated with throw up these days).  Her book's waiting beside her: she read the title and sang every song.  She's also got Singing in the Kitchen "in case C. and E. want to know more about Katryna and Nerissa."

Dictated a note to the families in my program about the Nields.  (I'd asked the kids' help in writing an email about something else, and she asked me to add this.)  "Favorite singers: Nerissa and Katryna.  Are my favorites of singers.  And Nerissa and Katryna are my favorites because they sing all these good songs.  And they sing (she bursts into song) 'Babar the elephant rides the elevator up, up, up, up, up!  Babar the elephant rides the elevator down, down, down, down, down.'  That's one of their songs.  And they sing 'Living on a farm, an organic farm.  And on that farm there was an organic chicken, and the chicken said bok, bok, bok, bok, bok, bok.  And the chicken laid eggs.  And the chicken had a baby, and they called it a chick.'"

Wrote her own song (about doctors) while playing guitar.

Gave guitar lessons" a la Nerissa.  She'd wanted to have her guitar out while the kids were here, but didn't really want to share it with them--until I told her that Nerissa teaches guitar lessons.  Suddenly, she was eager to "teach" the kids how to play.

The Nields project

Lucy has a new love.

Almost from day one, she has disliked it when we sing, or when we listen to CDs.  Early on, she took a music class with Katryna and Nerissa Nields, and she enjoyed it.  But she's a talker.  And if we sing--or listen to music--we're not available for conversation.  No good.  So she'd usually ask us to stop, or turn it off, or she'd just talk right over the music.

But we love music.  So we kept on trying.  And for some reason, seeing the Nields at First Night this year flipped a switch.

Three weeks later, she's still singing all the songs they sang that night.  And asking us, again and again and again to talk about when Katryna fell asleep.  (You know the song "Mama's Taking Us to the Zoo Tomorrow?" When they sang about getting sleepy on the way home, Katryna yawned, sang slower and slower, sat, lay down, and eventually snored.)   "I can't stop talking about that snoring part!  I have to laugh every time we talk about it; I can't stop."

That part had made a huge impression.  So had the motions that Katryna used while they sang.  She loved the flailing hands for "in cases of emergency," and from that, was able to remember the whole song:
She was so interested, I pulled out the Nields' CDs which have been gathering dust for a while as she's been uninterested. Suddenly, we're all singing the songs together with joy (oh, what joy!).

One song on a CD got her wondering.  What does "Mango Walk" mean?  I remembered that they had explained it in their book, so I pulled it out.   Now she had a new avenue for her Nields' research.  "I can't stop looking at the photo in the Singing in the Kitchen book."  She turned the book back and lay it on her pillow, photo up, to study before going to sleep at night.  We could hear her after lights out, reciting to herself "Katryna and Nerissa.  Katryna and Nerissa."  She flipped through the book, studying each of Katryna's little sketches, matching each one to a person, or a song.

It seemed to give her an idea.  Maybe she could draw them, too.  Yesterday, she emerged from the studio with a drawing of two faces on an index card.  "It's Katryna and Nerissa."  Then she left and came back with another drawing: "it's the train song!  That's the chain, and that's the train, and those are the people inside, and that's a singer." 


 I asked if she might like to draw some of their other songs.  She loved the idea!  She ran back and forth, showing us each as she finished.  I wondered if she might like to put them into a book.  YES!

She decided her book should have only songs they sang at First Night.  After she drew them, we discussed what lyrics should be added, and I took her dictation for those and for a title.  She found an illustration of a singer on stage, and was inspired to cut it out and add it to her cover.

I loved her little book so much, I wanted to share it with Katryna (who'd once been a parent in my classroom).  So we made a copy, added a letter, and it's in the mail.  (Lucy's quotations here are from her letter.)

Today, she played guitar (being Nerissa) and directed me to be Katryna, and we sang and bantered back and forth as they do.  "I like to play Katryna and Nerissa."  Later, we took a walk around the block, and the whole way, she kept us in persona, asking me to tell stories with her that we "remembered" from when we were girls.  ("Katryna, remember when you were sick, and you threw up...?")

I'm loving this project of hers, and can't wait to see where it takes us next.

Yarn along: tying up loose ends

I finished two crochet projects yesterday! (Well, almost; just need to weave in ends.)

I finally did the sock-monkey coffee-cozy I'd intended for a Christmas gift for my sister. (It got bumped for her birthday next week.) Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to fit an actual take-out cup! (Not without spilled coffee everywhere.) It's awfully cute, though. Shoot. (Edited to add: it fits!)

And I finished my purple cardiff cowl. Next up is Lucy's matching one, by request, and then I'm going to move on to something other than cowls (I've made 5 of these since Thanksgiving!)

I'm reading a bit of fluff at the moment, because I just finished something horrifying. I'm also reading All Together Singing in the Kitchen, written by local musicians/former parent-in-my-classroom/Lucy's infant music teachers Katryna and Nerissa Neilds. Like me, they were raised in a musical home, with parents who made music and instruments all around, and it really shaped who they are. I've just begun the book, but I can tell already it's going to be inspiring and useful. (There are little ideas that are so obvious, but somehow I hadn't thought of them. Like sitting at the piano, playing a note, and playing match-the-note, singing it with your child. Lucy loves to play at the piano, and would enjoy a simple game like that.)

What are you working on? Check out Ginny's yarn along for more inspiration.

Play keys

Lacking the piano I grew up with and crave at Christmas, Andi decided to dust off her high school flute and learn some carols. She began with "What Child is This?" Of course, Lucy wanted to "play keys!", so she got to join in awhile. No carol ever sounded sweeter.