I can’t sing the praises of choirs, especially kids’ choruses, enough. I spent many years of my own childhood singing in them, and started one (at the instigation and leadership of my own daughter) about a year go. We started building a small, folksy chorus for mostly homeschooled kids who would come from all over Ottawa and rehearse once a week in the morning. And it grew and grew. And now we have an established choral community – a group of families supporting this choir as it evolves and strengthens. Next fall some of the younger sibilings who have been waiting patiently and anxiously to join will have their turn.

We know a lot about what singing, especially in a group form like a choir, does for kids.

- It fosters creativity

- Gives kids a bridge into other musical and peformance media like studying an instrument, theatre and helps to tune their ears

- Encourages memory

- Builds practice habits and concentration

- Gives kids the chance to gain the confidence to speak and sing in front of others

- Teamwork, all of the wonderful benefits of supporting one another as a team

- The importance of being punctual and showing up when you say you will

But sadly there seems to be a decline in choirs. Fewer choirs in schools, communities and cities. There’s probably a myriad of reasons for that, but I’ve always thought it’s best to start small, and make positive change from the ground up – right where you live. From your own family outwards. So that’s what we did!

If you have been thinking about starting a choir where you live, especially if you happen to homeschool or your children don’t have a choir in their school, here are some ideas and tips – things we’ve learned over the last year.

ONE – Be super excited about it (and talk about it everywhere you go)

Before we actually found the right person to lead it, and long before anybody was signed up, my daughter and I talked about this new choir everywhere we went. The community garden, the farmer’s market, play groups, play dates, with neighbors and everyone at the local Folk Music Store/ Music School. Sometimes gossip and “word getting around” is a really great thing, and we tried to use it to our advantage. It didn’t matter if it hadn’t actually been created yet.

TWO – Ask around and thread your way to the right person to lead the choir

Finding the right person to lead your choir is the most difficult, and most important challenge. In our case, we needed someone who was available during the day, excited to work with younger children, very musically talented (a musician!) and so much more. We started by asking recent Teaching Education (i.e. teacher) graduates in Music and while enthusiastic, most of these people were in the midst of securing full time teaching positions in schools. But it might be a great option for someone who is between such positions. And then we asked people in Ottawa’s music community, and threaded our way to the right person.

THREE – Find a quiet, calm space to rehearse

Since kids can easily be overstimulated and overwhelmed with noise, adult conversations, etc. we wanted to make sure they had every opportunity to concentrate and learn together. We also wanted the choir to become routine in their lives (and ours) so we picked a day and time and stuck to it. We ended up finding a neighborhood church who lets us use their quiet, calm basement in the morning. There are doors to a small waiting area where moms and dads and siblings can hang out.

FOUR – Focus on process, not performance

So much musical learning happens outside of actual performances. And being a bit more laid-back and easy-going in terms of choir culture means that the focus is on what happens each Thursday morning, not what happens during their infrequent performances. Every few months they will sing at a retirement home, a coffee house or on a proper stage for family and friends. It’s fun, and helps build critical performance skills. But it’s not really what it’s all about. By keeping it light and fun, it means less anxiety for the kids and less tension around the concerts.

FIVE – Keep the cost low

If you can find a space that is largely free (or charges a minimal fee) you can really keep your costs down. Lots of concert venues are free (coffee houses are a good example), you just need to think creatively about where a concert can take place. Keeping it affordable helps siblings participate together, and helps open the door to lots of families.

SIX – Have shows for fun, at coffee houses, outdoors… anywhere!

One need not rent an expensive hall or Church sanctuary for a concert. A show can happen almost anywhere!

SEVEN – Encourage team spirit and have the kids commit to learning the material

Much like a team, a choir is made of children who sing and support one another. Having the children commit to practicing at home and learning all the words is a great way to build team spirit and help the choir progress.

EIGHT – Be sensitive to age ranges, developmental grouping

We have found that 4 or 4 and a half to about eight or nine works pretty well for a larger group. A smaller group might be best with kids in the 5-7 (or Kindergarten) age range. Doing a separate choir for pre-teens and teens is probably best as their musical taste and interests are more than likely to be different.

NINE – Build a song community, and keep it going

Once you’ve got your choir started, made it past the initial weeks and months of growing pains and everyone learning to trust one another and work together…. keep it going! Find new members, make concert plans and talk about ideas for next semester / year.

TEN – Logo and t-shirts

We had a simple logo made, and used it to print on some t-shirts for the kids to wear as a uniform. We noticed a real change as soon as the tshirts came – it seems to unify them and make them feel special, as a team. There are a few great custom t shirt printers around who use organic American Apparel shirts, and non-toxic, water-based inks.

If you have started, or participate in a choir – what other tips or ideas do you have?

I’ve always wished I could peek right into the 1920s, an era whose style can be very captivating. Flappers and Prohibition and the music and dancing… Family photos and stories passed down from that time are filled with interesting nuggets too. The Roaring 20s saw very important progress for women. I suppose if I was handed a time machine and offered a visit back, I’d probably start there.

Hats were all the rage then, especially ones adorned with feathers and jewelry. So we decided, my Little One and I, to see if we could make a rather quick hat, topped with a few feathers and a lot of simple glamour. And so we did.

We used:

- some pretty blue cotton fabric

- a paper pattern

- thread, scissors

- some wool for light stuffing

- peacock feathers

- pipe cleaners (our favorites are the lead-free, stainless steel ones)

- a flexible, plastic, fabric-covered headband

First we made a paper pattern in an oblong, rounded shape, and used it to trace around on the wrong side of the fabric (fabric which had been folded over with both “good” sides facing each other so that when we cut we would be cutting out both pieces together).

It’s best to leave yourself plenty of seam allowance when you cut, and also not to cut all the way around, which will ensure that both pieces stay lined up together.

Then we sewed nearly all the way around the piece on the machine. We left one end open – as we would need that for turning it inside out, putting in the pipe cleaners and fashioning the hat.

Next we turned the blue sewn piece inside out, and got our pipe cleaners ready.

Then we twisted pipe cleaners together to create a  pipe cleaner shape that matched the oustide edge of the sewn blue hat piece. You may need to cut a pipe cleaner in half to get the right size.

Then we slid the pipe cleaners inside the hat piece, through the open end. We made a sort of sandwich, with the pipe cleaner oval tucked right at the edge of the blue hat piece, inside.

Next we secured the pipe cleaners where we wanted them – right at the edge. Using a long needle and some matching thread, we sewed carefully around the inside so that the pipe cleaners would stay put. The pipe cleaner edge allows you to shape the hat piece.

Next we finished the open edge by shaping the pipe cleaners and then tucking in the raw edges of the fabric to make a clean seam we sewed by hand. But before we did, we added some carded wool to add depth and shape to the hat.

Once we shaped the hat piece the way we wanted it, we placed it off center on a plastic, fabric-covered head band, and sewed it on from underneath.

Next we took out our peacock feathers, and chose a few to sit on the hat.

We sewed those carefully onto the hat, focussing on the hard quill sections.

And there you have it, a fabulous, feathered, vintage-inspired hat. A wonderful dress-up prop for pretend play. And for a child like mine who has a keen interest in history and historical fashion? A very quick craft they can help in! Happy hat-ting.

Not only are my son’s favorite pants blue but they are thick and strong and protect his growing knees from scrapes. Jeans are a staple of his wardrobe when he leaves the house. And luckily they don’t easily show dirt or sand. The one problem? With summer heat, they are just too warm. For a while I pondered what to do, and then came across this amazing (truly amazing) hemp organic cotton, yarn dyed fabric that is soft, thin and very strong. Summer jeans!

We sewed them up using his favorite jeans (European designed Maxmorra ones that have elastic around the back, flat fronts with big pockets, lots of room for bulky cloth diapers and sweet elasticized ankles to keep the dirt and bugs out).

Since he’s growing a little lot fast these days, we made them extra long and are rolling/cuffing the bottoms so he has a little bit of extra room.

The fabric is delightful, and I can think of so many other things to make in it, like a summer romper for my daughter. The Raw Edge shop (an Ontario, Canada-based store) sells the fabric by the yard, and has lots of other yummy fabrics too. I love that the denim is a gray blue rather than a traditional brighter blue.

What are you sewing these days?

I think it’s a harbinger of things to come, this early canning. As I  lugged up the canner and jars from the basement, twice this week during the first few days of June, I thought about all of the food I wanted to put away this summer at its peak of freshness. Partly to save on precious freezer room and partly because the man lion cub can out-eat his much older sister most days, and his long list of allergies and restrictions mean any food I’ve put my hands on and processed myself makes things a whole lot easier. In the end.

I found out a few wonderful things about rhubarb this year as I played around with how to prepare it.

I decided to try leaving a huge bowl of rhubarb out for about half a day. I cut it all up and tossed in some sugar (perhaps 1/2 cup total for the big bowl). A small sprinkling on every piece. It turns out that doing so produced the sweetest batch of rhubarb I’ve ever tasted! While it sat, the rhubarb let out tons of sweet juices and some of the bitterness seemed to go away. I added a touch of cinnamon as I cooked up the sauce, and it changed the color every so slightly and made the sauce even more delicious.

I kept having to remind myself that I was there to can, and preserve and put away. Not put in my tummy Hope you’re having a great week!

I’m trying to soak it all in, this very special time of year. The sweet spot of spring, the magical time just before summer, when the prettiest flowers bloom and time seems to stand still. The raised garden beds are planted, with hopes for green shoots and tender veggies patted with love into the dirt (along with our favorite heirloom organic seeds from Cubit‘s in Toronto).

All the ingredients of post-winter bliss are here: the sun’s warmth and long days, botanical bloom, splendid new beginnings, and so much to look forward to. With bits of our rhythm and routine, and homeschooling classes coming to an end (but not just quite yet) it’s a sweet time. Granted, would be a wee bit sweeter still if I could convince a certain little man-cub to not take off at a mad sprint on the (very busy) city sidewalk at the first opportunity. Every single time. Ah, but new beginnings must come in so many ways, right?

There’s one place no sprinting happens. The garden. And for that, I am ever so delighted.

Puppets are so very entertaining and charming, especially for little ones. When I see my children use puppets I see their creative imaginations reflecting in engaged play. The stories, even out of a just-turned-2-year-old, are fascinating, and repeated over and over in the joyful ways kids figure the world out.

This year he watched his big sister craft puppet theatres out of big old boxes, and make a shadow puppet stage from a cake box, with carefully cut little black construction paper figures, glued onto popsicle sticks. We gathered up all the puppet-like things we had in the house – a few finger puppets, a sweet fairy bendy doll with wings, an old felt pink pig from when I was a kid, a beautiful Waldorf puppet Mama Earth I was sent in this swap awhile back…. and we realized we were sort of short on animals. And mouth puppets. And in the world of my son, specifically one type of animal mouth puppet. A blue hippo.

Luckily for us, I had seen just the shop – Petitacosa – I knew I would approach about changing up the color of her already very cute crocheted hippo puppet. And we had to get the alligator at the same time.

The puppets are absolutely fantastic. They fit wonderfully on his hands, and the blue hippo has a very special place in his heart. And play.

“Tulips” in Italian. Doesn’t the word sound so much more dramatic, so much more beautiful?

Ottawa goes nuts for tulips every spring, and plants thousands upon thousands of them every fall.

Here are some shots from this year’s celebration.

Going to make myself some rhubarb grenadine like this. You need to do this too, I think. ‘Cuz roasted rhubarb and rhubarb crisp and strawberry rhubarb pie are all quite delicious, but this drink sounds delectable.

(photo, and inspiration via The Boys Club)

A huge thank you to Kirsten and Liz from Cool Mom Picks for noticing our organic dresses, and posting about them this week! We’ve been working hard to add lots of new ones to our line-up, including the stretchy organic knit purple polka-dot one that I think I like best.

This golden yellow certified Oeko-Tex dress has an organic sateen botanical print applique in the center.

And this is our cloud dress, ready to ship in Size 2T, made with Cloud 9 organic cloud cotton, and our own cloud applique

And here’s our mermaid dress, made with our newest design, artfully executed and made real(ly beautiful) by the fantastically talented artist Adrienne, whose shop you can find here. We turned it into fabric, and also sell it as a big organic soft mermaid pillow toy.

A little visual feast today, of spring-y things that I truly wished could be sampled right off the Etsy screen.

Organic sorghum syrup, made from the gluten-free grain the old-fashioned way. I’d love to try this in place of molasses or even maple syrup. Have you ever tried it or made it?

A handmade little organic cotton blouse by malmoda.

Organic parsnips!

These original mason jar tumblers from TheMasonBarCompany

………

Have a great week!