3Ds

Recently, our van was out of commission for about 3 weeks, so we have ridden in my car everywhere. I am much more sensitive to what is on in my car now that I have kids in it most of the time, and so in order to keep them from listening to the ridiculousness that is Top 40 music (I swear, even three years ago, it wasn't so bad, but now it's five-word lyrics repeated over and over again about sex, which is annoying.). The 3Ds CD was in the disc slot, and one day I turned it on in desperation. I didn't actually think they would like it at all, but they have really enjoyed listening to the 3Ds poems. They have asked me to interpret each song. We are working on lyric interpretation, as most of their listening is top 40 pop (which they get from a source that is not me) or electronic music (their dad) or classical (me), so they have not had a lot of experience doing such. I never realized that listening to Simon & Garfunkel or the Beatles or Tom Petty or even Fleetwood Mac and understanding the lyrics could be difficult. But to some people, poems are really hard to interpret. So for now, I am lending my interpretation skills.

Their favorite, by far, is the Jabberwocky.   They love to do the high pitched "whiffle, whiffle!" with me. I used to quote it and they had no idea what I was talking about. But now they love it!

They needed explanation on "The Crayon Box" and "Gunga Din" multiple times. They sang them over and over again. N3 often sings parts of "Vinegar Man" randomly about the house. "Let's hear it again!" they say, and "Don't listen to it without me!"

I didn't remember that so many of the poems were about people dying. My kids are very sensitive, so I was afraid that it would make them emotional or ask awkward questions, but it was actually a really good discussion base. I have found that as a parent, if you go into answering any question with the mindset of "how can I be a good educator, and give them the full picture, with the least amount of bias possible and so they can understand it" instead of being at all worried about my own feelings, it goes a long way to having productive and really actually non-embarrassing conversations about a lot of things.

As I listened to the poems again, I thought about how different my perspective is now that I am an adult and a parent. As a kid, I thought that the Charge of the Light Brigade was saying, "Happily, happily, happily onward!" not "half a league". And I didn't realize that so many of them died...I just focused on the fact that I liked how the song was produced.

If you haven't listened lately, you should. It's a great record, for a lot of reasons.

http://www.phoenixrecords.org/inalbums.php