Music Class: It's Time to Move On

I used to teach pre-school music classes in my home. I really loved it, and I miss it. I have kept all the stuff thinking that one day I would start again. My kids are older now though, and I'm involved in other things that keep me busy. So, I'm finally thinking it's time to sell it and move on. If anyone is interested, let me know. It's a great way for a mom with little kids to make some money from home!

You do NOT have to be trained in music... it's mostly music appreciation, moving to music, using imagination and listening skills to "musically play" with puppets, parachutes, balls, and bubbles, and learn about creating music using a variety of musical instruments and sounds; singing, dancing, play acting, musical story telling, learn rhythm, rhyme, etc. It's very flexible so you can modify it to your strengths and interests. It's ideal for children ages 2.5 - 6. I usually kept class size at 8, but you could go up to 10 (there is enough stuff for that many).

If you know where I live you know that you don't even need a lot of space to do this.... I live in a 1400 sq. ft house and just held classes in my great room, pushing the furniture aside. I store the materials in the corners of my 2-car garage (and we park both our cars in there too).

Here is what I have for sale:
- Full music curriculum (lesson outlines, several semesters' worth, very flexible)
- Recorded Music (on disks, hundreds of songs)
- TONS of materials to go with each lesson! (e.g. musical instruments, puppets, rhythm instruments, electronic keyboards, items that coordinate with the theme for each lesson, etc... it's very hands on)
- Organized storage containers for all materials
- Website (simple design... I will update all the info to fit you)
- My help to get you started :)

If you think you might be interested contact me and come take a look at what I have, and I can explain it further if you aren't sure what it's all about.

I have no idea how much to ask for everything. The materials themselves are probably worth at least $3000, but I would never ask that much! I'm thinking about $1000-1500 OBO. And I'm definitely willing to let you pay me in installments (no interest). :)

Come take a look and see what you think.

The Laundry Chute (Life History Stories - #1)

The Laundry Chute
(Life History Stories)

When I was about 5 years old we moved into a house that my dad built on Lyn Rae Square in Mesa, Arizona.  It was a 2-story brick colonial with white columns and a large yard.*  It was a lovely home, and I'm sure I would appreciate the decor and well-designed floor plan now as an adult, but my 5-year-old self remembers the really cool things.... like the laundry chute in the upstairs bathroom.

The laundry chute was meant as a convenience for my mother (and I suppose for us kids too), magically making the dirty clothes from upstairs appear almost instantly downstairs in the laundry room.  (I think my dad is probably the one who included this feature, because I suspect my mom would have just put the laundry room itself upstairs.)  Rather than seeing it as a convenience, my sisters and brother and I used it as a means of entertainment, such as sending toys and other items on a wild (but short) ride to the ground floor.

I'm sure my older siblings have more frequent (and more accurate) memories of the laundry chute adventures, but I specifically remember wiggling down it myself on a particular occasion.  It was meant to be exciting but was rather frightening, though I imagined I would land on a soft pile of (dirty!) clothes.... which wasn't there.  Either it was "laundry day" and my mom had already retrieved all our soiled duds, OR (more likely) they were lying on the floor of our bedrooms.   At any rate, it wasn't a pleasant experience and I never journeyed through the laundry chute again (I must have been of above-average intelligence to have learned that lesson so quickly), though I do recall urging some of my younger siblings to do so themselves. 


* My family always refers to this home as "The Two-Story House" for a couple of reasons; 1) it's the only house my parents ever built that had an upper-story, and 2) we lived for many years in another house on the same street which had a basement (so it was "technically" 2-story), but no upper-story, so that's how we differentiate between the two.  "The Two-Story House" also had a basement though, so I guess technically it would be a 3-story house?

My Life History in 50 short posts in 2013

I accepted a friend's challenge to write 50 short stories from my life this year.  I need this challenge because for years (too many) I've had really good intentions of writing about my life.  It has always felt so overwhelming so I never did anything.  But I like the idea of just writing small bits and pieces here and there.  It doesn't have to be cohesive necessarily.  Just put it in writing!  I might as well start somewhere, right?

At first I thought I would create a separate blog just for this challenge, but I think that's getting out of hand.... I don't need another blog to keep track of.  So, I'll just be including them here, which I guess makes sense since this is my journal anyway.

So, welcome to my life... history.