If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!

Amity finally has a party trick! And, apparently, so does her father!

You see, I seem to have a mental block to remembering the words to "Patty Cake". All of the developmental milestone lists (and people in the grocery store) tell me that I am supposed to be teaching her this rhyme. Well, I have tried printing out the words from the Internet and have even asked different people to tutor me but I can still get no further than "Patty cake, patty cake, baker's man, bake me a cake as fast as you can. Roll it and..."
So, I decided to go with a simpler option sung to the tune of "Skip to My Lou"::
Clap, clap, clap your hands
Clap, clap, clap your hands
Clap, clap, clap your hands
Clap your hands together

It is amazing that I used to be able to memorize "Jabberwocky" in the fifth grade. What good has that done me?

We are finding that having a child is providing for some great examples to use in our roles as a counselor and facilitator. Here is what Dennis typed in an e-mail to his staff last week (please read the sarcasm in his comment about my voice!):

Candis and I were sitting down to breakfast this morning and had kind of a “common sense” epiphany. Candis has been singing a little song to Amity with the words “clap your hands” (I tried to sing it to her this morning and she just looked at me like…well, like who taught me how to sing!)…of course, there is a visual demonstration to go along with my wife’s melodious voice. Well, as of yesterday, Amity started clapping her hands when Candis would sing the song. It spurred the discussion this morning that we often times as teachers say that we have taught kids something without seeing any demonstration of learning…as parents we hadn’t considered that Amity had learned the “clapping” until she actually started doing it on her own. I know this is so simple and common “sensish”, but I just wanted to share it with each of you.

Unfortunately our current system doesn’t always allow us the necessary time to witness actual learning taking place (the clapping thing definitely didn’t happen over night), but rather forces us to move forward in an effort to cover all of the required material. As professionals, it is important that we work together to develop strategies that help our students experience success within the required timelines. We welcome any suggestions you have.

Well said! Maybe I should allow myself some more time to learn to "Patty Cake"!