Music media
The other day a mom of older kids gave M+O each an old cassette tapes of kids' music, so now we have some vintage Raffi and WeeSing going on at our house. Woo hoo! The most amusing part is that the girls are fascinated with the cassette tapes. They want to hold them constantly. They try to take the cases apart. They put the little folded covers out and put them in again incessantly. Once one of them pulled the brown magnetic tape out a bit, looked up at me and said, "oops mama." They can't seem to remember the word "tape" so they call them "those small CD thingys."
This weekend when we set out for an errand both girls protested taking the minivan. NOOOO! SUBARUUUU! They never ask to take the Subaru, it's harder to crawl into and the carseats there don't accomodate winter coats well. But, I quickly figured out, the Subaru has a tape deck. No, I promised, opting for driver ease and preschooler comfort, we'll listen to them on the totally ancient boom box when we get home.
So, after days of carrying the tapes around like treasures they gathered in our room around the boom box , and listened. (the boom box's normal function is to channel NPR to me while I get dressed in the morning -- it's old, ugly, and clunky, but Martha Stewart hasn't gotten to our bedroom yet, and we're frugal, so it's just fine for its NPR purpose). To them, it was just another way to hear "Baby Beluga." I thought perhaps they'd make connections about CDs and tapes and realize that there is an older way of hearing music, but no. I thought they'd remark about how we don't have any tapes other than these, but no. I thought they'd at least ask why they only see CDs and the ipod when we play music, but no. They're not old enough to get that there's technology they haven't encountered, it's all current in their reality. These are children who already know how to use a computer mouse, and who will someday think we're square because we like to email -- let alone that we barely text -- or because we don't know how to (fill in the blank). CDs will someday be to these kids what 8-track tapes are to me -- used during my life, but a relic of the past by the time I started paying attention. For now, a cassette is just another way to hear and sing (off key) Baby Beluga, a song that's been part of our lives for years. Here's a video from our Minneapolis days -- they were two and a half when I took this (it's likely that we were just weeks away from our first conversation about moving to Boulder when this was taken). And for those of you not familiar with Raffi or his iconic song, here's Raffi singing on yet another ancient medium to get up to speed.
This weekend when we set out for an errand both girls protested taking the minivan. NOOOO! SUBARUUUU! They never ask to take the Subaru, it's harder to crawl into and the carseats there don't accomodate winter coats well. But, I quickly figured out, the Subaru has a tape deck. No, I promised, opting for driver ease and preschooler comfort, we'll listen to them on the totally ancient boom box when we get home.
So, after days of carrying the tapes around like treasures they gathered in our room around the boom box , and listened. (the boom box's normal function is to channel NPR to me while I get dressed in the morning -- it's old, ugly, and clunky, but Martha Stewart hasn't gotten to our bedroom yet, and we're frugal, so it's just fine for its NPR purpose). To them, it was just another way to hear "Baby Beluga." I thought perhaps they'd make connections about CDs and tapes and realize that there is an older way of hearing music, but no. I thought they'd remark about how we don't have any tapes other than these, but no. I thought they'd at least ask why they only see CDs and the ipod when we play music, but no. They're not old enough to get that there's technology they haven't encountered, it's all current in their reality. These are children who already know how to use a computer mouse, and who will someday think we're square because we like to email -- let alone that we barely text -- or because we don't know how to (fill in the blank). CDs will someday be to these kids what 8-track tapes are to me -- used during my life, but a relic of the past by the time I started paying attention. For now, a cassette is just another way to hear and sing (off key) Baby Beluga, a song that's been part of our lives for years. Here's a video from our Minneapolis days -- they were two and a half when I took this (it's likely that we were just weeks away from our first conversation about moving to Boulder when this was taken). And for those of you not familiar with Raffi or his iconic song, here's Raffi singing on yet another ancient medium to get up to speed.
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