Nancy Magaud is a friend of mine and a retired educator living outside of Paris. Two years ago she suggested an idea for a parody song based on the old post WW1 song “How You Gonna Keep ’em Down on the Farm.” The parody would be essentially “How You Gonna’ Keep Their Nose in a …
I recently keynoted an early childhood conference in Greenville, NC. The topic was literacy and young children. I think it’s fairly common knowledge among those who work with young kids that there are those who mistakenly want to push explicit literacy instruction into earlier and earlier ages. The problem is that many or most children’s …
Three years ago Melanie DeMore was the keynote speaker at the CMN annual conference. Her work is amazing to me: the songs, her voice, and her ongoing cultural work in a number of venues. The talk was inspiring, and I learned a lot. I was reviewing my notes from the keynote, and came across this …
When we were in Scotland over the summer I ran across this organization. It’s called Playlist for Life. It helps people to compile playlists for older folks with dementia. They do other support around music and memory, but I really liked the idea of being systematic about it. Imagine the comfort that would come from …
This is a great NPR story that summarizes much of what I have learned about kindness and how we raise children. Very worth a listen/read. Here
Lee Stanley has been a major musical force in Madison and farther for over thirty years. He’s a songwriter, author, amazing gospel pianist, and all around fine person. His work bringing music and a taste of a powerful artistic and cultural tradition to audiences of many types has been a gift that we have all …
I wrote this song as part of a large project with my friend Sarah Sprague. Songs to teach English to children in Brazil. Sarah does fantastic work in early childhood. A simple song to teach a simple yet important idea. © Stuart Stotts 2010