We had a great group this evening. We started off singing some familiar songs and I had the children wiggling their toes and putting their fingers in the air. Some songs were requested and we made sure to get the kids jumping to “Five Little Monkeys” and “Sleeping Bunnies”. We even made up a quick ditty about cheetahs running around the room. Then I brought out the instrument of the week. This week we learned about the Sruti Box from South India. We sang a song together as a group to demonstrate the droning chord and then the children took turns experimenting with different sounds. There were 15 children this week with 9 mothers and 1 staff member. I have been arriving just before 6:30 and planning on starting a bit late if necessary. However, this week we had 6 children in the room at 6:30, so I started on time and the others trickled in over the next 10 minutes or so. This term I have really been working on trying to involve the grown ups which I have found to be a real challenge for some of them. But I found it absolutely imperative with the Sruti box to have the children sit with the grown up that brought them there. The nature of the instrument is quite delicate and when 10 children are all turning knobs and grabbing at the same time it doesn't quite work. So, I brought the instrument around to children who were sitting with their caregivers and it seemed to help not only to get the grown ups more involved but also to get the children to try the instrument one at a time.