I had this interaction with some young 6-year-old guitar students yesterday.  We learned to play Hot Cross Buns.  I was giving all the students a chance to play it on their own.

Me: Does anyone else want to give it a shot?
Student 1 (raises his hand):   I do.
Student 2 (who had already played for the class):  I want to do it again!   That was awesome!

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Brian (center in black) and Irving (back right with the mohawk) and El Comunidad de Niños.
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This is the building for Comunidad de Niños
It seems so long ago already, but was just last Wednesday.  That morning I skipped my morning Spanish classes to play some music with these young men.  They go to a school called Communidad de Niños, which is just a couple blocks from where I've been staying.  It's a school where all the kids only have on parent.  Nicholas, who is one of the people that run the school, and I met at Mario's taco stand the week before.  I volunteered to come in and share my music.  Nicholas and I made plans using my broken español and a lot of smiles.  I didn't know what to expect, but I really wanted to visit a school and share my music.

It was great to be there.  The kids, who's ages range from 4 to 10, were all very excited to have a visitor.  The room we were in just happened to have a giant picture book style atlas.  So we looked at the map and found Chicago, and then found Cuernavaca.  The older kids, particularly Brian and Irving, where very curious about learning words in English, and they were very understanding and helped a when I didn't know a word in Spanish. 
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So, we sang in íngles y español and learned about the banjo. One of my proudest moments of the trip was being able to share Jump Jim Joe, which is a dance that my students and I do all the time in Chicago.  First you find a partner and tomen sus manos (hold h.  Then it goes,

Jump, jump, jump Jim Joe.
Shake your head and nod your head
and tap your toe.
Round, round, round you go
Then you find another partner and you
Jump Jim Joe!
                       and then it starts again.

This is a picture of the cheat sheet I used.  I was so nervous to try it, but I'm very glad I did!  And of course, like everybody who jumps Jim Joe, there was so much laughter and smiles and hugging, we could have Jumped Jim Joe all morning.

This was a great experience and in it's own way similar to the experience Shana and I had in Morelia. What if there was a way for me to do this all the time?  Hum . . . . .
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Saturday, August 7  was a very special musical experience for Maria McCullough, and myself.  We organized a small family concert that afternoon.  

This is the Dalton Family (Kristina, Conner and John) and their friend Morgan (on the fiddle).  

The Daltons have been studying guitar with me for about a year and this is their first ever public performance.  They played Old Joe Clark, Pay Me My Money Down, John Henry and Bile em Cabbage Down.  Morgan also played Go Tell Aunt Rhody.

I was very impressed with the composure of all the performers.  They all took the stage quite naturally and worked through their nervousness to create quite a performance.  That is one of the biggest challenges of performance.  

Also performancing where The Sunshine Band, made up of Viola, Ella, Ann and Kurt.  

The performance took place at The Book Cellar, at 4736 N. Lincoln Ave.  Suzy is the owner and she is and incredible supporter of the work that Maria and I do.  Thanks Suzy!
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