It's been 6 months!!!

Well, it's been 6months since I wrote here!! That's a long time!

Most recently I went up to the Wairarapa, which is in the lower North Island. I performed at 5 Libraries up there. I caught the train from Wellington and got picked up at Featherston Station. The gigs were fun. Some small audiences and some medium-sized ones. At each gig I asked kids and adults to give me some ideas for new songs. Here are some of the ideas they wrote down:

Superheroes
How the world turns around and we don't fall off (I like this idea!)
Love
How to make rainbow jelly
Something about girls putting TOO much make-up on (Claudia, I agree!!)
Roses blooming
honesty
Silly people
Clothes
New friends and old friends (Good idea! I already have a song about friends)
Hope
Supercillyis Spider
With you
No one
Aren't mums and dads great (This is true!)
Lollies make me spew
Chocolate is yum
I have an alien on my head (Very interesting.....)
If you can do it so can I (I really like this idea!)

Thanks for all the ideas......I'll never run out of songs to write, will I!?

I met some lovely people up there. They werevery kind and friendly. I met a lovely girl called Te Uira. It was nice to me you =)

I also sang at a fundraising evening for "Operation Coverup". They knit blankets for orphanages in the Ukraine and Muldovia - see if you can find out where they are on a World Map or by searching the internet. It gets very very cold over there and often the children only have a small cotton cover on their beds. "Operation Coverup" give children their own warm and usually colourful woollen blanket! It keeps them warm and makes them very happy =D

I am still recording my 2nd CD. It takes a long time!! I really enjoy it though. I have 2 neices called Maria and Laura and they are very good singers. They are 6 and 10. (actually I have 4 neices, but the other two are grown up and one has a son!) They sang on "Don't Wanna" on my "Dragons Under My Bed" CD. We have recorded them singing one song for my new CD so far and they are practising another one - you might sing it at school. It's called "Seasons". I am recording a new version of it. My daughter, Sian, is now 18 and she sang "Individuality" on the Kiwi Kidsongs CD, with a boy called Theo Va'a, when she was 11yrs old and then we sang it together on my "Dragons..." CD. She is going to sing a lovely song about clouds on my new CD.

I really enjoyed the summer in Nelson! I hope you all had a good summer. I don't enjoy winter quite so much, but I suppose if it was summer all the time, I'd get sick of it. Do you think I would? Hmmmmmmm, I'm not sure!!

Well, this week I'm going over to Blenheim and Picton (top of the South Island) to perform at Schools and Kindys and also to start writing a School Song for Riverlands School. Looking forward to that!

I spent some time last week at Hira School as I am going to write them a School Song too! It's a lovely school with very friendly teachers and kids. It's a little bit country, is surrounded by bush and hills and has it's own creek running through it! They have a mud brick pizza oven and a mud brick letterbox!! I think I'll have to put those things in the song!! Don't you?

In my last post I talked about making shakers. I visited a Kindy and the Head Teacher there told me that using things like rice/macaroni in the shakers may not be appropriate in everyone's house. Also using empty toilet rolls may not be appropriate either. I suggest you ask your parents/caregivers what's OK to use and what isn't. Everyone is different, so it always pays to ask. There are lots of things outside you can use - like little stones, pieces of bark, gum nuts, acorns or other seeds perhaps. And you can use empty boxes - like teabag boxes - or cut a piece off an empty gladwrap roll, stick some paper over one end, put your shakey bits in, stick some more paper over the other end - decorate and "Bob's your Uncle"!! Have you heard that saying before? Ask a big person what it means if you're not sure! =)

Don't forget to comment, to ask me questions, to make suggestions and to KEEP SINGING!!!!

Have a happy day =D

Kath

Save the Planet and other things

I have written a song called "Save the Planet". It's about being environmentally friendly, taking care of the planet. It takes good care of us! Simple things like beautiful roses to look at and smell; a buzzing bumblebee; the clouds; blossoms in Spring; a sun shower; mountains with snow on top; rivers, lakes and the ocean to swim in or ski on! There are endless things for us to appreciate every day.

I want every school and early childhood education centre to be singing this song. I'm trying to think of ways of getting it to all of you! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! I'll let you know how I get on.

Here's the lyrics to the first verse:

"Well there's a hole in the ozone layer (save the planet, help save the planet)
And there is global warming too (save the planet, help save the planet)
Simple things that we can do, like unplug the tele and the DVD too
And turn off the lights and the heater when we're not in the room........"



Today, when I finish on the computer, I am going to make a whole lot of shakers out of empty toilet rolls and other containers I have collected over the past year or so!! I thought I'd make up a song called "Shake It" and give out shakers to the audience to shake in the right places!! I'll have to get inspired while I'm making them! I've got glue, cellotape, white paper, colour pencils, felts, stickers and scissors. To fill them I have rice, popcorn, peppercorns, split peas, sunflower seeds, little stones from off my driveway, macaroni and sesame seeds. I have also saved some bottle tops and I'll make some sort of shakery-type instrument out of them too! Any other ideas?

I am singing at the Granary at Founders Park on Sunday 2nd Dec from 2.30-3.15pm! Come along and join me!! I'll need all the help and support I can get because I won't have Rich with me! I might have even finished the "Shake It" song!! I'm going to sing some Christmas Carols and some of my songs and even some Nursery Rhymes for the real littleys! It should be fun to have a sing-along!!

I'm also playing at the Tiny Tots and Teddys at Washbourne Gardens on Sunday 9th. Not sure of the time yet - it should be on the TDC website somewhere. I am half way through writing a special Teddy Bear song for the day and I have bought a pre-loved teddy for the occassion. My daughter wants to come and sing too, so hope she makes it!!

Well that's about all I can think of for now. Don't forget to tell your friends about my blog - I want to get LOTS of kids reading and commenting!!!

See ya out there somewhere =D

"It's Never the Wrong Time to go Out!"

The Arts Festival is over! It started with the Mask Parade! I bet a lot of you made masks and joined in the fun!! There were some really cool masks out there that must have taken AGES to make!

I really enjoyed my kid's concerts. Lots of kids and adults came and had fun!

During the first concert I asked some kids up on stage and a whole LOT of them came up! The stage was pretty crowded. We sang "Dad I Wanna be a Camel".

Flossie the balloon lady made some really really cool 'creations' with her balloons. I'll put some pictures of the concert here when I receive them.

We sang some new songs like "It's Never the Wrong Time to go Out" about going out no matter what the weather is like, and "Save the Planet" about helping to care for the environment!! That's an important thing to do. My daughter Sian, sang a song I wrote called "Changing Clouds" about lying on your back looking up into the blue sky and watching the fluffy (cumulus) clouds or the whispy (cirrus) clouds and making shapes out of them!

Thanks to everyone who came and had a good time =D

I'm off to Wellington today to meet with other Children's Song Writers! It's going to be fun! I'm also visiting a couple of friends while I'm over there. I'll also see if I can get some more shops to stock my Dragons Under My Bed CD for the children of Wellington to listen to!

Don't forget to email me your ideas for songs, questions you may have or just to say "Hi Kath!"

The Arts Festival etc

We are looking forward to performing in the Arts Festival. Liz and I have been practising and sorting out what to sing and how to sing it and what 'actions' to do! This weekend Rich, Liz, Sian and I will be getting together to have a practice. It's going to be heaps of fun! Lots of new songs and some of the old ones - well, they're not exactly old really!

Rich and I played at two Kindys in Motueka last week and at a Preschool too. They were fun gigs. The kids really enjoyed participating and also listened quietly to us singing and Rich playing guitar.

We also played at a Fair, but it was raining and I got quite wet!! The crepe and cup of tea were nice though!! Mmmmmmmm, yum. I love pancakes. (That's what I call them!)

At the Fair, I was looking at the 2nd-hand clothes and a wee boy with his Mum, took a liking to some blue gumboots. She helped him put them on and he walked around in a funny way. She said to me "he's never worn proper shoes before!" He must have only learned to walk a little while ago, but he was very happy and very cute walking around in his blue gumboots.

It inspired me to write a song - so I did! As I drove home I sang it out loud in the car and made up the tune and words at the same time. I finished it off later the next day. It's called "Brand New Shoes" and it's aimed at toddlers really - but I'm sure older kids will enjoy it too!

St. Pauls School, in Dallington Christchurch

Well, while I was in Christchurch, my daughter and I visited St. Pauls School in Dallington.

The kids were really pleased to see us and we both felt quite famous!! It was a really neat experience.

Firstly the 2 classes sang "Individuality" with us while I played guitar. It is such a nice feeling to see kids happily singing along to my own songs!!

We talked about what it's like to be at that 'inbetween' age and I played them a song that I'm writing called "In Between" - here's the chorus

"In between - being a kid and being a teen
In between - who I am and who I've been
In between - what I'll see and what I've seen
'cos it feels like I'm in between....."

and they liked it!! Thought it was good!! So now I can finish it off and that'll be the first song on a new CD for Intermediate-age kids!! Don't know when it will be finished, but at least it's a start!!

They gave me some GREAT ideas for new songs to write - everything from the first time you kiss a girl (hmmmmm, thanks Jack!!) to chocolate, from little brothers and sisters to revenge on the teachers!!!! But my favourite idea was "do I get to hug my Mum still and do I get kisses from Grandpa/ma anymore?" - one day that will be a song!! Thanks to you all for such cool ideas!!

Then my daughter - Sian - sang a song I've written about the clouds and how you can see shapes and things in them. It's called "Changing Clouds" and it's a very relaxing song. It was nice.

Then I gave the teacher a copy of a song called "Save the Planet" about little things each of us can do to be a bit more environmentally friendly. The kids all listened and joined in on the "Save the Planet" bits!! It was cool to hear some kids singing it!! Yay!! Thanks again all of you at St. Pauls and to Louise (Mrs Bolton!) Keep up all the excellent singing!! You all rock!!

Going away

I'm going away for a few days to Christchurch. I have to go to a funeral. Not a very happy thing to be going down there for really.

While I'm there I'm going to visit an Intermediate to 'hang out' with a class of kids who love to sing. They sing "Individuality" which is really cool to know! I want to write some songs for that age group, so they are going to give me some ideas. I think they want to ask me some questions about writing songs too, so that'll be fun!

We might stop at Maruia Springs and have a soak in the hot pools. I like doing that when I go to Christchurch!

I'll write more when I get back and let you know how I got on with the Intermediate kids.

See ya =D

A New Website

Hi everyone!

I have a new website that you can go to to listen to some of my songs, watch a video, or buy one of my CDs.

Here's the address: www.songs4kids.co.nz Feel free to go and have a look and email me if you like!

I saw some children walking down the street with their faces painted today. Do you like getting your faces painted? I do!

I have started writing a song called "The Silly Song" - I'll sing it at my next big concert which will be at the Nelson School of Music in October. Tell you more about that another day!

Have a happy day =D