From list at tomhunter.com Thu Jul 1 15:01:31 2004 From: list at tomhunter.com (Tom Hunter - The Song Growing Co.) Date: Thu Jul 1 15:16:54 2004 Subject: Tom Hunter & The Song Growing Co. Tom Hunter & The Song Growing July Newsletter Message-ID: <000e01c45f9d$d3a61e40$03000004@j7y8f6> July newsletter... Greetings for July and the 4th from where the nights glow past 10:30pm and the first hints of morning come before 4:00am. True, it?s not Alaska, but the days here are long, and beautiful, and soon we in the Northwest will start worrying about rain, partly because we need water but partly because so many days without rain just ain?t right! I hope summer is coming on well for all of you, even as the days get shorter, slowly? To chew on: From the it-depends-on-your-point-of-view department, connecting Iraq to July 4th? Two hundred and some odd years ago, wasn?t the Declaration of Indpendence written by folks seen as "insurgents" to the occupying powers and "patriots" to those who wanted to get rid of those occupying powers? Aren?t the "insurgents" in Iraq, now fighting an occupying power, seen as "patriots" by those who want to get rid of that occupying power??.. William Crain?s book Reclaiming Childhood has a fascinating theme: We?re not paying attention to who children are these days because we?re more interested in the future and preparing them for it. It?s not just "kindergarten readiness" but readiness for the work force or to be a good citizen or to live a good life. Looking up ahead all the time means we don?t see what?s right here and now, trusting the stages and phases kids naturally and appropriately go through and responding to them. A recent event: I could go on and on about The Northwest Teachers Conference ? ho hum, just another fantastic year! You really did have to be there, and some of you actually were ? June 19-24 in a beautiful spot in NW Washington state. A lot of internal reflection this year, original poetry, questions like can we really communicate with each other, what does audacious teaching look like, particularly when it?s built on the capacity to love. Wonderful singing, s?mores, laughter, tears, and another group of teachers sent home filled up. It?s very powerful when the people who do the teaching are taken at least as seriously as what they?re supposed to be teaching? In my wanderings this next year, I?ll see many of you and it?s fun to make the connection between where you live and work, and the time we are together in June. I?ll also see many who didn?t come to the conference (a.k.a. camp) and should! Upcoming dates: with the slower pace of summer, leaving time around the place for the garden, building a chicken house, putting in new fences and painting the house. Probably should sit around a little too? (click here for more dates) 7/2 ? family concert, noon, Public Library lawn in Bellingham, an annual tradition 7/7-7/11 ? national story telling conference in Bellingham, I do closing keynote 7/13-7/14 ? seminar with Bev Bos and Michael Leeman, Bureau of Education and Research, Seattle (info and registering: 1-800-736-2136) 7/15/16 ? BER seminar (same as above), Portland 7/29 ? evening family concert, Hillsboro, OR 8/2-8/7 ? Good Stuff for Kids workshops with Bev Bos, Roseville, CA In Sept. I?ll keynote the opening staff day for the Cypress School District in the LA area, work with Head Start in WA, do an all day workshop at Bellingham Technical College, and be in N.CA for workshops and concerts in Chico, Bing School (Stanford), and Menlo Park. Oct. Dates set for Pocatello, beach retreat for Portland area preschool staff, Houston, and WAEYC in Spokane. Nov. is full, BER in Dec., future dates still open! Hype: The picture book of the song "Build It Up and Knock it Down" is on sale this month for a mere $8 (usually it?s $10). "Unbelievable?" you say. "Not only that," we say, "but we?ll pay the shipping too." (Can something be doubly unbelievable?) Only in July and only if you add the code word "build" to your order. I?ll sign it if you want and personalize it if you give us the name of someone it?s for. The book is published by Harper/Collins and the song is recorded on the CD "We?ve Been Waiting for You." That?s available too, as are other recordings ? just click here to go to the Stuff to Buy page. We encourage you to buy them and send them all over everywhere ? the world is waiting?. There?s growing talk about new recordings ? stay tuned? That?s it this month from the world headquarters of the Song Growing Co. Cheers to you all until August! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE SONG GROWING CO. 1225 E. Sunset Dr., #518 Bellingham, WA 98226 (360) 738-0340 fax: (360) 734-0295 songgrow@tomhunter.com www.tomhunter.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/songgrowingco/attachments/20040701/d97c52c6/attachment.htm From list at tomhunter.com Tue Aug 3 16:47:38 2004 From: list at tomhunter.com (Tom Hunter - The Song Growing Co.) Date: Wed Aug 4 14:54:19 2004 Subject: Tom Hunter & The Song Growing Co. August Newsletter Message-ID: <000a01c47a54$95a24de0$03000004@j7y8f6> August newsletter? Greetings to you all from August that funny month that little by little turns summer toward fall. It?s been dry where we are and there?s a problem growing in that. But it?s also been beautiful, good growing weather when you can watch the runners sent out by the squash actually run and the tomatoes plants get heavier. Even with the garden in late this year, we still ate some sweet broccoli last night and squash and lettuce. Tomatoes and peas are coming, and there?s nothing like the smells of the herb garden after it?s been watered. Here?s hoping summer has been productive and good for you?.. To chew on (in addition to the broccoli?): The National Storytelling Network conference in early July here in Bellingham was fantastic, and I?ll probably chew on it all year! The power of folk tales and contemporary stories told well, the commitment of people who see themselves as caretakers of a craft essential to our humanity ? powerful stuff! The conference prompted me to pick up again The Healing Power of Stories (Taylor) wherein I found this: "We are unhappy because we are trying to live by a broken story. As attractive as it is in many respects, the American success story simply doesn?t tell us the truth. It lies both in suggesting that everyone who works hard enough will have these things and in suggesting that once you have them you will finally be happy. It is a testimony to the human appetite for illusion that this story persists in the face of countless counter-stories from disappointed individuals who have followed these paths and found no contentment."? What?s real? How do we tell the honest stories? Many kids are being left behind (and many teachers). "Patriotism" does not mean agreeing and going along. Summer has not been productive and good for some people I know. Honest stories deepen our humanity, and make hope mean something. Recent event: Wonderful afternoon and evening with our friends, the Oddsons ? just sitting around, talking, looking for shade, walking in the woods. laughing at llamas, good food. Time to linger, with no agenda, and a handwritten thank-you letter afterwards, in a homemade envelope with impromptu drawings throughout? There?s something about slowing time down, with friends, that energizes and wants more of it, much more? Upcoming events: (Much Aug. time for finishing the chicken house, building fences, painting the house, and a likely trip to MI and a cottage in the family for 100 years) 8/2-8/7 ? Good Stuff for Kids, workshops with Bev Bos in Roseville ?and that?s it for Aug. musical "work!" Invitations and information requests for conferences, keynotes, seminars, assemblies, and concerts are coming in pretty regularly these days as people figure out dates and budgets for the 2004-05 school year. Remember, I want my travel to focus more on bigger conferences and repeat events, so please do get requests in as soon as possible so I can plan travel well and have more time for "local" things, i.e. Vancouver to Olympia. Sept. dates set: opening staff day for the Cypress School District in the LA area, Head Start training, all day event at Bellingham Technical College, and some packed days in Chico and the SF Bay Area (9/23-26). Hype: No big offers this month, just the usual high quality, fantastic, can?t miss, get-?em-for-your-family-and-friends-for-birthdays-and-celebrations-and-normal-days-when-you-can?t-think-of-anything-else-to-do collection of CD?s you can read about on the web site. (Click here to see what's available.) We?re gearing up for fall which means talk of new projects, how to market what?s here, and vast crews of people with hand-held computers doing inventory (honest story: son Aeden and I counting by hand)?.. We?d love to hear from you ? about this newsletter, memories of songs in your life, orders for CD?s, random thoughts and jokes? All the best to you for a wonderful August! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE SONG GROWING CO. 1225 E. Sunset Dr., #518 Bellingham, WA 98226 (360) 738-0340 fax: (360) 734-0295 songgrow@tomhunter.com www.tomhunter.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/songgrowingco/attachments/20040803/b30312b5/attachment.html From list at tomhunter.com Thu Sep 2 15:10:41 2004 From: list at tomhunter.com (Tom Hunter - The Song Growing Co.) Date: Thu Sep 2 15:12:45 2004 Subject: Tom Hunter & The Song Growing Co. September Newsletter Message-ID: <001201c49120$8b844920$03000004@j7y8f6> September greetings to you all from here where it?s raining now, the soaking kind, and reassuring in the way its music blocks the computer?s sound. A beautiful big moon the past few nights, and Labor Day is here with its "new year" of school and routine. Amazing to think that with our daughter Irene?s graduation from college, this is our first year in 25 when we haven?t had someone go off to school in the fall. To chew on: Read Gloria DeGaetano?s new book Parenting Well in a Media Age and you?ll be chewing for a long time! It?s for teachers too and anyone interested in children these days. The subtitle tells the big and important idea she?s working on: "keeping our kids human." She writes about the impact of an "industry-generated culture" and its power to standardize us all, to rob us of our own interior lives in favor of aspiring to and buying into what?s "out there," and to keep us "preoccupied with worry and fear." Her basic advice to parents is to find strength in simple things ? time together with kids playing, talking to each other, asking questions, making things, and just hanging around. Something necessary grows in such times, something essential about our humanity. "Our personal creations," she says, "are the only effective means to counter the industry-generated culture." Powerful stuff, and useful too! (Question: Some of you have suggested I put here 2 or 3 of my favorite books with brief descriptions about why they?re favorite. Would that be useful? Let me know.) Recent event: I spent a week in Aug. in Bay View, MI at a cottage (cottage in this case having nothing to do with size, and only to do with being a summer place ? this one is really big!) that?s been in our family since 1904. My kids are the 6th generation to sit on the same porch, and there?s something deeply renewing both about the place and about that history. Sitting on that porch, you look through the gladiolas in a big vase (there have to be glads!) to Little Traverse Bay. It really is a porch for sitting, sometimes for talking and music and reading, but more just for sitting. I hope you have a porch in your life too, and may we all find moments this next year just to sit?.. Upcoming events: The fall is getting pretty full, but there is still room for local and elementary school assemblies (Vancouver BC to Olympia), and then after the first of the year there?s more open time still to be scheduled. Keynotes, workshops, concerts ? let us know what you want! 9/3 -- Cypress School District (LA area) opening day elementary teachers keynote 9/8 -- Head Start training, 1:00-3:30pm, Lacey, WA (near Olympia) 9/18 -- Bellingham Technical College, workshop on songs and literacy for early childhood teachers, info: 360-738-0221, Linda Crawford 9/23 -- Chico, CA ? full day of assemblies, workshops and family concert 9/24 -- Bing School, Stanford Univ., Palo Alto ? family concert, 6:00-7:00pm 9/25 -- Ladera Community Church, Menlo Park ? family concert, 2:00-4:00pm 9/26 -- Ladera Community Church ? leading worship Oct. highlights: 10/7-10/9 Pocatello, Id. Idaho Assoc. for Ed. of Young Children events; 10/14-10/15 staff retreat on OR coast for Portland area preschool; 10/18 Texas A&M early childhood classes,; 10/19 Houston events to celebrate anniversary of early childhood center; 10/29-10/30 Spokane for WA Assoc. for Ed. of Young Children; starting ongoing project to mentor primary teachers of a local elementary school how to use songs in the classroom. Please click here to check our web site for dates in Nov., Dec., and into next year. Hype: Call it a back-to-school-special or call it generous but to readers of this newsletter, we?re offering any two CD?s for $24 and any three CD?s for $33 and WE?LL PAY THE SHIPPING! Just add the word school to your order and tell us where you want them sent. Save them for gifts, expand your own collection, now?s your chance. How can they do that? you ask. We have no idea, we answer. We?re just here to serve and to get songs out to people who can use them? (Click here to see what's available.) We have CD-sized inserts that help teachers and parents wanting to connect songs and reading. They?re available for the CD?s "Still Growing," "In the Air," and "We?ve Been Waiting for You." Just ask, and send $2 to cover the costs and we?ll send whichever ones you want? Much more is available, so do check the web site? Now and then people ask who does our web site. Answer: Aeden Hunter, and web sites don?t get much better. And while I?m thinking about it, Toni Graeber (in S. CA) took the photo on the web site home page and Laura Vaughn (in Houston) took some of the photos used on the CD "Still Growing." Credit where credit is due? Another newsletter is due next month. Cheers ?til then! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE SONG GROWING CO. 1225 E. Sunset Dr., #518 Bellingham, WA 98226 (360) 738-0340 fax: (360) 734-0295 songgrow@tomhunter.com www.tomhunter.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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