Tom Hunter & The Song Growing Co. January Newsletter

[Tom Hunter - The Song Growing Co.]

A mostly monthly and periodically pithy letter with greetings, a story, something recommended, Tom's appearances, and more...

Greetings to you all from one week into a new year!  Around here the moon is big, the daytime rainy, and they're telling us to get ready for really cold weather...  There's a neighbor dog who visits us.  She's skittish and darts away (naturally suspicious? beat-up?) but now and then she'll get brave and come close, just for a moment.  Reminds me of something I've heard (attributed to several people) that of all the principles to live by, courage tops the list - without it, it's hard to live out whatever you think is important.  Some new year courage wouldn't be a bad thing to pass around.

Apologies again that we announced an unrealistic release date for our new CD "Many a Mile" - it's coming, and we'll let you know when it's actually in our hands so we can get it into yours.  Extra big thanks to you who have ordered and paid for it.  "From Seeds So Small" is coming too - a CD collection of songs having to do with math (a collaboration with Kaplan and Teaching Strategies).  News soon!

A quote (in place of what's usually a story here):
"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else is to fight the hardest battle which humans can fight and never stop fighting."  e.e. cummings

Recommended: Get a copy of The Old Woman and Her Pig, an older and wonderful story retold by Margaret Read McDonald.  She's one of the best story-tellers anywhere and this book has beautiful artwork.  She has other useful books too - individual stories, collections of stories, her reflections about stories.   Contact Turn-the-Page Press and ask for Andy..  If you're a parent and/or a teacher, maybe this is your year to tell more stories with your kids.

Upcoming January appearances:  There's some open time in May, and we're actively scheduling events (conferences, institutes, concerts) for the summer and fall.
1/9 - all day with primary grades, Parkview Elementary School, Bellingham - part of an ongoing residency
1/10 - evening program for parents, Roseville (CA) Community Preschool
1/11 - assemblies at H. Clarke Powers Elem., Loomis with evening family sing 6:30p            
1/12 - assemblies at Main Ave. Elem., Sacramento
1/13 - workshops and featured evening concert (with Bev Bos and Michael Leeman) at the N.CA Kindergarten Conference, San Jose
1/14 - leading worship at Community Congregational Church, Tiburon CA - 32 years in a row (I think.)
1/15 - speaker at Martin Luther King celebration, Bellingham
1/16 - all day at Parkview, Elementary School, Bellingahm
1/19 - keynote and workshop, environmental education conference, La Conner, WA
1/22-1/26 - seminars for the Bureau of Education and Research ("Enhancing Early Literacy Skills through the Use of Music") - Mon. Oklahoma City, Tues Dallas, Wed Phoenix, Thurs Sacramento, Fri Portland - info: 800-735-3505
1/31 - kick-off celebration (in song and story) for series of events on aging, Bellingham

Feb dates: 2/5-2/10 Santa Barbara and Santa Maria area (family concerts 2/9 &2/10), 2/24 keynote for Bright Horizons conference LA area, 2/26-3/2 BER in Ottawa, Toronto, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, N.VA
Northwest Teachers Conference ("professional development and personal renewal for educators who want to think for themselves") is July 7-12 - fantastic event! Brochures are available and people are already signing up.

The Store: New CD's coming soon!  Same old fantastic stuff available now!  No special deals this month.  Wonderful response keeps coming for our booklet collection of five essays Visits to the Heart of Education - $10 each (contact us for discounts when ordering 5 or more copies).  And for those of you who remember hearing Tom's songs 25 and 30 years ago (we're receiving notes with heart-warming memories), "Still Growing" is a collection of many from back then, re-recorded for now.  Click here to go directly to our online store.

Stay warm and dry, and please let us know what parts of this newsletter are most useless and most useful to you.  Happy New Year!



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



THE SONG GROWING CO.
1225 E. Sunset Dr., #518
Bellingham, WA  98226
(360) 738-0340
fax: (360) 734-0295
songgrow at tomhunter.com
www.tomhunter.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/songgrowingco/attachments/20070109/bc9d6f10/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 9313 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/songgrowingco/attachments/20070109/bc9d6f10/attachment.jpe