One Really Awesome Way To Keep A Memory Journal For Your Kids
5 January 2020
PC: Free-Photos
Band Practice
Every evening at about 6pm the toddlers and I have band practice. Band practice, used very loosely here, simply means that we get the box with all of the instruments in it out of the hall closet and dump it on the floor. We all grab an instrument (lately, I have been the harmonica player or the tambourine man) and start making a remarkable amount of noise in very little time. We like to say that we are playing “Jingle Bells” or “The Wheels On The Bus,” but even a musical savant couldn’t hear either of those songs in the noise that we are making. I like to think that, more than making music, we are making memories. We always end practice by marching outside around the driveway banging on drums and making sounds I didn’t think were possible from a trumpet. I can only guess that the neighbors living within a mile radius give or take must love us. And so, regardless of moods or weather conditions, we march every night because we don’t want to let our fan base down.
PC: ArtTower
Music Memories
The benefits of music for young people in particular are numerous and well studied. As are the benefits of keeping a memory journal for your children. So after band practice one evening, I got to thinking (or maybe I just read it in another blog) that one great way to keep my sons’ memories is through music. In other words, I jot down the songs that they are most connecting with at the time along with a memory or a photo or video. And then one day many years from now, God willing, I can gift them their own memory music playlists.
Pro tip: I write down the songs rather than creating a playlist on Spotify or YouTube because who knows which platforms will exist in fifteen years.
One more tip: This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t track milestones or journal about non-music-related things that your kids do that you want to remember and share with them one day.
Keep in mind that we do have a lot of music-associated memories, even if our parents fail to keep a journal (it’s ok, Mom). Partly because of movement and emotion, memories tied to specific songs can stay with us for years. For example, my mother used to sing “Top of the World” by The Carpenters to me when I was a child. That song was released the year I was born. Whenever I hear The Carpenters, I feel loved. Awwwww (best mom ever). When the movie Grease came out, I was six years old. To this day, I can’t hear any song on that soundtrack without dreaming about falling in love with an Australian. I also have early memories of playing Sesame Street’s “‘C’ is for Cookie” over and over again on vinyl and seeing Harry Belafonte in concert in San Jose (I wanted to be him on stage so badly, singing “Day, me say day, me say day, me say day…”). The song “Oh! Susanna” always makes me think of my neighbor Uncle Al, who was a trucker and promised me he’d get me a cowboy outfit on one of his cross country-runs, but never did. “Oh! Uncle Al, don’t you lie to me….” Anyway, we all have music-associated memories burned into our brains.
By journaling, though, you give your kids a music memory soundtrack from their early years. For example, I think one of my boys has a crush on Elsa, so I have journaled about Frozen and the song “For The First Time In Forever.” He also loves the song “Jolene,” and pretty much anything by Pentatonix. The other one can’t get enough of Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” I think half a billion of the 3.5 billion views are from our house. “Old Town Road” and any version of “Baby Shark” get both boys dancing, too. The other benefit that this type of journaling offers is endless material for future wedding toasts and reenactments.
Musical Family
We are not a musical family. Our last name isn’t Jackson or Osmond, we’re not LDS, and we don’t whip our kids. We are all a bit pitchy, and it seems like we all have a different metronome clicking at different intervals in our heads. That written, we are a musical family. We have karaoke time with the boys (Santa brought them a karaoke machine), songs during bath time, music when we swing in the backyard, dance parties, and lots of in-the-car singing. We all love music. One of the many gazillions of blessings that having kids provides is that access again to just how magical, powerful, transformative, and life-changing music is and can be. Right on, and write on.
PC: Free-Photos
