The busiest person in the house

It's Ads. Yes he has the most packed and varied weekly schedule of us all. School 5 mornings a week. Gymnastics on Tuesday afternoons. Swim lessons on Wednesday (late) evenings at 7 pm. Playgroup on Thursdays. I consciously kept Monday and Friday free, not because, being a caring mom, I wanted to keep my tiny son from being overscheduled; but because, we might do a lot of weekend trips over the spring and summer and we might leave on a Friday afternoon or come back only on Monday afternoon and I don't want his classes to interfere with our joyrides :)

A couple of days ago, I decided that he needed to learn music. He has a loud clear voice and can carry a tune very well. Not surprising considering the plethora of musical genes on both sides of the family. What's more, I decided to teach him. God knows I never pursued my study of music with single-minded determination or I might have actually learnt something, but I do know enought to teach him the basics. So yesterday, after his nap, I started (with great excitement, I might add). I got him as far as sitting cross-legged opposite me on the carpet (a pose that he calls "Criss cross applesauce). As soon as I started singing "Sa Ri Ga" and asking him to repeat, he started fooling around. He jumped into my lap, put his face really close to mine, ran to Y and bugged her some, insisted we sing one of his favourite songs "Lots and lots of fire trucks", and so on and so forth. It didn't help that his grandma got into the spirit of things and started singing the notes to Y at the same time that I was trying to get Ads to repeat them after me. So I dragged him to the bedroom, sat him firmly on my lap and asked him to repeat the notes after me a few times. Which he did, now that he didn't have an audience watching his pranks. I let him go after that; I didn't expect him to sit still even for this long and it was good enough for a beginning. Structured learning is not going to happen in our home and it's too much to expect Ads to sit still and be disciplined especially when it's his mommy teaching him. I will keep at it and I am sure after several weeks he would have picked up a lot of stuff without conscious effort.

I was actually wondering whether Carnatic music has any short super-easy songs for children to learn. I know the Geethams are supposed to be easy but they might be a bit too complicated for a very young child. I know Ads would be much more interested if he could actually learn a song or two; who wants to learn boring notes??