A little polka in your life

     My grandfather loved the accordion. I never saw him play it, but my Mom tells me he really liked it and wanted his kids to learn to play. When my grandparent's possessions were divided up between their kids and grandkids, my Mom got the accordion. Since then, she has downsized to a smaller place, and now I have the accordion! I was super stoked to get it not only because it belonged to my Grandpa, but Daniel and I like all kinds of instruments and the more variety we have around our kids the better! And I thought it would be sooo cool to learn how to play. Who doesn't love a little polka in their life??
     Well, I've recently found another awesome way to use the accordion. I am directing the children's Christmas play at our church, and so I've been looking for more creative ways to get them involved in the classroom time learning songs and such. Well, I took the accordion to class and let them sing along with that. They thought it was cool to have a different instrument. A couple of the kids got to help "play" it too as we sang along. Maybe it's just me, but if you show me something different I want to touch it and learn more about it, and BAM you have my attention for a good 15 minutes! :-) It worked pretty well with the kids. I didn't have their attention for 15 minutes with it, but at least a good 7.5! :-)
     I had the kids guess what was in the accordion case before I told them what it was. The guesses were: candy, xbox, music, and my favorite, a tablet. That one really made me giggle. Maybe a huge ancient tablet would fit in a box that big, but not the kind of tablet that kid was thinking of. Anyways, I think Grandpa would smile seeing the kids fascinated with his instrument, and that makes me smile. :-)
     And for your enjoyment, a happy polka video. You can't help but smile listening to this!