Bolero by Maurice Ravel

My husband and I really love this song and we discovered our daughter does too.

Yesterday coming back home we listened to Bolero by Ravel in the car and her eyes were wide open listening to the beat of this amazing song. Little by little she relaxed and fell asleep.

Today I put it on again while I was watching Bruno Bozzetos’s animation and she started moving around the living room following the beat (she is 14 month old).

I think this is a beautiful song to share with you little ones. The melody is passed among different instruments and the music is built over an unchanging rhythm played on drums that remains constant throughout the piece.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Boléro (1928) became Ravel's most famous composition, much to the surprise of the composer, who had predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it. Ravel was insistent that the work should be played at a steady and unvarying tempo

 It is usually played as a purely orchestral work, only rarely being staged as a ballet. At the premiere in Paris a woman shouted that Ravel was mad. When told about this, Ravel smiled and remarked that she had understood the piece.

Bruno Bozzetto  (1938) is an Italian cartoon animator and he created a movie based in this song.

The larger movie Bruno covers all of history, evolution itself, from first origins of life as goo oozing out of a Coca Cola bottle, to beings spawned in the ocean, dinosaurs, the ice age, the pyramids, Christianity, skyscrapers. All life as we know it on a remorseless trek forwards, save for the ape who cheats and murders on his journey, in strict time to the beat of Maurice Ravel's music.

Are you a Helicopter Parent?

Wikipedia notes that “helicopter parenting”, an early 21st-century term, has been used to describe parents who pay extremely close attention to their children’s experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions.
These are mothers and fathers who try to smooth out and mow down all obstacles (real and sometimes imagined/fictional) in the path of their children’s progress.

Unlike the children of affirming parents, the children of helicopter parents tend to be less assertive. They are just not allowed to make mistakes – and learn from them.

Often they are the ones who bake the brownies, help clean up after school functions and drive the carpools. Where possible they also volunteer to serve as relief teachers and field trip contacts. Schools benefit greatly from their enthusiasm.

From the moment the umbilical cord is cut, children begin their long journey towards independence, step by step.

Some parents confuse the terms protecting and overprotecting. Protection is what a child needs; overprotection is what a helicopter parent needs.

Are you a helicopter parent???