Learning with Singstar

OK, I know Singstar Rock! is probably not generally considered a tool of natural parenting but desperate times call for desperate measures and my husband had gone to a gig and my daughter was rather cross (BIG understatement) because he had gone before tea. So, I got out Singstar Rock! and performed many a tune for my sometimes amused, sometimes bemused offspring. Just like a campfire - kind of.

It was my son's turn and he chose Smoke on the Water, a big favourite of his. While I was singing, he turned to his sister and asked why the video was all black with no colour? I was mentally preparing an explanation of how it was an old song and that colour TV was relatively new, when my daughter said to him, knowledgeably: "because black and white is more Rock!"

And the scales fell from my eyes and I realised she was right, many of the more modern videos on Singstar Rock! are also in black and white. One of which is The Bravery's An Honest Mistake which was my daughter's choice next, and it was then that I realised how little we pay attention to images once we have learned to read, if there is writing available instead. True, I was following the lyrics printed on the screen, but realistically I know the words off by heart now. And yet, I still wasn't watching the complicated images of the video like the children, completely undistracted by the words, were. There is surely a lesson here, though I'm not quite sure what precisely. So I followed it up with some rousing pop-punk in the form of the Offspring, always a favourite in our house.

And all this after a perfect morning out at the allotment. Finally, it is falling into place. As I had always imagined, the children asked to go, happily cycled there, enjoyed doing weeding, mulching and digging up potatoes before cycling home, tired but happy, despite my son being unable to cycle the last little bit due to his 'legs being too hungry'. We have turned into the Waltons. Hurrah!