On Wednesday I was working in my office when I heard the sound of music (no pun planned) from somewhere in the building. Occassionally I hear a radio or CD, but this sounded live. On following the sound, along with half of the staff I might add, we discovered a group of carolers in the front entryway.

It was a bit of a ragtag group, not from their dress, but from the sizes of the participants. There was a baby, not much older than six months dressed in a bright red dress, to numerous children from kindergarten to high school arranged around the front desk. There were several parents and one teacher lead the crew.

"Eins, zwie, drei," said the teacher as the group began to sing. Of course, this is our German/art/music group from our home school program. Rene Castro, the teacher, uses any opportunity to let the children practice and we were the recepients.

What a treat. The kids sang a variety of songs both in English and in German. We were invited us to sing along, well, at least sing along on the English versions.

The holidays are great times for singing and performing. If you ever look a bit deeper into what goes into those performances you'll find listening and reading at the core. Kids can't sing without having heard the songs (listening) a number of times or reading the words over and over. What a fun way to learn vocabulary and word recognition, a couple of very important skills to have in school.

So sing away-English, Spanish, German. There are all kinds of fun things to learn in singing a new song. Where else can you learn about a Partridge in a pear tree, mistletoe, or corn cob pipes? We don't talk much about any of those things during normal conversation so why not sing and talk about them during the holidays?