Kiddipedia
Did you know?… “Research has found the amount of questions asked by children differs with age and gender, four-year-old girls being the most inquisitive asking 390 questions a day and at the other end of the spectrum, nine-year-old boys are more content with their knowledge, asking 144 questions per day – one every five minutes and twelve seconds.”
Why are houses outside? Why are elephants grey? Why do I have to wear a hat? Why do I have to go to bed?….. Whhhyyyyy?
It’s how they learn and their inquisitive little nature help them to gain an understanding of themselves and the world around them.
Harnessing this thirst for knowledge are The Kazoos!
Celia and Chris are the husband and wife team, called The Kazoos, that have been entertaining children for decades! Their music is fun, upbeat and soooo easy to dance to!
I started playing The Kazoos on Little Rockers Radio from when I first launched as my daughter was a fan, and have more recently gotten to know them quite well as they move into a new area of encouraging children to ask questions through their new show Quest for a Question.
I caught up with Celia to ask her about performing for children, their new show that encourages children to ask lots and lots of questions and also to get a few ‘Mum Hacks’ from her (who doesn’t love a good Mum hack!?)…
What do you love most about entertaining children?
Without sounding too cheesy I would honestly have to say that entertaining children is an absolute privilege. The little smiling faces looking up at you, the laughter and the enthusiasm is completely contagious. You get to play a small role in the life of a family bringing a little bit of joy and fun. Life with small kids can be really tough at times and I like to think that us entertainers can provide a bit of sunshine.
I remember when we went up to Kinglake to entertain just after the Black Saturday fires. It actually seemed kind of inappropriate for us to be there in colourful costumes and big smiles right after such a tragedy. But it was incredible how many parents were pouring out heartfelt thanks for what we were doing. What seemed small to us was a unique gift to them at such a time. One Mum in particular told us that her daughter had lost most of her kinder friends and to see her happy for 45 mins was such a gift.
You recently launched a new show, Quest for a Question. Tell us about this.
Quest for a question is a concept that we came up with while on tour in the Aussie Outback. We were in a small library literally out the back of Bourke! A group of indigenous kids came in while we were packing up and started asking us all these questions. Their well-meaning mother scolded them and told them to stop asking so many questions but when we said we didn’t mind they continued. It was amazing how thirsty these kids were for knowledge, they wanted to know everything about us, about the show and life on the road. Again their mum scolded them and told them to stop asking so many questions. We all feel like that at times as parents don’t we? But that is when the librarian pipped in and said the line that changed everything, “They have to ask questions, that’s how they learn.”
I knew it was powerful and I knew I wanted to educate both parents and kids about the importance of questions and so the show was born.
You have recently shared some great ‘Mum Tips’ through socials. Can you share with us 3 of your best parenting hacks?
I LOVE a parenting hack! Anything that makes life easier or more simple. Ok… my top 3 are this.
1. Cook once eat twice – I wish I did this more often because when I do life is SO much easier! It doesn’t take that much longer to cook up double the amount and keep it in the fridge for the next meal and I am always SO happy when I do it. I am very passionate about giving my kids a healthy balanced diet but it can be really time consuming to cook a meal EVERY night. I have actually caught myself saying “Do we really have to eat again tonight. “But if I employ this method I should only have to cook 3 times a week because we always eat out or have takeaway on a Saturday night.
2. Accept that my inbox is ALWAYS going to be full. I remember when I first had my little Stella I was astounded at how hard it was to stay on top of the washing. The basket was always full and it was driving me crazy! I was the kind of person (was being the operative word) that liked that sense of achievement when everything was done. Well that was NEVER going to happen ever again…well at least for the next 20 years. Accepting that my inbox is always going to be full has given me the ability to live in today as best I can. You miss so much in life if you are constantly focused on achieving the next goal. I am not saying I don’t have goals I want to achieve I am just talking about prioritising. My kids are growing up so fast and I want to enjoy this time with them while my inbox it full.
3. My school bake sale cake hack of course! And if you haven’t seen it well you will have to head over to The Kazoos Facebook page to find out how I survive the school bake sale without turning the oven on!
What’s coming up for you?
This year we are focused on creating our new YouTube channel and online content for Professor Silly’s Quest for a Question. We have teamed up with 1440 Productions and have a wonderful team of industry professionals on board to help us create this vision. It’s a changing world from when we first started The Kazoos and we are finally jumping on board! It’s so easy to get stuck in your ways and we have just been going along doing what we have always done while this online world has been exploding. Particularly YouTube. It is amazing how many kids are consuming a majority of their content on Youtube.
So we will be having a little time out from touring and shows as we focus on creating new content and moving in to the future.
Good Luck guys! We can’t wait to see how it all comes together.
You can hear Quest for a Question on Little Rockers Radio every Tuesday morning at 10am (AEST). Got a question you would like them to answer for your little one? Simply email sarah@littl;erockersradio.com.au
You can find The Kazoos at http://www.thekazoos.com/
Written by Sarah Morrissey, founder Little Rockers Radio
You might also like to read:
ANGELS AND DEMONS – shape shifting behaviour in our kids
