About a month and a half ago three friends and I approached the principal of a nearby elementary with the idea of putting on a "Folk Art Project" for children in the third, fourth and fifth grades. The idea was to meet with interested kids one hour after school on Thursday nights for ten weeks. The hour was divided up into three sections - singing, dancing (contra, and square), and learning how to play the ocarina and harmonica. We started by putting on a little concert for the three grades to get their interest.

We are now in our seventh week and I would it to be very successful. Only a couple of students dropped out (around 30 signed up). At the end of the ten weeks the kids will be putting on a concert for the parents. Total cost per student was $10 to cover the purchase of the ocarina and harmonica that they are allowed to keep. The school board arranged to put up the money for students that couldn't come up with the ten bucks. Out of the 30 we seem to have somewhere around ten students that are quite talented and are going way beyond what we had planned.

If anyone plans doing something like this I would recommend fourth, fifth and sixth grades. The third graders, although interested, seem to have more trouble catching on to things.

The four of us being retired certainly helps.

Cap't Bob