Mr. Mike’s Family Notes: Meet The Chidambaram Family

My daughter and I went over to the Chidambaram family's house recently to sing some songs and a lullaby together. Amara gave us the full tour and showed us all of her things. It was an ordinary evening, and it felt exactly like what our classes are about. The music doesn't stay in the classroom. It comes home. It is sung in living rooms and at bath and bedtimes.

The Chidambaram family has been part of Mister Mike's Music since Amara was a baby. They've been in nearly every teacher's class along the way.

Deivanai signed up for music class because she wanted to make friends. She was on parental leave with Amara and did what so many new parents do. She looked for a reason to get out of the house and find other people in the same season of life. A friend named Ellen recommended Ms. Deb's baby class. Deivanai showed up hoping for community.

She got that. But she also got something she wasn't expecting. "I found the song that would make Amara immediately stop crying as a three-month-old," she told me. It was "Lukey's Boat," the Newfoundland folk song.

Amara is highly observant. For the first couple months of class, she just sort of stared at Mr. Hunter and Ms. Deb. She watched everything and took it all in, but she didn't give much back.

Then one day, when Amara was about eight months old, Deivanai was humming Ram Sam Sam at home. And out of the corner of her eye, she saw it. Amara was doing the hand motions, the same ones Mr. Hunter did in class.

"I couldn't believe it," Deivanai said. "It was the first time I thought, OMG, she's like a real person!" That's the thing about young children and music. They're absorbing long before they show you. The listening comes first. Then one day, without warning, it comes back out.

Amara is two and a half now, and her baby sister Mira arrived last year. The transition to two kids has been a challenge, but especially for Amara. So this semester, Deivanai signed up for class with just Amara. She left the baby sister at home, and music class became their thing once again, just mom and her big girl.

Q. What has it meant for Amara to have this special time just with you?

Music class has become a special ritual for me and Amara to "learn the songs first." And then at home, we teach them to her father and her sister. Amara does the dance moves at home and makes up her own lyrics too. Amara feels empowered when she does this and it has helped cement her role as the big sister in the family.

Q. Is there a song from any Music Together collection that Amara sings, asks for, or responds to at home?

When Mira was born, Amara became obsessed with trying to make Mira stop crying. She started singing "Great Big Stars," which was the lullaby of last semester, and that's still the song that puts Mira to sleep.

A two-year-old who walks into her house after music class and teaches her family the songs. A two-year-old who sings her baby sister to sleep with a lullaby she learned in class. That's not a child just listening to music. That's a child who already understands that music is something you bring to the people you love.

Q. Do you remember a song your parents or grandparents sang to you when you were small?

Yes, classical Tamil songs. Tamil is the language my family speaks. I speak it, but not fluently enough to know the songs. But my parents sing a song to Amara and Mira now to calm them down and put them to sleep, and apparently it was my favorite song too. It's called "Aduga Oonjal Adugave."

So that's three generations of music in one family. Tamil lullabies passed down from grandparents, Music Together songs carried home from class, and a three-year-old who already knows that when someone you love is crying, you sing to them.

This is what musical families sound like.
There's a spot for your family. Come see what a class sounds like.