Bluegrass Babies

This weekend, we're heading down to Brown County Indiana with my sister and her family for the Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass festival. It's something my parents used to take us to as kids, and we wanted to try it out again now that we have our own families. We'll be camping on the festival grounds, which will be the first camping trip for all the kids, as well as my brother in law. It's also the first camping trip Chris and I are taking without our dog, Rosie, who's no longer up for such trips. She'll be enjoying the cool A/C at my parents' house.

To prepare for the trip, I checked out a few things from the library on bluegrass to show Maya:

A bluegrass CD was a must. We've listened to it a few times, and Maya can't help but dance when it's on. I tried to catch a few videos of her dancing, but as soon as the iPhone comes out, Maya stops dancing and wants to watch videos on it. So, I'll have to shoot some candid videos this weekend.

A book on Ralph Stanley, who will be at the festival this weekend. This book's a little too word-heavy for Maya, but we looked at some of the tour photos inside.

An introductory book to bluegrass. This one has lot of pictures for Maya to see. I especially like the opening chapters on each instrument because I could scan and print the page, and turn it into something for Maya to color, while learning about different instruments (as well as letters and numbers):

I also bought two ebooks on the iPad:

Banjo Granny. This is a really cute book about a grandma who travels to visit her grandson who loves bluegrass music. The grandma's banjo case comes in handy as she has to cross a river, a mountain and a desert. Maya seems to enjoy it, although most of the fascination is turning the pages on the iPad.

The ABCs of Bluegrass. I can't tell if this book is a joke or not. Some of the letters make sense (A if for Autoharp), while others seem a little ... lazy (N is for Neo-traditional Bluegrass performer...???). Also, it completely skips the letter W. But is was $0.99 on iBooks, so I can't complain.

Next up, we're teaching Maya about camping, right before experiencing the real thing this weekend.