Navigation

You are here: Home

All Around This World class in action

All Around This World is a unique, interactive global music and world cultures program for children 0-9 years old that encourages children and their families to explore the world by enjoying global music, rhythms and movement. Jay Sand, guitarist and children’s music teacher, world traveler and dad of three girls developed All Around This World with his girls as a way to introduce them to the countries he’s already visited and the many more he plans to visit with them.  Through  dynamic online classes,  CDs, concerts and workshops, engaging homeschool and classroom lessons, “musical maps” and participatory parent-child music-making Jay hopes to make the world a bit smaller one song at a time.

All Around This World is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of All Around This World must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Donate here.

How to sing with Jay each week in your home or classroom Support All Around This World on Patreon Enjoy interactive All Around This World lessons in your home or classroom

ALL AROUND THIS WORLD NEWS

Hurricane. Of. Fire.

Huracán del fuego = HURRICANE OF FIRE!

We start our music class week of meeting Venezuelan music and culture with the video of Afro-Venezuelan master percussion ensemble, Huracán del fuego, blazing through “BomBa.” Can you think of a better name of any band, ever?

(That’s a trick question. There is competition.)

This week in class: VENEZUELA

All Around This World map of South America featuring Venezuela

This week our online class for little kids takes us to Venezuela, a country that, primarily because of its outspoken not-so-long-ago-past leader, Hugo Chavez, got lots of press in the U.S for many years….and not all of it good. Debating the geopolitical implications of Chavez’s continued Bolivarian Revolution — and the many problems Venezuela is facing today — may be beyond the purview of a kiddie music class, so All Around This World will mainly focus on Venezuela’s rich, multifaceted culture. (Even that may be beyond the purview of a kiddie music class, but that’s our story and we’re stickin’ with it.) We’ll sing, dance, and even count like the Yanomami, who live in the Amazon on the border with Brazil.

UPCOMING LIVECAST CLASSES — MAY 25 and MAY 26

Jay teaching Livecast classes

Join ALL AROUND THIS WORLD for awesome LIVECAST CLASSES.

If you’d like to come to class in Zoom, CONTACT ME FOR THE LOGIN INFO. Ideally we’ll communicate before the day of class, but I do try to check my messages before my first class each day.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 and THURSDAY, MAY 26

All times are Philadelphia/New York U.S. Eastern Time, UTC-4.

— 11pm U.S. Eastern Time Wednesday May 25 (Thursday morning in India, China, Thursday mid-day Australia.)

— 7am U.S. Eastern Time Thursday May 26 (early afternoon Europe, Africa, West Asia)

— 10am U.S. Eastern Time Thursday May 26 (great for eastern U.S./Canada/Americas/Caribbean)

— 1pm U.S. Eastern Time Thursday May 26 (great for all U.S./Canada/Americas/Caribbean)

If you can’t log in, watch via Facebook Live on All Around This World’s facebook page.

If you’d like to come to class on a regular basis and get lots of information each week about the countries and cultures we’re exploring, REGISTER HERE.

To enroll in amazing online courses that take your family on a musical tour of the world: EXPLORE EVERYWHERE!

Wan Boto — why is just one flag flying?

Today we share a sing-along for little kids that continues our week’s adventure in The Guianas. “Wan Boto” is a boatman’s song from Suriname, originally in the language Sranan Tongo or “Taki Taki” a Creole language common in Surinam’s Dutch, Javanese, Hindustani and Chinese ethnic and cultural communities.

Don’t know about the Guianas? Start here

Let’s start our musical week in The Guianas with De Draver Boys. And why not?


Music from the nations of Suriname, Guyana and French Guianas is a mix of African, Amerindian and European influences (with Suriname featuring a healthy dash of Indian/Hindu chutney). This performance by De Draver Boys helps us get into the traditional, non-chutney, Surinamese musical mood.

This week in class: THE GUIANAS

All Around This World map of South America featuring the Guianas

This week in our online class for little kids we meet The Guianas, three countries in South America — Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana — with fascinating histories and fantabulous music. Historians of South America often group these three extremely diverse countries together because they all used to be part of “Guyana,” a small stretch of land on South America’s northeastern coast that Spanish, French, Dutch and British all tried to control for centuries.  Now the three countries are separate, though not all entirely free from their European “friends” — Guyana is English-speaking and independent (as of 1966), Suriname is Dutch-speaking and independent (as of 1975), while French Guiana is French-speaking and still under French political control. In class we have some sing-along, dance-along fun that inspires us to want to visit all three. 

An ancient Mayan melody

We end our week in Mexico with a  sing-along that takes us back a thousand years. “Mayan Peace Song,” is a melody from the Mayan Empire, which dominated the land we now know as Mexico a millennium ago, seeding a civilization that inspires (and intrigues) us for its powerful rule and its mysterious fall.

We laugh, we cry, we sing Mexican Rancheras

Chavela Vargas will make you weep. (I think that’s good.)

This week in All Around This World, as we focus on Mexico, we meet music that’s fantastically fun. In some of our classes though, we pause the frivolity to listen to a recording “La llorona” performed by Chavela Vargas, iconic singer of rancheras, Mexican rural folk songs, who has surely seen difficult days. Rancheras won’t all tear your heart out like the one in this video, but jeez…. Learn more about Vargas at Chavela Vargas Official.

Older posts