There really is nothing like a good Hokey Cokey. I get my Hokey Cokey fix at a children's music morning run by the unbelievably talented Jeremy Mendonca of Americana duet The Hallelujah Trails, known as The Music Man by his North London mummy groupies.
It starts off calmly enough, with the kids concentrating hard trying to work out whether their right arm is indeed their right arm. Those of us scraping money together every term for violin lessons insist on calling it their "bow hand", so the kids really have no clue.
Danger Boy is hanging on to my hand at this stage, gleefully kicking his left leg out as high as it can go, while Mads stares at her hands.
And then... a palpable moment of anticipation, wide-eyed grins appearing on the children's faces, mums doing a quick 3 second round of kegels, and then.... WHOOOOOOAAAAAHHHHH the Hokey Cokey!!!!
This is the moment. Children big and small are scooped, swooshed and swung dangerously towards the centre, feet flying, smiling so hard they could burst, positively ecstatic.
For that split second we've forgotten that most of the time we hover over our kids, removing sharp sticks from their hands, diligently chopping grapes and other windpipe-sized objects, reminding them 18 times to please please please not walk behind the swings...
In that one moment we become children ourselves and actively initiate a crazy full speed collision of chubby little arms and legs, tiny Hunter wellies flying everywhere.
Having had my two very close together, I've enjoyed (survived?) years of scooping one under each arm and recklessly hurling them towards the centre, risking dislocation of pretty much all of our limbs, and hoping that the thin yellowish green layer of Plum Baby coating the little one doesn't cause him to slip out of my grasp and shoot straight into the fray like a fat little Parsnip Pea and Pear glazed bullet.
It's ace.
And now, a chance to make it even more dangerous and exciting. This coming weekend is the Paradise Gardens Festival, celebrating the Grand Opening of the London Pleasure Gardens. It's FREE, and the line-up looks fabulous, including a world record attempt for the largest ever Hokey Cokey.
Start teaching your kids their left from their right, and If you've ever Hokey Cokeyed, please leave a comment....
Cool action shots of your child swinging gleefully and rather dangerously through the air are also much appreciated! Just pop them on the Really Kid Friendly facebook page.
More details: