What do you get when you put 5 mini-electronic keyboards in a classroom at Daylight? You get joyful mayhem…and Jingle Bells, played on the one-button preset, over and over and over!

On our trip to Daylight in January 2015, we took a full-sized electronic keyboard and left it there. It now resides in the Head Master’s office. I played it quite a bit last year – at assemblies, at worship, and on demand!

So this January, when I went into the classrooms with the small keyboards, the children were already familiar with the piano. My plan was not to teach them how to read notes. There wasn’t enough time for that. And there certainly wasn’t enough time to teach them to play chords, scales, melodies and such. I just wanted the kids to experience playing an instrument and most importantly to have fun. And they did!

When I was 5 years old, I was a lucky kid. I had parents who let me take piano lessons. Playing music has brought such joy to my life!

If a few kids become interested in studying music in a more formal way because of these little keyboards….that would be so cool!

Rebecca Erickson
First Presbyterian Church, Stillwater, Minnesota
Member of the US Daylight Board