Dance Dance Dance!!

Think about it, as long as your kids are going to play video games you might as well give them a game which gives them some exercise and hopefully tires them out for bedtime as well.

I remember when I first saw dance dance revolution come out in the arcades. I would walk down George St and see these pairs of people staring intently at the screens with their lower halves moving frenetically in tandem to the will of the machine. I was always fascinated with it, as these folks really didn't look like they were enjoying the dance. It seemed more like they were doing a job.

Well, anyway... after the rant is done... here is the 5-year old champion of Dance Dance Revolution. Cool. It's almost hypnotic watching him.

Hot licks

This is a picture of Quinn Sullivan, the latest kid prodigy on the guitar. Those of us Australians who have been around a while will remember our own version from the early nineties, Nathan Camilleri who got a few gigs and a McDonalds ad out of his 15 minutes in the spotlight. From what I hear, Nathan is still a professional musician who works on commercials and soundtracks and is apparently a hell of a nice, down-to-earth guy.

But now from over the seas to take his throne comes the American version. Quinn is already a veteran of daytime TV, and is jamming with the legends. Here he is on stage with Buddy Guy.

He's eight now, but has been in the limelight somewhat since he was four. Enjoy his talent now before he turns 13 and goes punk!

The Hustler Junior

My father always said 'a good pool player is the sign of a mis-spent youth'. Well, this kid would fit nicely in this category in that case.

But, you know, I differ in opinion on this one with my dad. I look at this kid and I see hours of practice and dedication to hone his craft, and I see lots of valuable life lessons he is ticking off at a very early age. There is something about little boys in particular (email me in with some girl stuff to prove me wrong!!!) which causes them to get obsessive about learning certain skills. And if that obsessiveness is channelled into reaching a goal which seemed all too impossible when you first began, then that is a kid who is going to make something of themselves in the future.

Go kid! Go watch the vid.

Another kid who is better than I ever was at the age of 6....

I have to hand it to my parents, they did everything they could to try and turn me into a well-rounded individual. I was playing rugby at the age of 5, was taught to read young, and yes... there were also the inevitable piano lessons too.

Every christmas my late grandmother would always find an occassion to berate me for giving up the piano. "Oh, you used to play beautifully" she would tell me "I loved coming to hear you play". Nice of her to say that, but for me learning the piano was a chore. Sure I could play all the scales and arpeggios with both hands and all that stuff. Could give Beethoven and Mozart a bit of a whirl as well. But the lasting memory of learning the piano for mewas the endless hours of practice. Half an hour before school, half an hour after. All timed by the oven timer which my mum always kept an eagle eye upon.

I just didn't take to it.

Which brings me to Marc Yu. All of 6 years old and already playing with a semi-professional orchestra. I don't know how all those little fingers stretch for some of the chords, but if he's made that level he has obviously found a way.

Now, truth be told, Marc is probably a teensy bit of a (cough..nerd)... which isn't what Enfant Terrible is about. But if we all get in his corner and get him out of the daggy jumpers and into some cool threads and some nice kicks who knows what he could be? The next Nigel Kennedy perhaps?

Good on ya Marc! Keep practising. But dude, if you need some advice on haircuts and clothes, don't ask your mum...

Those wacky Germans!!!

While searching for something to post today I typed 'funny kids' in google, and a few pages on I found a link to this video. Now we've all seen this sort of stuff before... kids falling off swings and crashing their toy cars... but this time I looked at it from a different perspective.

As funny (and I imagine for their parents quite scary) as the video is, the bottom line is that you have to admire the chutzpah of these kids to give these things a go and undoubtedly get right back up and try it again.

I have an uncle who lives on a farm, and I remember going up there in primary school (basically as free labour) riding motorbikes to help round up the sheep. I had a bit of a minor accident which thankfully only resulted in a few bruises and a nasty burn from the exhaust pipe, and I remember him laughing and telling me that it's impossible to become a safe and competent rider until you've messed up a couple of times. Thankfully, I had those crashes in the middle of grassy paddocks and not on busy roads.

My uncle's wisdom I think applies to all of us. And to the kids in this video. Take a look at it, but try to watch from a different viewpoint. Think about how these incidents are so formative for these kids, and what enormous stockpiles of courage these little humans have to take these knocks and to bounce back and try it again until they learn how to do it right (or in some cases, not do it at all).

African Drumming

Take a look at Abdoulaye & Isaiah Chevrier - Ages 2 and 4. They live in Mali and my god they can certainly hit the skins. I remember watching my neices with drums at the same age and they would just randomly hit the drums with both of their hands at the same time. Rhythm is the furthest thing most kids are capable of. If not with drums, at the very least with a headache-inducing pot and wooden spoon.

Watch their video and you will see something remarkable.

I guarantee, once these kids hit their teens the girls will be all over them.

Grommet day on aquabumps

Being from Bondi myself, I love receiving my daily Aquabumps email. Aquabumps is a website run by a surfer and photographer named Uge who gets up at the sparrow's fart every day to take beautiful photographs of the people, the scenery and the waves of Bondi. He also has a cool little gallery tucked away in North Bondi definitely worth a peek at if you are in the neighbourhood.

Well, as fate would have it, yesterday the surf was very small and the only people out there were a bunch of grommets.

Uge writes about how these anonymous kids were tearing up the tiny little shorebreak by themselves, having the time of their lives in the type of surf many others would sniff at.

Good on 'em. That's more fun than a playstation now, isn't it?

Unbelievable

This little girl is Connie Talbot. She is 6 years old and sings like an absolute angel. She even broke down Mr Hardasnails himself, Simon Cowell, with her beautiful rendition of Somewhere over the rainbow. Stunning.

I hope we hear more of her in the future. She seems like a little treasure. Just hope the music industry doesn't chew her up and spit her out as they are so good at doing.

Tippi of the Jungle!!!

This photo is a bit retro now. Tippi Degre is now 17 and in France is a bit of a celebrity in a Steve Irwin kind of way, but this was taken when she was 6.

Tippi's parents were nature photographers in Namibia when she was young, and so she grew up with animals all around her. Her parents were amazed at how little fear she showed around animals, and shot a series of photos of her. Check some of them out here.

What a great way to grow up!

Spiderkid!!! Spiderkid!!!

This little Brazilian genius has lived out every 5-year old boys' fantasy. Not only did he bravely run through the flames to rescue a baby from a burning house, he did it while DRESSED AS SPIDERMAN!!!

I wonder if he was pretending to shoot webs from his hands while running through the house and making exploding noises? Read about him here. Now that truly is an enfant terrible. I hope he grows up to be something awesome like a fighter pilot or an alligator wrestler.

A picture tells a thousand words

Can't take your eyes off the little devils for a second, can you?

What I actually admire is that the parents had the temerity to hold their anger long enough to take a photo! Now THAT is coming out during the 21st birthday speech for sure.

Tennis, anyone?

I love the game of tennis. I play once a week and though I'll never trouble the upper echelons I enjoy hitting a solid thump onto the paint for a winner as much as anyone else.

So, now here is the next tennis prodigy. Five year old Jan Silva is hitting the ball very very nicely indeed. So is he the next big thing? Well, the truth is I think that ALL of the top 100 were hitting tennis balls pretty well at that age - but that doesn't stop this being an interesting video to take a peek at.

Check out also his personal website with his media appearances. For me he is a bit young to be promoted in that way, but he seems to enjoy it. I hope his folks give him a chance to just be a kid sometimes, and that if one day he decides he doesn't want to be "the tiger woods of tennis" anymore that they will be cool with it.

Fingerpainting!

I guarantee you have never seen fingerpainting like this! A three year old paints the most amazing Leonardo with his fingers... not of the Da Vinci variety, of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kind! Watch the video here. Now around the "blogosphere" some people are of the opinion that this is faked as the video came out a little conspicuously close to the release of the latest TMNT movie.

But I've looked at it and I can't see how it would have been faked. I think this little kid is a bona fide genius. Take a look at it and decide for yourself. I'm one of those who likes to believe that there is a little mozart out there somewhere right now, so the inner skeptic has been suppressed on this count.

Breakin' Bubs!

God I love YouTube! I told a friend of mine that I was starting a blog celebrating kids who are cool-before-going-to-school and they sent me this link of a kid doing his own breakdancing moves. Man, kids are fearless aren't they! This kid is only 3!

After having a peek at this one I went through the links to the side, and it turns out there is a whole community of bubs learning to breakdance. Cute as all hell.

Does your kid have any special skills? Breakdancing is just the start... trampolining, surfing, fingerpainting, making faces... whatever your kid does in their own unique way let me know!

Can your kid paint that?

A new doco My Kid Could Paint That is just coming out now about a little girl who became an overnight abstract art sensation (unfortunately, it's alleged her father's hand guided her's a little too much). You might remember hearing about her on the news a few years back. It looks like it is a bit of a sad story: of the rise and fall of one in the public eye at such a young age. But to have gone through that and come through the other side, young Marla must have some pretty decent stores of chutzpah to her. Definitely worth a look.

Tony Hawk's son Riley

This blog is all about showcasing the incredible stuff kids nowadays are capable of doing. And what better kid to kick it all off with than Riley Hawk. This pic is current, but you should see the stuff he was doing when he was four or five. A little video from back then is here.

Granted, the genes are aligned perfectly for a skateboarding youngster, but I never could have done anything close to that at his age. Looks like the Hawk skateboarding dynasty is in good hands.