My son's school arranges for each child to buy his own recorder for $4 or so. I think they also provide new recorders to any child whose family doesn't pay, using PTA funds.

We bought our own to use for school and my three kids used the same recorder. After all they use it for maybe one lesson a week.

It is a strange comment the way it's worded too but I don't disagree with her. My daughter "sucks" in her recorder too when it's filled with spit and I remember doing it too with my clarinet. If you don't, it will sound out of tune. Kids recorders filled with spit ends up being cleared in two ways. Either blow hard (teachers get that shrill sound) and it drips at the end. (Yuck) or suck it in! The spit and condensation from warm breath has to go somewhere right?

OP was asking too about band. I used the school's clarinet too. It was not new and also shared by so many kids. You can't quite "wash" or boil a clarinet either. I didn't get sick from using the clarinet though. So I wouldn't worry too much about the recorders. Poor kids using communal recorders survive. I don't see why yours can't.

Anonymous wrote:I am not a germaphobe but just replacing the mouthpiece wouldn't cut it for me. Unless they clean the recorders between use, the kids are going to suck in (no, they aren't suppose to but you know they will) all the germs growing in the warm, moist recorder.

You do, in fact, sound like a germaphobe. It's a recorder, not a vagina.

I think you should insist and tell the school that you have the right to refuse communal recorders. I bought one for my daughter this summer and in less than a week, it already had a bad smell with all the spit and all. I had to soak and boil the mouthpiece part before I let her play it again. I think I washed it a few times since then just so that it remains clean. Plus despite telling them not to bite their recorders, they all still do and with my recorder used by only one kid, it looks chewed up already. But at least it's her own teethmarks. I can't image how 20 other kids having a go at the recorders would look and smell like! Yuck!

And I hate hearing hot cross buns!!!

At our school each child gets his/her own recorder to keep. They take it home over the summer and bring it back in the fall. Lots of "Hot Cross Buns" has been played at my house over the years.

Our school washes them via the dishwasher apparently after each use and replaces the whole lot each year. Our school also allows for kids to either use the communal ones if the the parents did not buy them or if the kids didn't bring them. We bought our own but there was once my dd didn't bring hers and had to use the schools. She told me it was all still wet inside, had a bad smell and looked like a bulldog had chewed it up! Trust me, she didn't ever forget to bring hers thereafter.

Ew. Our school told us to buy them at a local music store.

I am not a germaphobe but just replacing the mouthpiece wouldn't cut it for me. Unless they clean the recorders between use, the kids are going to suck in (no, they aren't suppose to but you know they will) all the germs growing in the warm, moist recorder.

We had the option of ordering our own through the school or borrowing from what they had on hand. We ordered. And to the question about how do they keep them clean, from what I understand there is some type of removable mouthpiece thing they used for the communal recorders.

Anonymous wrote:My kids had there own recorder. I think we had to pay something like $3.50 for it.

Same here. There was a class order. The recorder wasn't even bad.

We bought it and it stayed in the classroom. Each child had his/her own recorder. We also bought one for home practice.

Ew gross. How is that sanitary? How do they clean them? Out of tone......aren't they all?

My kids had there own recorder. I think we had to pay something like $3.50 for it.

Do you buy your own? Our school insist they provide communal recorders for class and do not want to deal with out of tone dollar store recorders or forgotten ones. So we are not given the option to buy our own. Its just that it is shared with all the other kids. Is it normal in all schools to now do this? I remember in my school says, we only went to the sad pile of school recorders if your parents didn't want to buy one or you forgot to bring. It was all banged up and has a bad smell.

Should we insist ? But then what about band? Those are shared anyway?