We love music in our house. M has 18,500 songs in his music library, with genres running the gamut. I was blessed with piano lessons and many opportunities to participate in music activities in school. M and I have always wanted to share his love of music and my knowledge of the mechanics with our children. Unfortunately, balancing all the homeschool subjects, housework, out-of-the house activities can force music (and other art projects) to the side lines.
This year I have been using
A Young Scholars Guide to Composers published by
Bright Ideas Press. This is a 32-week curriculum that covers 26 composers and includes all sorts of scholarly maps, timelines, and even quizzes! The recommended age group is 4-8 grade, but I've found that the information really doesn't have an age limit. I'm learning so much, right along with my kids. And my baby and preschooler are also positively influenced by the lesson as you will see...
The book is divided into historical periods, which is so easy to match up to whatever period we are studying in history. Right now, we are in the mid-1800's. I looked in the book, chose a composer (Chopin), and started to prepare the lesson. I searched for Chopin in our digital music library
and came up with nothing! Can you believe that? No Chopin? I got online, reserved some Chopin on the library website, and started waiting. Chopin came home from the library yesterday.
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| S listens to Grande Valse Brillante |
This morning, I had the kids get their blankets and pillows to make comfy nests on the floor. I played the music and had them listen with their eyes closed. The first song happened to be featured on a Baby Einstein DVD, so D ran to the TV to see what was going on! When he figured out the music wasn't coming from the TV, he jumped back on S's blanket. The rest of the kids got all excited they knew the song too. After I settled them back down, I read out loud the biographic information, paraphrased so E would understand, and gave each kid one question to answer at the end. Afterward, I had them listen to the rest of the CD while they wrote in their journal or quietly looked at books. It was a great way to get some music appreciation into their academic diet.
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| E draws a picture of Chopin in her journal |
I am really enjoying using this book. Like I said before, I am learning SO MUCH. While reading about Chopin, we learned that Mozart's
Requiem was played at Chopin's funeral. As we watched
The Incredibles for Family Movie Night, the
Requiem was played during the Jack-Jack Attack short. I was so proud to show off my musical knowledge (to M).
There is no way I could get through the entire book in one year, but I'm looking forward to savoring it for years to come and possibly
supplementing with other music products from
my favorite homeschool store.
As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.
