classical music

While I’m At It

As long as I’ve been pondering curriculum, I’ve been looking at another set of lessons, (this time unit studies), from another new company, one that I’ve heard of but never actually looked at before–Beautiful Feet (BF).

In the interest of full disclosure, because of their particular viewpoints in regards to history, (especially American history), I wouldn’t use them for our history core for a full year. They appear to teach history from a Providential viewpoint (which is something I had never even heard of before this month), and I definitely don’t want to teach that.

That being said, when researching classical music studies, their name kept coming up, and so I checked out their “History of Music” pack. It looks awesome! We’ll be getting almost all of the CDs it uses from MFW over the course of a few years, anyway, and I already have one of the books, so it won’t even be that big of an investment to pick up the study guide and additional books. My children have a natural love of classical music (which I definitely did *not* have at their age), and an ear for composers, and I really want to encourage that. This program looks like it will be great for us in a few years, to really delve into classical music, composers, and musical instruments.

While browsing the BF website, I also found a unit study on the “History of the Horse.” I know it sounds really random, and it definitely wasn’t something I was looking for, but I also think this would be another really cool elective. There are many classic books included in the pack that I’ve either read or heard of (most of them written by Marguerite Henry, of course!), and a few of them are books I was hoping to read with the children soon. There is also a great deal of science in this program (learning the biology of the horse, for example), as well as art, (learning to draw horses).  If we use it as an electives program on Fridays, it will last us a good three years, which is a great return on a rather small investment.

Both of these programs are heavy on notebooking, which I think will be great practice for Turkey and Bunny, and also makes for a nice portfolio at the end of the year, or years, as the case may be. I was hoping to find something more structured than even MFW for classical music, and BF definitely fits the bill, and has gotten great reviews on top of it. I never would have gone looking for a study on horses, but I do love finding unique things to study, and Bunny is always asking to learn about animals, anyway (too bad there’s no bunny unit!), so I think this will be a great addition to our school!

Homeschool Review: “The Classical Kids Collection” CDs

One of my favorite things to use in our homeschool this year has been The Classical Kids Collection CD set (specifically volume 2, as well A Classical Kids Christmas).  To be honest, I haven’t yet been able to purchase volume 1 of the set, and I don’t really plan on buying Daydreams and Lullabies (although I am sure it is also excellent), but I love the five CDs we do have!

These CDs don’t just offer music by a composer, they weave the music into a story.  My children aren’t great at listening to stories on the radio, CD, etc., (the American Tall Tales CD we listened to this year was a burden to get through!), but for some reason they were riveted by the Classical Kids stories.  I think this is partly because the music breaks up the narration some, but also because there are children’s voices on the CDs, which they can relate to, and in general, all of the narrative voices are quite pleasant.

Volume 2 contains four CDs, which can also be purchased individually: Song of the Unicorn; Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage; Tchaikovsky Discovers America; and Hallelujah Handel.  The first CD is a compilation of medieval music, while the other three (obviously) focus on works by individual composers.  Tchaikovsky Discovers America was by far our favorite, because it’s an enchanting tale about some children hopping a train with the composer as he attempts to escape his commitment to conduct at the grand opening of Carnegie Hall.  The other CDs in the set were also excellent, but the story on this one captured our attention in a special way.

A Classical Kids Christmas was equally wonderful, using music from different time periods and composers to tell the Christmas story in the form of a Christmas pageant much like children used to participate in.  Different traditions and characters from around the world were shared, and the selections of music were wonderful–some familiar and some completely foreign.  The whole story very much mirrors the St. Charles Christmas Traditions walk that has become such an important tradition in our family.

The Classical Kids Collection volume 1 is on our list to purchase as soon as possible.  Like volume 2, this also contains four CDs, each focusing on a specific composer: Mr. Bach Comes to Call; Beethoven Lives Upstairs; Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery; and Mozart’s Magic Fantasy.

These CDs are a wonderful way to introduce children to classical music–the different composers, different sounds, and all the things to appreciate about this art form.  This is the type of resource that can be instrumental (pardon the pun!) in the development of a life-long love of music in children.