The Curriculum Choice

The R Road to Biblical Wisdom

Biblical Principle Approach, New to Homeschooling, Philosophies 2 Responses »

Aug 182009

This is one of my new favorite books in regards to Biblical reasoning with your children. It is not a Bible program, it is an instructional book on how to attain Biblical wisdom in every area of life. We all know we should instill wisdom in our children but exactly how do we do that day to day?

Freedom & Simplicity R Road to Biblical Wisdom: A “How to” Guide to Biblical Learning in Home Education by Lisa Hodgen is the manual for Biblical reasoning in your lessons. It is called the “R Road” because life is a journey. The R’s are tools that you use to attain wisdom. These are Receive, Record, Ruminate, Release and Revisit/Refresh. She walks you through each of these R’s and shows you how to practically apply these in your school lessons to achieve true Wisdom.

Wisdom is something that we all want but we aren’t sure how to get there. Her R’s do just that. And she’s careful to make sure you understand that all of life is learning–this Wisdom is for all of life and not just relegated to the school hours. This book is like the piece of BPA education I have been missing–the nuts and bolts what “getting wisdom” looks like.

She also gives a brief overview of the Mashal in the appendix. And she shares a large list of her favorite books and resources for different subjects. Her appendices alone are worth the cost of this book. If you are new to BPA this book is an excellent place to start. Her simplification of the 7 Principles is an excellent primer on the foundations of Biblical wisdom and liberty.

Lisa brings over 20 years of home educating experience to this topic and I felt like she was sharing with me the things she has learned so I can be a better mother teacher to my children. Also she offers her unique perspective with her 7 Pillars of Excellence.

Why you might like this book:

easy reading.
comprehensive.
She explains what other home education books do not–how to practically attain Biblical wisdom.
The resource list.
Her simplified version of the 7 Principles of America’s Christian history.

Why you might not like this book:

it’s an ebook.
Your philosophy does not jibe with Bible centered curriculum.
You want concrete step by step. Her books is principle based and flexible. It’s intended as a resource not a daily plan.

Click the cover to order. I am giving away a copy of this book on my blog, so maybe you can win a copy!

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Primary Language Lessons

Charlotte Mason, Classical, Language Arts, Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Aug 162009

I’d like to start off with a little background before I give this review because I think that understanding the circumstances can be helpful to another mom with a similar situation. So, here I was homeschooling my two oldest boys and getting ready to begin some sort of formal studies with my third son. I was using Shurley Grammar for my older two and knew that I could not teach three levels of Shurley. So, I wanted something as a light introduction and was beginning to succumb to the thought that grammar should be taught within other subjects. For first grade we just focused on reading, memorizing poetry, with an occasional dictation. Then, a dear friend and I had a meeting over dinner and gelato and she mentioned that some of her favorite times homeschooling with her, then, older girls was when they were using Primary Language Lessons. So, I ran home and ordered a copy.

When it arrived, I didn’t know what to do with it! It was different then anything that I had seen. It has beautiful illustrations, simple-yet-elegant language from days gone by, and….wait! I did recognize something – poetry! Yeah! O.K. I could try this. My third son did not know what to think of this book at first, but it has been a door for conversation. It has lead us through gentle exercises learning grammar through dictation and narration exercises and it adds to our “snuggle time” factor. You can see from the above picture that we actually have fun during our grammar time.

I’m looking forward to using this book again this year and progressing to the next book. He is more comfortable with the time we spend using this book and I have added some note-booking pages (instead of a workbook) to have something to show for his knowledge. I’ve lost my up-tightness that I had before 5 kids about teaching them everything “this year”. I understand now that it is a process and that language should be enjoyed and not forced on a child. I’ve found this is a good balance for my classical eclectic homeschool. I would say PLL is good for grades 1-4. There is another book that follows after PLL, which is Secondary Language Lessons and it is probably good for 3-6th grade. And, I still believe Shurley is a must for later on down the line. But, that’s another review.

Brenda is a classical eclectic mother of 5. You can find her blogging at Tie That Binds Us regularly about her homeschooling journey.

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Unit Studies: A Few More Thoughts

Philosophies, Uncategorized, Unit study resources 2 Responses »

Aug 142009

In this third and final article on unit studies, I wanted to share a few miscellaneous thoughts and resources.

How Long Should A Unit Study Last?
As long as it you want it to! Depending on the ages of your children and their level of interest in the topic you are exploring, you could spend anywhere from one week to several months on a unit study. My children are ages three, five, and eight years old, and on average we spend two to four weeks on a given topic. This past year our study of Colonial Times lasted for two months because everyone was enjoying it so much.

I also wanted to mention that I try to vary the kinds of units we do. Instead of studying two social studies topics in a row, I try to alternate science with social studies. We might study Westward Expansion, then The Solar System, then China, and then Reptiles. You don’t have to schedule your studies this way, but it has kept interest levels high in our family.

Keeping a Record of Unit Study Adventures
We’ve documented our studies through lapbooking, notebooking, and scrapbooking, but you can organize your materials in whatever way works best for you.

Things we’ve included in our books:

Written work such as creative writing, mini-books, labeled diagrams, written reports
Drawings and other artwork
Mementos and brochures from field trips
Pictures, pictures, pictures! A camera is a homeschooling Mom’s best friend. We’ve included photos of artwork and hands-on projects, students dressed in costume, any cooking we’ve done, field trips, and more.
Reading lists

The children help with arranging and adhering things into their books. The responsibility of putting these together will eventually become completely theirs as they grow older.

I also like to keep a running list of the topics we’ve covered over the years. This helps me to make sure we cover everything that we need to over time.

Favorite Resources

Five in a Row is a delightful, literature-based curriculum that I have reviewed here.
Amanda Bennett has written many terrific studies on a wide variety of topics. She includes a lot of internet links in her studies that enable you and your children to see the world through the click of your mouse.
NaturExplorers is a new line of nature-based unit studies. The ladies at Shining Dawn Books have written some wonderful studies on topics such as clouds, wildflowers, ponds, animal tracks, and many more. I will be reviewing their Frogs and Toads unit here in the near future. In the meantime I think you’ll enjoy perusing their offerings.
Homeschool Share is a collective of wonderful, free resources written by homeschool Moms like you and me. They offer oodles of unit studies, lapbooking and notebooking resources, and more. If you’ve never visited Homeschool Share, you’re in a for a real treat!
You can find the form I use for putting together my own unit studies here and here.

Will we always use unit studies? I would like to think so. I don’t know what our schooling will look like in five years, but for now unit studies are a great fit for my teaching style and my children’s learning styles. They have also been a wonderful way to fan the flame of learning in my children. I do know that whatever methods we choose throughout our homeschool career, I want our children to be excited about learning.

If you decide to embark on a unit study adventure of your own, I encourage you to have fun making memories, take lots of pictures, and enjoy those precious moments with your children.

Written by Shannon, who can be found blogging about her family’s unit study adventures at Song of My Heart.

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What about Socialization?

New to Homeschooling, Uncategorized 9 Responses »

Aug 132009

photo by Andrei Niemimaki

It’s the most commonly asked question about homeschooling. When people who don’t homeschool find out you’re homeschooling, or even thinking about homeschooling, it’s the first thing they ask.

What about socialization?

I find it interesting that socialization seems to be everyone’s number one concern about homeschooling, even though

a. The purpose of school is to receive an education, and

b. There are plenty of people who go to public schools who are socially inept.

But my purpose in this article is not to discuss either the philosophy or inadequacy of the public school system. I would like to help new homeschoolers to think ahead before answering this inevitable question.

OK, so you’ve just been asked THE question. Before you answer, first think about who you are talking to. Is this person someone that you’re likely to see again? Your answer to friends and relatives should probably be more complete than one you give to the grocery checker or the neighbor from down the street. Also, if possible, try to determine if the person is truly interested in having a discussion on the issue, or if they’re just repeating the question because they’ve heard it from someone else.

Here are my suggested responses to the socialization question.

The short and sweet response -

No need to worry about that. The children have lots of opportunities to socialize.

The detailed list response -

Socialization? We socialize all the time. Johnny is chairman of the activities committee for our homeschool group. The children also play soccer, basketball, and tennis. We go to co-op once a week, skating once a month, and a science class. We also volunteer at the nursing home and the homeless shelter as well as teach ESL classes to refugees.

The definition response-

Do you really mean socialization? Socialization means a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position. (dictionary.com) Is it sensible to expect children to learn how to be responsible adults by learning their social skills in a room full of children? They might learn how to act more like typical American children at school, but that’s not one of our family goals. Our children will be much better socialized by being homeschooled.

The “No thanks” response -

Although I’m sure that there are some “good” kids emerging from the public schools, we’ve seen enough of the ungodly attitudes, dress, speech, and behavior prevalent among children today that we’ve determined to follow a different path as God leads us in educating our children.

Obviously each of these are hypothetical responses to the socialization question. Adapt them to use in your specific situation. Remember that with friends and relatives they will have the opportunity to see your kids grow and see if they are “anti-social.”

I should also note that there are some people to whom you will not be able to explain homeschooling. PERIOD. There are occasions where you may have to agree to disagree while remaining gracious. That is why I left out another possible response to the question: sarcasm. I don’t disagree that sarcasm may be useful, not to mention funny, in responding to these questions, but it can make people defensive and provoke them to attack back. For some people, a sarcastic comment may be all that will shut them up. However, I would suggest using sarcasm very sparingly if ever.

So, how do you handle the socialization question? I’d love to hear your comments and suggestions!

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Character Building for Families

Bible 3 Responses »

Aug 122009

Character Building For Families

Here is a typical scenario in my house: One of my sons decides he wants to make “shooting sounds” with his mouth while he is drawing his civil war scene. My youngest daughter who is also at the table drawing gets annoyed with her brother and starts to tell him he needs to stop making that noise. Ahh, now my son has realized he can now tease his sister with this annoying noise he is making. So my daughter now gets even more annoyed and decides to hit him. My son of course retaliates and now my daughter finds me in the other room and tattles on him. Does this sound familiar to anyone here?

When we were having days like this I knew I needed to find something that can teach my children how to love each other on a daily basis! We needed some character training. My wonderful friend told me about a curriculum she was using with her children that was just for character training.

I am sure every child will need some guidance in character traits such as obedience, cheerfulness or truthfulness. I know in my house all of my children have needed some extra guidance in character building. Let’s face it all of us can use some character building.

As I said through a wonderful friend I found this wonderful curriculum called “Character Building For Families.” It is published by Full Gospel Family Publications. It is a bible study designed for the whole family which focuses on character training. I am sure one of the reasons most of us have chosen to homeschool is to have more time to develop those Godly character traits we want our children to have.

Let me tell how the curriculum is laid out. It is a topical unit study of christian character traits. There are two volumes that can be purchased. The first volume covers 12 traits; obedience, orderliness, diligence, loyalty, deference, cheerfulness, gentleness, contentment, gratitude, truthfulness, servanthood, and hospitality (I am sure many of you are now thinking my children could use guidance in one or more of these traits). There are 165 lessons. In volume two there are five topics covered; stewardship (of money, time, speech, bodies, friends and the gospel), teachableness, mercy, patience, and desire for Jesus. There are 135 lessons. The traits can be done in any order. We had started with gentleness because at the time it was the most needed trait that our children needed to learn. Each character trait is broken down into daily lessons. A single trait may have as many 14 lessons. Each lesson starts with a biblical passage to read. Each day there is bible memorization. The verses to be memorized are to help cement those daily lessons of each trait being taught. There is discussion about the bible passage that is read and how it can be applied to our lives today. Sometimes the lesson may ask Mom and dad to give examples in the own lives of how to apply a lesson. The lessons have questions for you to ask your children. Each lesson ends with prayer and the lesson gives suggestion of how to pray for that day. It is a simple layout but a very effective one. It demonstrates how God has shown himself through his word and how he wants us to be like Jesus.

What are the cons? It may be a little advance for younger children such as 2nd grade and lower and there are not any pictures.

This curriculum was a great fit for our family. It is so easy to implement into your homeschool day. The lessons generally take 20 minutes. We’ve have had some great discussions in our daily bible lesson with this curriculum. This is a great bible curriculum that is easy to teach and so effective. No preparation is needed. The only material needed is a bible. We did keep a bible journal. My children would write our bible verses that we were memorizing and they would journal their thoughts about what they had learned in our bible study. That was something extra we added to the program.

It is very affordable, the cost is only $15.00 for each volume or $28.00 for both volumes. Here is a link if you would like more info:

http://www.characterbuildingforfamilies.com/

This link shows examples of the program:

http://www.characterbuildingforfamilies.com/samples.html

Written by Korey

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Where to Find Used Curriculum

Uncategorized 7 Responses »

Aug 112009

I hate paying full-price for anything. I’m a bargain hunter extraordinaire. Because of that, I usually search for used curriculum. These are my favorite places to look online:

Paperbackswap – This site is actually for trading books, but you can buy credits for around $3 each. One book equals one credit.

Paperbackswap might not the best place for curriculum, but almost all of our literature and art books come from here. It’s always worth a look.

Homeschool Classifieds – This site allows you to list and sell curriculum for free. You can also create a wanted ad. Sellers sometimes search those before listing their items.

Homeschool Talk & Swap at VegSource – This site’s navigation is by grade level, which is harder for me to use. However, the search works pretty well, and this is a very active board.

Yahoo Groups – Join a group based on your location, favorite curriculum, or even educational philosophy. For instance, Spell to Write and Read, RightStart Math and BiblePrinciples each have a Yahoo Group.

What does that have to do with used curriculum? Most groups allow members to post books for sale. All of our major purchases have been made this way.

Please help me pinch even more pennies. What’s your favorite place to find used curriculum?

Written by Renae Deckard, Biblical Principled mother of 3. Find Renae’s reflections about homeschool and family life at Life Nurturing Education.

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Transcripts Made Easy

Organization 1 Response »

Aug 102009

Is anybody else beginning to stress a little about high school? Come on, raise your hand higher, I know you’re out there!

I consider myself a pretty confident homeschooler overall. I don’t over-analyze curriculum choices or worry about counting every single minute of every single lesson. I’m a fairly relaxed homeschooler – which is the way I like it. Until, that is, the “H” word begins to hover over my head. Then I start to fret, wondering if our relaxed, eclectic, Charlotte Mason style will cut the mustard when it comes to things like filling out transcripts, calculating grade point averages and getting my children into college if that’s the path God desires.

Some of you may say, “Your oldest is only in 7th grade. Why are you fussing over this now?” Well, as you’ll soon find out from my review, it seems it’s never too early to at least have a plan in mind for high school. And if I want to begin any high school credit courses early (which I do), 7th grade isn’t at all too early to have the plan in place.

So, where did I start looking? I ran across a book titled Transcripts Made Easy by Janice Campbell. She’s a mom of four who has been homeschooling since the late 80′s and currently has two boys who graduated from college early and two boys who are beginning college courses in high school. Because of her experience, success and the simplicity of this book, I have found it to be a tremendous help in planning high school – and easing my anxiety!

Includes reproducible forms!

Transcripts Made Easy is truly easy to understand. Even with 120 pages, it’s a fairly quick read, too. Janice walks you through, step-by-step, how to simply and effectively keep academic records, how to turn those records into a GPA sheet, how to calculate credits and quality points, making adjustments for AP or college classes and how to make sure you are preparing your student for classes that meet state and college-bound goals.

She even includes real conversations with college admissions counselors to help you understand what they are really looking for in an applicant.

For our less textbook structured homeschool, my favorite sections are those that help me justify unit studies, field trips, 4-H, service projects and the like. There’s even an entire chapter dedicated to teaching you how to name less traditional classes, how to assign them the appropriate credit, and even how to assess them so that a grade can be given for the GPA. Ah, what a relief! I won’t have to turn into Textbook Tina afterall! (Not that there’s anything wrong with textbooks – most of the time they just aren’t our style.)

With the reproducible forms included in the book, you can easily begin noting high school level courses for credit, even if you start them a year or two early. And if you’re already in high school, but still looking for a system that works, it seems it’s never too late (or too hard) to jump into the record keeping provided in TME.

Transcripts Made Easy can be purchased as a softcover 8 1/2 x 11″ book for $21.95, or as an e-book for $18.95. Both are very fairly priced!

-Written by Cindy, Eclectic Charlotte Mason mom of Three. You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books.

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Have you heard about Eeboo?

Art, Charlotte Mason, Preschool, Science, Writing 5 Responses »

Aug 092009

Brenda and I had the privilege to review products from a new-to-us company with a funny but memorable name, eeBoo. We decided to combine our reviews into one entry so you can see a variety of their items and get two different perspectives about a line of products that is sure to become one of your favorites too.

Here is Brenda’s review to start us off.

I’m always on the hunt for new companies to add to my list of favorites to buy high quality games and toys from. It makes it easier to go into a toy store or shop online when I have a pre-approved list of companies, and it helps me narrow down my searches. Eeboo has been added to my list.

wall_birds1 Eeboo has an amazing assortment of products for young minds. I was fortunate to be able to review some wall cards and a story game, provided by this excellent company. The wall cards are perfect for my budding bird-lovers. They are beautifully illustrated number cards that have birds from 1-10. These cards are durable and look lovely displayed on a wall.

Now, if your tot doesn’t have an interest in birds, how about trains? Eeboo has counting trains too. Their wall cards don’t end with counting numbers, they also have a wide assortment of alphabet cards like animals, tools and flowers. There are several ways that I have thought about using these cards since I can’t display them all and I also happened to buy the tool alphabet set at a toy store while on vacation this summer. I thought about sliding the cards into page protectors in a binder to make a book, and displaying just a few at a time while we are learning that letter or number on an IKEA curtain wire including clips for 4.95, in the school room.

I’m definitely going to use these cards with the my little girl when we begin bird watching for our nature studies. I have collected a hand full of field guides to help us discover which birds we are watching and these particular cards will give us a head start because they have the names of the birds on them. The illustrations are also perfect for having young ones draw a bird in their nature study book, cause we all know birds don’t usually stick around and pose for a picture for too long.

tms_forest

Eeboo also has the perfect tool for budding writers. Tell Me a Story cards have brought hours of fun and laughter for my 5 year old daughter and I. The first time I opened this game, she devoured the box. We had to go through every card! The directions come with several games to play but her favorite is when we both take turns choosing a random card from the pile and add on to our silly story…and add…and add…and giggle.

We have the Mystery in the Forest edition, and I’m so happy to discover that there are 3 more editions. I’ve secretly bought her another one for her next birthday.

My “school” plan for using this pre-writing tool is choosing a few cards for her to dictate (or tell me a story about), while I write it down for her. Then I would read it back to her and have her draw a picture to go with her story. This would also work well with my seven year old son. I have also found that if I leave these cards in the dining room that my other children find them and start coming up with their own games to play with them. I can see why Tell Me a Story cards have won the Best Toy Award, because they are very versatile.

Written by Brenda, a classical eclectic mother of 5. You can find her writing at Tie That Binds Us about her homeschooling journey.

Now it is my turn! Our family decided to test these products out together…including our teen boys and my daughter Amanda! Thumbs up from everyone!

Screech Owl at Dusk. Robin Cheer Up. September Serenade.

eeboo-pencils_nature Don’t those color names make you want to go grab your nature journal and start sketching? Even before we opened the pencil box, we all noticed the beautifully illustrated tin they were packaged in. The watercolor style painting of birds on this eeBoo pencil set is attractive and so inspiring that you will want to open them up and get started. The sturdy tin box will be a great way to transport the pencils in a backpack on our hiking adventures. We all appreciated among the twenty-four pencils in the set that there are three shades of yellow, three shades of green, and four shades of brown. When you work in your nature journal it is wonderful to have a variety of natural shades to choose from when you need just the right color for a wildflower you find or to sketch a tree seen in a meadow. We will be adding these colored pencils to our list of items to take on our nature rambles, using them when we are inspired out of doors.

Speaking of nature journals, our family was also asked to review their Nature and Observations Notebook. We loved the size and feel of this journal. It is spiral bound and has a variety of features that give this special journal a little something extra.

eboo-ntbk_nature
12 glassine envelopes for field specimens and pocket to store them.
128 Pages including: Sketch Pages and Note Pages
10 fold-up sheets for stationery
2 sheets of stickers for specimens envelopes and stationery
The envelopes are perfect for holding pressed flowers and you can store them in the pocket on the inside of the front cover. The journal also includes beautiful specimen labels to attach to each envelope. Very handy! The journal has pages that are both lined and pages with sketch boxes to encourage you to illustrate this memory book. At the back of the journal there are 10 removable pages to be used as stationery and they come complete with stickers to seal the stationery closed. This is one complete nature journal! eeBoo also offers a travel journal and a summer journal .

Summing it all up, our family decided that the beauty of the eeBoo products is what attracted us at first but after using the pencils and their nature notebook we love the quality and versatility of the products as well. We look forward to filling our nature journal with colorful sketches. Thanks eeBoo!

Written by Barb-Harmony Art mom. She also blogs at http://www.harmonyartmom.blogspot.com

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Sons of Norway

History, Literature, Music, Uncategorized No Responses »

Aug 082009

medals Years ago, after writing a paper for a college history class about Norwegian Americans, I became familiar with a fraternal organization called Sons of Norway. I joined and though I wasn’t an active member, I enjoyed reading the Viking magazine that arrived in my mailbox each month and I dreamed of someday traveling to my ancestral homeland.

As a parent, I want the best for my children. As a homeschooling mom, I look for every opportunity to provide educational experiences for them. I had known there was an active Sons of Norway lodge here in Central Oregon since we first moved here in 2003 – all things Norwegian tend to grab my attention – but I didn’t join the lodge until I started homeschooling two years ago.

Since then, I have been delighted with the educational benefits of membership. One of the greatest is being able to take advantage of the many cultural opportunities. A partial sampling of activities in which members can partake and thereby earn heritage pins includes:

Architecture

Cooking

Handcrafts (Hardanger embroidery, Wood carving, Rosemaling, Weaving)

Folk dance

Folk costume

Genealogy

History

Language

Literature

Music

Stamp collecting

Travel

bunads Additionally, the organization has an extensive Sports Medal Program, whereby members achieve recognition of healthful activities. The program is great because you don’t need to be a natural athlete – the only one you are really competing with is yourself. Participants are assigned point or mileage requirements for medal qualifications. As participants reach each objective, they are awarded different grades of sports medals. They begin in pursuit of the Bronze, then work up to Silver, Gold, and eventually Enamel.

As a family, we were already actively participating in a variety of endeavors (swimming, cycling, hiking, running, Taekwondo, etc.), we simply began to keep a tally of the time we spent doing these activities. Earlier this year, during the lodge’s monthly social dinner, the kiddos and I were presented with the Idrettsmerke sports medals that we had earned. I was very impressed with the quality of the medals.

The best part is that the medals are free to members! Both of the kiddos are enthusiastic about earning the other medals. Sweetie says she would like to learn to cross-country ski and earn Skimerke medals. We have also begun to learn more about the crafts of Rosemaling and wood carving.

Collaboration with other members is another fabulous part of lodge members. Many of the crafts that we want to learn are unfamiliar to us and we thereby rely upon others members to share and tutor us in their craft. It has been a great way to connect with another generation.

Written by Makita, an eclectic homeschool mother of two.

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Classical Music Start-Up Kit

Art, Charlotte Mason, Classical, High School, Highschool, Music 3 Responses »

Aug 062009

I have been listening to classical music for quite some time. Many of my friends say classical music is not their cup of tea so they don’t expose themselves or their children to the variety and sound of classical music. In my experience, it takes a few times listening through a particular composer to get the feel for his music. Lumping all classical music into one category is a big mistake since the sounds and styles of each composer are so different.

Starting when the children are young is the best way to develop an ear for classical music but don’t despair if your children are older and you still want to give them the opportunity. It is never too late. My husband never listened to classical music until we started composer study in the Charlotte Mason style. He now can recognize and appreciate many different composers.

cm-start-up-two-disks I found the perfect CD sets to introduce your family to the general overview of classical music. The series is called The Classical Music Start-Up Kit, volumes one and two. The first CD covers the years 1500-1825 and the second volume covers 1825-1945.

They call it a kit but really it is a CD with a booklet “instruction manual”. You can listen and enjoy the selections or you can listen, enjoy, and then pull out the booklet and read about the composer, the time period, and the music itself. I had my boys listen to the CD several times and then we went back and read a bit about what we were listening to after they had some exposure to the music.

I have learned to fit in our listening as we go about our daily routine. We listen to the music in the car while we are driving to our appointments or errands. I put the music on when they are working on art projects. I listen to the music during the day while I work on the computer. You would be surprised at how many times you can find to listen to one or two of the selections each day.

You can click the link to Amazon.com below and there you can actually listen to samples of the music from each CD.

Classical Music Start-Up Kit Volume One

Classical Music Start-Up Kit Volume Two

Each one of these volumes could be the basis of a term’s music appreciation. Here is what the introduction says for these kits.

“Each volume requires two to three hours of listening and reading. If you’re new to classical music, this CD and instruction manual may be easier to absorb if you plan several shorter sittings…..It is not essential for you to have read Volume One before beginning Volume Two, but if you go through these CDs in order, you’ll have a better overall understanding of classical music.”

These CDs are a great starting point for a study of classical music. You can use the selections to pick composers you want to listen to in more depth in the future. If you find a composer you like and want to stop and dwell on his music, you can be flexible and do that as well.

There is no right or wrong way to get started with music appreciation. The most important thing is that you start!

cm-start-up-disk-and-manual

I love to keep things simple and the Classical Music Start-Up CDs with the accompanying instruction manual are an inexpensive and painless way to expose your children to great music. These CDs are appropriate for all ages of students. In fact, I use them in my high school music appreciation plans on Harmony Fine Arts. These plans are free and you can download the PDFs to use with your children.

You can also listen to both of these Classical Music Start-Up Kits on Naxos.com if you are a subscriber. You can also listen to samples on Naxos.com for free.

Volume One: Catalogue Number 8.550779

Volume Two: Catalogue Number 8.550835

Enjoy!

Written by Barb-Harmony Art mom. She also blogs at http://www.harmonyartmom.blogspot.com

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