Harmony Fine Arts Plans for Art and Music Appreciation

 Age, Art, Charlotte Mason, Elementary, Fine Arts, High School, Middle School, Music  101 Responses »
Apr 232012
 

You are in for a treat at the end. Don’t miss the giveaway!

Dear homeschool parent,

Are you like me? Do you long to enrich your homeschool with studies of composers and artists? Do you wish that someone would just do it all for you? You know, invest the time in research, find the online links, point you to the resources you need? All I really wanted to be able to do was open something up and teach. Have it all right there and not have to pull it all together myself.

It’s done. Yes, really. It’s all done for you. Barb-Harmony Art Mom has created just what you need. She, too, was like us. Here is what Barb has to say about the Harmony Fine Arts (HFA) plans she created:

The idea behind this program came from my own home schooling experience. I was always searching for a plan for picture study and composer study. It seemed simple enough to do myself but I just never did it. I also wanted to use the classical style and Charlotte Mason’s ideas for our art and music. I wanted all the great resources organized in the four-year cycle of history. I wanted it to be flexible and easy to use. I never found what I was searching for so I decided to do it myself!

This is the art and music appreciation program for busy people. We have done all the research and organizing. You are able to open our plan and offer a great program for your children.

As mentioned above, the plans are organized by the four-year cycle of history. They are presented as follows but plans for individual grades are available:

  • Grammar – Grades 1-4
  • Logic – Grades 5-8
  • Rhetoric – Grades 9-12

(First grade plans are a general overview and gentle introduction to composers and artists. Starting with grade 2, the plans work chronologically through the four year history cycle.)

Art Plans:

Offer three options so you can choose what is best for your homeschool.

  • You can simply choose picture study with links to view all the art online for easy viewing.
  • You can add in an art appreciation study with short activities.
  • You can even follow along in certain grades with the formal art program Artistic Pursuits or Drawing with Children or Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad – depending on the grade level.
  • Depending on which option you choose within the art plans – you can allow for one or two 45-minute art periods per week.

Composer Study:

  • Choose to study the composers and listen to their music or
  • Enhance your music study with suggested books

Included: artist and composer notebooking pages, coloring pages of famous art.

How we use Harmony Fine Arts Plans in our home: we adopted Angie and her boys at Petra School’s Wednesday habit of artist and composer study. All this means is that we push back the dishes from lunch. I open up the Harmony Fine Art Plans on my computer. I turn on the music of the composer we are studying. Or I click over to the optional online listening of Classics for Kids. We might work on a notebook page while listening.

Next, depending on the day, I might click over to view artwork of the artist we are studying. We may follow with an artist notebook page or a Draw Squad lesson. This takes 15 to 30 minutes once a week. But building a weekly habit has tuned us all in and made us want more the rest of the week.

  • “Can we play that again? I really like it.” 14-year-old
  • Six-year-old whistling along to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony when I turn on the classical music just for listening fun.

The Many Benefits of Art and Music Study:

Cost: All costs are listed on the order page of the Harmony Fine Arts website. Bundles are available as well as individual year plans. I purchased the Middle School Medieval/Renaissance Plans at the start of this school year for $17.44. A whole year of study for the whole family for less than $20 – one that brings that much learning and enjoyment? What a bargain!

Print or ebook? Harmony Fine Arts Plans are available in both print or ebook format.

In Summary: What I originally intended for my middle-schoolers to study has extended to full blown appreciation for the whole family – all five children.

  • The artist and composer studies compliment our Tapestry of Grace studies beautifully.
  • For this mama, using HFA plans is easy. I just click to open the plans, click to print what we might like to compliment our studies, click to print a coloring page for the younger ones.
  • Not to mention, this type of enrichment is pure delight. It might just be what your homeschool needs too.

“All my music I wrote for God.” ~ J. S. Bach

I shared about our studies on my Hodgepodge site and my friend Kimberly, a pianist and life-long musician, had this to say…

“It warms my heart when I hear children learning about classical music! So many of those composers had such a love for God and were certainly gifted. When you mention Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, etc. to most children, they have no idea who they are. It’s so sad because these musicians have had such an impact on our world. It’s wonderful that you’re sharing this education with your children!” ~Kimberly

I agree – there is so much history and part of HIS story we can learn from those gifted and Godly. With thanks to Harmony Fine Arts for creating a wonderful tool for just such an education.

Now for the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Homeschooling for over a decade now, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children. She shares a mixture of free art lessons, recipes and the practical at Hodgepodge. Her husband, Steve, also shares reviews here at Curriculum Choice.

Pin It

Beautiful Feet History of Classical Music Curriculum Review

 Charlotte Mason, Music  3 Responses »
Jan 062010
 

The History of Classical Music is published by Beautiful Feet Books, a long-respected homeschool curriculum provider.

The 75 lessons in this curriculum move through classical music starting with Corelli in the Baroque Period and going all the way to Stravinsky in the Modern Era. Here is a list of the many composers studied:

    violoncello

  • Corelli
  • Vivaldi
  • Bach
  • Handel
  • Haydn
  • Mozart
  • Beethoven
  • Schubert
  • Berlioz
  • Mendelssohn
  • Chopin
  • Schumann
  • Grieg
  • Tchaikovsky
  • Wagner
  • Verdi
  • Brahms
  • Dvorak
  • Strauss
  • Mahler
  • Foster
  • Sousa
  • Debussy
  • Stravinsky

A study of the instruments and structure of the orchestra is also interspersed throughout the curriculum.

Features of this curriculum:

Included in the set are a composers card game, five living books, 18 Audio CDs, 2 coloring books, a timeline, and a schedule/teacher’s guide.

Don’t be fooled by the term “coloring book.” They are full of text and information, complemented by black and white drawings.

The VOX Music Masters audio CDs are narratives of composer’s lives sprinkled with relevant musical selections throughout. A single narrator tells the story. There is no dramatic dialogue or sound effects. These are more straightforward than say a Jim Weiss or Your Story Hour audio. That is, they are not as entertaining in a humorous or exciting way. But they are well made and full of facts about the composers.  We do enjoy them; my daughter has never complained that they are boring. For younger students, you may want to use the Classical Kids CDs instead.

A timeline with beautiful images is part of the complete package. Besides the line drawings, there are even  two strips of cardstock for making the actual timeline. (Or the figures could be but onto your own pre-existing timeline.)
The composers card game is basically a matching game like Go Fish with composers on the cards. It’s a fun way to reinforce the names and works of the music masters you study.

About the Guide

In the guide, all reading assignments are scheduled clearly, lesson by lesson so that you could hand the guide over to your middle schooler (or high schooler) and let him do the study basically on his own.

Notebooking suggestions and tasks are included in the lessons. These are varied and open-ended. Examples include mapping, sketching diagrams and labeling them, writing definitions, taking notes on a certain historical topic, coloring and pasting in an image from the coloring book. (There are no printable notebooking pages, just tasks to complete in your blank notebook.)

Occasionally websites are listed for additional study. And there are short research projects integrated into the curriculum.

Most lessons include a culminating or key question that is answered in the reading assignments. You can choose how to handle it, either discussing it orally with your child or having him write the answer in his notebook.

Materials needed in addition to the set:

  • An atlas
  • A composition book (or other format for notebooking)

How to use History of Classical Music

BF History of Classical Music is truly a history of music and not of history in general. Thus I consider it insufficient for a year’s history curriculum. Instead I suggest BF History of Classical Music could be used in a Charlotte Mason homeschool in two ways:

1.  As an in-depth unit study covering the span of a few months.

BF History of Classical Music  has only 75 lessons. So if you completed two lessons each day (very doable if this is your base curriculum) you could finish it in less than forty school days (9 weeks on a five day school week; 10 weeks with school four days a week). Because of the heavy emphasis on reading and writing, BF History of Classical Music would make a good language arts curriculum.

2.  As a guide for composer studies.

The BF History of Classical Music could supply almost all you need for several years of composer study if you spent a term on each composer in the materials. Instead of doing two lessons each week as the publisher suggests, you could stretch out all the Bach assignments, for example, over the course of a 6-12 week term. By adding daily music listening to the routine, you would have a very rich composer study.

Although the curriculum states it is for 5th – 8th graders, I see no reason why high schoolers couldn’t benefit from these lessons and living books. Fifth and sixth graders may need to have some of the more challenging reading assignments read aloud to them.

Classical Kids CD’s

 Charlotte Mason, Unit study resources  1 Response »
Jul 132009
 

What can be better for learning about composers than listening to a wonderful living story about the composer’s life with his music intertwined in the story?  My children and I have SO enjoyed composer study when we’ve been able to add a Classical Kids CD to the mix.

The Children’s Group from Canada has been producing classical music products for children for around 15 years – and they’re very good at it!  The Classical Kids Series includes ten CD’s that tell stories about famous composers and make the particular composer’s music part of the very interesting story lines.  Each CD lasts around 45 minutes.

PhotobucketOur favorite of the series is Beethoven Lives Upstairs.  It’s written from the perspective of a little boy who slowly learns to love Beethoven when the composer comes to live with his family for a time.  Although the child in the story is fictional, the facts and details about Beethoven are not.

We happen to have the Teacher’s Notes for Beethoven Lives Upstairs, too.  Teacher’s Notes are available for each of the ten CD’s.  Why would you consider purchasing the Teacher’s Notes?  If you desire, an entire unit study can be created from the extra information and activity ideas offered in the notes.  Or, if you don’t prefer an entire unit study, there are many facts and little extras you can incorporate into a composer study from the Teacher’s Notes.  Sheet music and/or songs are usually included here as well.

The Children’s Group believes their Teacher’s Notes along with the CD’s meet or exceed the National Standard for Arts Education.  I would tend to agree considering the vast amount of teaching material included like pre and post listening questions, background information about the musical style, introductions to rhythm, timing, instruments and more!  Not to mention all the ties into other academic areas like history, drama, languages arts, science and art.

My favorite part of the Teacher’s Notes is that each scene is extensively covered.  You can listen to the story all the way through, then go back and listen again breaking it into scenes with specific activities provided.

Besides Beethoven Lives Upstairs, the following Classical Kids CD’s are available:

  • Hallelujah Handel
  • Mozart’s Magic Fantasy
  • Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage
  • Mr. Bach Comes To Call
  • Tchaikovsky Discovers America
  • Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery
  • Song of the Unicorn
  • Daydreams and Lullabies
  • A Classical Kids Christmas

You can see learn more about each CD and the Teacher’s Notes by visiting Classical Kids.

Written by Cindy, Eclectic Charlotte Mason mom of three.  Visit her at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books.