Tag: music study

Getting our Summer Groove

Tracy

We’re several weeks into our new routine now, and loving summer! Nature walks, art, some music theory, poetry—summer school is in full swing. And thankfully, it’s all that I’d hoped and intended it to be.

I get a lot of questions about our summer school schedule, so I thought I’d share what our day looks like right now.

First of all, I’ve split our subjects and assigned them on different days. For instance, we do art and nature study one day; we do music and perhaps some poetry on another day; we do Life of Fred everyday. In all, we do our activities for roughly an hour a day. Nothing heavy, and lots of fun mommy-time with the kids.

music theory and music appreciation
music theory and music appreciation

Every day looks a little different. This is summer. This is our break. And while I want something to structure our days, I don’t want to be so regimented we’re not getting our breather. So first thing in the morning, I send them outside to play, to take advantage of the cool mornings before everything heats up. After playing for a couple of hours, they are usually ready for some structured activities. Oldest is still doing his Reflex Math everyday, usually while I shower and finish up with Littlest. Our “summer school” usually gets started around 11 a.m. and finishes up when we get hungry, around noon-ish.

Oldest's rendition of our dog at sunset
Oldest’s rendition of our dog at sunset

One day, we took a walk and did a nature scavenger hunt  (something taller than you, something smaller than your thumb, something that needs air, etc.); we also talked about the anatomy of trees and the different kinds of trees (deciduous/broadleaf and conifer/evergreen). Then we came in, cooled off, and did some art, learning to sketch with an ebony pencil.

art and nature study
art and nature study

On another day, we read Life of Fred on the front porch and then did a read-aloud together.

Another day, we practiced music together, learning notes on the scale using Lady Treble and the Seven Notes and Oldest’s recorder lesson book and Middlest’s Dora piano.

We added some extra stickers from "Lady Treble" to her Dora piano.
We added some extra stickers from “Lady Treble” to her Dora piano.

On yet another day, we went for a walk to pick different kinds of leaves, we read about the different leaf shapes and why plants need leaves, then we did leaf rubbings in our nature notebooks—and watercolored.

summer school schedule

It’s a little structure and a lot of fun. It’s learning in a casual setting. It’s creating and exploring and enjoying summer.

Music Together Singalong Stories

Tracy2 Comments on Music Together Singalong Stories

 

 

Disclaimer: I received these products for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

 

Music Together Family Favorites

Last fall, I had the opportunity to review Music Together’s Family Favorites CD and teacher book. (Read my previous review here.) It soon became an unexpected favorite and often requested part of nearly everyday. I’m not exaggerating! Now that Littlest can get around and make his wishes and whims known, he’ll often head for the CD player motioning his baby sign for “please.” I know exactly what he wants:

  • Hello Everybody
  • Biddy Biddy
  • Driving in the Car

(links to samples of the music here)

We all dance together, beat out the rhythms, and sing along to our “family favorites” (pun absolutely intended). We’re not just having fun and bonding, though that alone is valuable; we’re learning about rhythms and harmonies, language and cultural diversity.

So when I had the opportunity to do a follow-up review with some of Music Together’s Singalong Storybooks, made to accompany our favorite songs, I was absolutely giddy!

  Music Together Singalong Books

Music Together has taken some of their most popular songs and illustrated them as read-aloud, sing-along books, available as both board books ($8.95) and hardcovers ($12.95). We were given Hello Everybody, She Sells Seashells, and One Little Owl for review.

Music Together Singalong books review

The day these arrived was like Christmas at my house. The kids were so excited.

There are several aspects to these books that I love. For one, there are so many interactive ideas and suggestions provided within the books themselves. (A free download of the accompanying song is also provided.) Sing the story, read the story, sing and let your child complete the phrase, make up  your own verses to the song as you read, count the objects, find the characters and objects, and more. And because the books were written to our favorite, already memorized songs, the story-line and the experience went with us throughout the day, even after the books were closed on the shelf.

Each book comes with suggested activities for using the story with your child.
Each book comes with suggested activities for using the story with your child.

In addition to rhythm, music, and language, these books are great for reinforcing counting and addition, colors, and even identifying seashells!

One Little Owl by Music Together
One of our fun activities was to dramatize the “One Little Owl” song, inspired by the pictures from the book. Pictured here is the verse “The poor old tree said, ‘Oh, no!…All these things are sitting on me.”

One Little Owl

The various ideas gave me a chance to interact with each child at their own level with the same book. My one  year old enjoyed hearing me sing the song and point out the characters as we read. My four year old loved to count the animals on each page and finish the song for me when I paused. My six year old was all about making up his own additional verses to the songs.

She Sells Seashells
Middlest’s favorite book

 

Music Together Review
Oldest’s favorite book

 

Hello, Everybody
Littlest’s Favorite

One other aspect that I love, especially for my Littlest, is the language development that comes from hearing the story in song. During one of our “Baby Story Times” at our local library, the librarian mentioned how songs slow down our speech and make it easier for babies to hear certain sounds and words. Adding the pictures and story to this experience of singing makes this a very powerful teaching tool. And I’m not the only one to recognize this; these books have won long lists of awards from various organizations.

  • Mom’s Choice Award
  • NAPPA Honors Award in Educational Tools
  • National Parenting Center’s Seal of Approval
  • Academics’ Choice Smart Books Award, and more!

Then, there’s the fact that these books are just plain fun—beautiful illustrations and quality books that are enjoyable all by themselves. With literally shelves upon shelves of books at our house, these are favorites that all of my kids (including the littlest of all) keep coming back to again and again.

Now, Music Together is even more of a favorite. Not only do we have the catchy tunes with lots of rhythm and movement, but now we have the added element of a fun story with pictures. It’s learning and fun that keep us coming together for more.

Want to see for yourself? Visit the website to watch the video preview and hear samples of these fun singalong books.

Disclaimer: I received these products for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

 

Summer Unschooling

Tracy

We’ve got a tradition at our house that is now 3 years in the making. Summer school is absolutely the highlight of the year. All of us can hardly wait to close the textbooks and start summer.

I started summer school at the end of Oldest’s K4 year for a few different reasons. First, we love the structure that school brings to our day. Too much unstructured play breeds chaos and bickering at my house. We’re a family that loves a routine and a regular schedule. Second, I didn’t want to spend three months forgetting what we’d just spent months to learn. I wanted something to hold it all in their little heads and to keep it growing.

Thus, summer school was born, but not an endless rhythm of the same lessons: even we need a break. Summer school is our time for nature walks, nature journals, and nature study; science and discovery; messy art and picture studies; classical music, water parties, and mud pie bakeries. It’s not at all “school” in the traditional sense. It’s not even school in the classical sense. It’s more a mixture of Charlotte Mason and unschooling, nurturing a fascination for the beauty of creation.

Summer School

And our summer studies have been some of our most memorable. Middlest, who was 2 when we had our first “summer school,” loves Handel’s water music and often asks when we will have another water party. Both of the kids light up when they see a waterlily painting; it’s Monet! And the nature journals are close-companions all summer long, including on vacation trips.

So what’s on the agenda for this summer?

Let’s break out the swimming pool and turn up the Mozart. It’s time for summer!

Making a Mess with Art

Tracy2 Comments on Making a Mess with Art

As our “school-year” schedule eases up, our “summer-school” schedule begins here—a mix of art and music and nature study. This will be our third summer of this routine, and it’s amazing how quickly this has become a tradition. As soon as the weather starts warming and the trees begin to bloom, our fingers get the itch for messy art.

So we kicked off the season the other day with some chalk pastels. I am a hard-core art wanna-be. I would love to be adept at painting and chalking and drawing and the like. In reality, my work rarely turns out much better than the kids. But we love it.

Chalk Pastel Lesson

I’ve perused the chalk tutorials at Hodgepodge for awhile, too nervous to jump in. But finally, I bought a set of pastels and took the plunge. We did the “To the Woods” tutorial as our first study. The kids did really well, and absolutely loved it. I had prepped them in advance. You see, my Oldest is a little OCD when it comes to getting his hands dirty. I wanted to be sure he knew exactly what he was in for. He had so much fun that in the end it didn’t bother him too much to get dirty, especially with a wipe nearby.

6 year old's masterpiece
6 year old’s masterpiece
4 year old's masterpiece
4 year old’s masterpiece
My humble first attempts
My humble first attempts

 

Middlest didn’t mind the mess in the least. She got right down to it. And you should have seen her eyes light up when I mentioned that we were turning the chalk on it’s side to color parts of our picture. This is her favorite way to color, and I can’t stand a square crayon so I rarely let her partake in this treat. They both had so much fun with the project that they decided to add some flowers to their path, just wanting to try other colors and prolong the lesson.

Littlest's masterpiece and introduction to crayons
Littlest’s masterpiece and introduction to crayons

Even Littlest got in on the art time. With Mozart playing on my Naxos app on my ipod, we all got our fingers dirty in our first summer lesson of the season. And it felt, oh-so-good!

Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bach?

Tracy

I’ve been all over the place deciding what composer to study this summer. It’s been really bad. But I did finally decide, and everything fell together really nicely after all.

I had originally thought we would be studying Mendelssohn because I had a free set of plans for Monet and Mendelssohn. Then one day it dawned on me that I didn’t have to study Mendelssohn just because we were studying Monet. It dawned on me because I’d just picked up another free set of plans to study Brahms, and Brahms sounded so much more appealing than Mendelssohn. So, Brahms it was.

Until I listened to one of my kids LeapPad books and realized that our artists up to this point (Handel and Vivaldi) have been in the Baroque period. I hadn’t given much teaching time to the music periods; we simply listened to the music and read biographies. But suddenly it seemed that I ought to teach the music period, and I ought to teach Bach since he was in our Baroque period of music.

So, after much indecision, Bach it is.

I have plenty of materials, which is one reason the decision has been so hard to make. But I have stumbled upon some really excellent music fun that I thought I’d pass along.

First, I found over 60 pages of music lapbooking bliss for FREE at Living Life Intentionally blog. Next, I ran across The Story of the Orchestra at our library (complete with CD) and wondered, “Where have you been all this time?” This book is absolutely fabulous. Very kid-friendly, very “non-music person” friendly. The first half of the book introduces composers by period and includes a note about which track to play on the CD; the second half of the book introduces the orchestra and specific instruments of the orchestra, with accompanying tracks on the CD. I’ve learned so much from this book! Lastly, I picked up Erica’s World’s Greatest Composers study for $5.50. I love her lapbooking materials; I love her notebooking pages; I love the layout of her study.

And yes, I am going to attempt some lapbooks this summer. It is summer after all.

Summer School Schedule

Tracy2 Comments on Summer School Schedule

I’ve been playing around with our schedule over the last several days, and I think I finally have our summer the way I want it. So, here’s what we are up to and how we are fitting it in (while still managing to have lots of play time and pool time).

First, I’m planning on a four day school week, saving the fifth day for field trips and bigger projects. Then, I split up our math and phonics similar to a block schedule. In other words, we don’t do both everyday but rather do each every other day. Day 1: Math; Day 2: LA; Day 3: Math; Day 4: LA. This way, we get two lessons of each every week—good enough to maintain what we’ve learned, not so much that we don’t get a summer.

Now, for all of the fun I have planned!

Science/Nature Study

Geography (continuing with North and South America)

Art and Art Appreciation: Monet (and lots of drawing)

Music Appreciation: Bach (it’s a long story for another post)

Again, I wanted enough to cover the topic and give us an activity for each day without robbing us of the summer-time memories. So, we will do one of these subjects each day: four subjects for four days.

Thus, our schedule comes down to this.

Monday: field trip/project day

Tuesday: Math and Nature Study

Wednesday: LA and Music

Thursday: Math and Art

Friday: LA and Geography

Let the good times roll!