Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Classics for Kids

Homeschool moms often ask me what they can do for music , as in my state music is a required subject. I usually ask, do you have a church involvement? If a family is attending church regularly, their child is singing hymns or worship songs each week in church! That would count by presenting it in a portfolio as "group singing". I also encourage moms to take advantage of free concerts from the two colleges in our area. You can hear student recitals on voice and almost any instrument - there are choir concerts, handbell concerts, wind ensembles, brass groups, orchestras, and then the faculty recitals which are top-notch! Last fall, I took a vanload of friends and family to hear Rebecca Wilt play Rhapsody in Blue with the Messiah College Orchestra. It was fabulous - and FREE!!!

In our town we have a small homeschool orchestra and there is the homeschool choir (directed by yours truly!), as well as many opportunities for private lessons.

Libraries abound with books on how to make musical intruments, composer biographies, songbooks, music history, CD's and DVD's on composers and their music. You can teach music at home with books from your library.

One of my favorite sites on the internet is Classics for Kids. It is wonderful! If you
look at the site carefully, there are worksheets that go with each musical composition. There is imformation on the composer and at least one gave a timeline of how the composer fit into history the child already knows about. This site would be a nice way to begin a music listening study.

2 comments:

Haley said...

Wow, you are definitely much better at blogging than I ever was. =)
I am still thinking about piano lessons actually. Are you saying you have an opening every other week now? How much do you charge?

Bekah Miller said...

Kathy,
Thanks for the link! I'm enjoying reading your blog. It's a fun way to get to know a friend better.