Tuesday
Apr242012
Non-Stress Musical Learning ~ Maestro Classics Giveaway
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 5:00AM 
A huge thank you today to Bonnie Ward Simon, Creative Director at Maestro Classics. I have the privilege of sharing a video and article from Bonnie, as well as being able to give away a copy of Maestro Classic's Peter and The Wolf. The Maestro Classics CDs are one of our very favorite resources!!
Why is Music Education Important for Homeschoolers?
As parents, particularly as homeschooling parents, we hold a pact with our children: we will show them the world and all the wonders that are in it. We are the ones hand handing over the torch, passing down all that we have learned from parents and grandparents, mentors and friends, and on the other giving them the tools to go out into the world and make their own new discoveries. It is an awesome responsibility, but also a journey that perhaps teaches us as much as it teaches the children whom we love. There is so much to teach, you may ask, “Why music, too?”
We all have five senses and four of them are quite easy to address. Colorful picture books and patterned mobiles (sight), stuffed animals (touch), baby food plus tastes from our own plates (taste), and stinky diapers and sniffing lilacs (smell) – these four are taken care of almost by themselves. But, what about our children’s ears?
Like all areas of your curriculum, you will have to decide how deeply you want to travel and how much you may want to learn yourself. What you do not want to have is a musically illiterate child. Just as you will be sure that your child has read some Robert Frost poems, some Charles Dickens novels, and some plays by Shakespeare – and you would hope that they could identify them if they read them in the future, so you should hope that you will raise a child who will recognize Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, a Sousa march, a Beatles song, and the theme music from a movie like Star Wars, for example. If you wonder if you can accomplish that at this moment, don’t worry, you will soon be able to.
Music is one of the journeys that can be as rewarding for the parent as for the child, and sometimes even more so.
What about the Mozart Effect?
You may have read the studies about the Mozart effect and how listening is supposed to improve spatial intelligence, but the real reason to include music in your curriculum is because it adds a completely new dimension to a child’s world of experience.
Imagine church without music! Imagine movies without music! Imagine weddings without music! Imagine dancing without music! Imagine the world we lived in before portable music players! Music has the power to make you happy, to make you sad, to make you remember things, to keep you company.
Our job as homeschooling parents is to introduce our children to the great world of music, not because it will make them smarter – studies do show that children how play instruments do better in school – but rather to enrich their lives.
Is classical music the only good kind of music? Definitely not. There is great music in all musical genres, from classical to house music, but it is usually when it comes to classical music that many parents feel least equipped to guide their children. Where to begin?
Start by Finding Classical Music that You Like
The first most obvious place may be with a piece of classical music that you personally like. Can’t think of one? Don’t Worry! Just go to my favorite Top 100 list, begin at the top and start to “Preview.” (You can listen to samples either in iTunes or Amazon.) I guarantee that you will find one (and probably more than a few) that you either already know or like. I encourage you to select one, purchase it for 99-cents, and listen to it. Regardless of how old your child is, you can listen to it together. It will probably be less than 5 minutes long and if you listen once or twice a day for a week, you will both get know it pretty well. I expect that you will also begin to hear more in the music as the days pass. This is one reason that classical music is touted as being “better”; it is simply that it is more complex and the more you listen to it, the more you hear.
Let me offer you an example. If you started with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, I would recommend that you then find and listen to “Mr. Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” a wonderful story about Beethoven by Classical Kids. (It is probably in your local library or can be purchased at Amazon. Next you can find “Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming Tower Bells”, part of the wonderful older series of easy reader books by Opal Wheeler and you can learn more about the composer. (This can be a read aloud or read alone book, depending on the age of the child.) Then go back to my favorite music site and discover that there are six other works by Beethoven on the Top 100 chart. Listen to them and see if you would like to choose one for the next week’s listening. If you listen to the “Moonlight Sonata,” then Beatles’ song “Because” (Abbey Road album) you may see why John Lennon said he was inspired by Yoko Ono’s playing this Beethoven sonata on the piano. With the internet, you could spend the year on Beethoven, writing biographies, creating timelines, doing lapbooks, but you can also spend just a couple of weeks, because there are so many other composers to discover.
Maestro Classics: Story and Classical Music CDs
The great Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev, found another way to interest children in classical music. He created the most famous work of all time for narrator and orchestra: Peter and the Wolf. Having created with conductor Stephen Simon several extremely popular family concert series at the Kennedy Center, including a Stories in Music series, we decided to create CDs that included not only stories narrated to great classical music, but also to include composer biographies, hints on what to listen for in the music, and the inclusion of a track in a different musical style to broaden listening horizons. Listening to the Maestro Classics series is perfect non-stress learning, with parents learning as much as the children, and also having the pleasure of listening to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the greatest recording orchestras in the world. It is perfect entertainment for the car, too.
There are many more Maestro Classics titles for Narrator and Orchestra. They are all classic tales with classical music and they all contain important life lessons and morals. On our website there are free homeschool curriculum for each CD to help you integrate music into your curriculum. For a fun exploration, go to our website and click on the CDs on the homepage. You can watch videos and listen to music samples for all our CDs. I guarantee that they will make you smile!
Bonnie Ward Simon is the former executive director of the Washington Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Together with her husband Stephen Simon, a prominent symphony conductor with over 25 years of experience, the husband-and-wife team are producing the Stories in Music CD series by Maestro Classics to help parents and children better understand and enjoy symphonic music at home.
To win a copy of Peter and The Wolf, simply leave a comment here telling me why you think music is important for your children! If you'd like an additional entry, tweet this giveaway or share it on Facebook! This giveaway will be open until Friday, April 27th at midnight.
Day 2: A Simple Way to Incorporate Music - SQUILT Notebooking Download
Day 4: Learning to Hear in a Noisy World - Exploring America's Musical Heritage DVD set giveaway
Day 5: What About Piano Lessons?
Day 6: Interest Led Music Study ~ Notebooking Download
Day 5: What About Piano Lessons?
Day 6: Interest Led Music Study ~ Notebooking Download
The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. And of course, visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network. You'll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!
Reader Comments (40)
Tweeted about it (oops, I think I used the @homeschoolconv handle!)
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I think music education is necessary to have a complete education. I'm not sure how to express it exactly, but music is part of life, and education is about understanding, experiencing and appreciating life.
I'd love the CD. Thanks for the opportunity, but even more thanks for this series. Excellent!
Without learning to appreciate music in a deeper way, I think my kids will miss out on experiencing a wonderful aspect of life. God has given us such a gift in music!
Music makes us happy. As simple as that. I would love the opportunity to try out this series. It's been on my radar for awhile.
I would love to have Peter and the Wolf! Music is a huge part of our daily life. I think it is soooo important and I love that my little man is so into music already!
Music is important to children because it bypasses their brain and goes straight to their souls.
brightman73@yahoo.com
I liked how you have said in your posts that music offers another dimension to children's lives.
pinecone304 @ yahoo.com
Make me happy! Make my children happy! Make my family happy! Simple joy in life... Beautiful music creates beautiful lives!
Thank you, we love Peter & the Wolf, and this lively piece will certainly make us happier!
Love,
JJ
jinjl@yahoo.com
Music can change a mood, encourage and inspire, soothe and calm. It is vital in the life of every child and it is proven to help their brains develop too.
One of our kids favorite stories is Peter & the Wolf so I would love to win this for them to enjoy.
bamagv at aol dot com
I have such find memories of listening to Peter and the Wolf. Definitely want to pass that on to my kids!
I decided to learn to play the oboe when I listened to Peter and the Wolf when I was 9 years old. That decision resulted in twenty years of musical study, many years of playing with the symphony, many awards and much joy. I can't wait to introduce all the instruments to my kids and see which ones they want to learn to play.
Music is important to my son because it provides a spiritual fulfillment and means of expressing himself.
music is important because it is an art and studying the arts brings out creativity, self confidence and endorphins. kbalman@gmail.com
I think all the arts are essential for kids, but music just moves you in a way that nothing else can. Exposure is crucial!