A Collage of Music ~ Win a Music Care Package!

It's the very last day of The 10 Days of Teaching Music.   It's been so much fun and I've met so many new readers!  Best of all, I'm inspired to incorporate MORE music in our homeschool!  

To say the past two weeks have been busy is an understatement.   I have loved every minute of The 10 Days of Teaching Music!  Being a part of the iHomeschool Network has blessed me in so many ways ~ I hope you've had a chance to visit some of the other 10 Days bloggers.

Today's edition of Collage Friday gives YOU (if you choose to link up!) a chance to win a musical care package from me.  I will include a book and CD my children and I adore and some other goodies.   Please don't worry about creating a formal collage.  I know that Photobucket has removed its Fotoflexer collage feature and that makes it hard to incorporate collages.  I have been using different apps on my iPhone and iPad to make the collages. 

This giveaway of the musical care package will end Monday, April 30th at Midnight!  

Before I get to the recap of my series, I'll just share one quick collage of this past week.   Miss B and I went to the Passages exhibit here in Atlanta.  It was WONDERFUL!  We learned so much about the history of the Bible.   We also had a great time going with friends from church.

Last weekend my husband took me out to dinner at The Redneck Gourmet and then to a great concert.  I had to chuckle at our "fancy" night out with the jar of Moon Pies on the counter.   

The picture of Gman symbolizes the long couple of weeks he has had:  Walking Pneumonia is no fun, that's for sure.  After running a fever for about seven days off and on we visited the doctor and got the diagnosis.  I'm hoping he gets to feeling better VERY soon.  

The 10 Day of Teaching Music genuinely reignited my passion for teaching music.    In this collage you can see four of the posts, and here are the links:

The Importance of Music in Our Children's Lives

A Simple Way to Incorporate Music - SQUILT Download

Non Stress Musical Learning -  The Maestro Classics GIVEAWAY ENDS FRIDAY (4/27 at midnight!)

What About Piano Lessons?

Five Resources for Incorporating Orchestral Music

Let's Sing: Creating a Repertoire/Download

Interest Led Music Study ~ John Williams Notebooking Download

Learning to Hear in a Noisy World  ( DVD set GIVEAWAY ENDS FRIDAY, 4/27 at MIDNIGHT!)

Don't you love the picture of me... I got my hair cut this week and I took the time to straighten my VERY curly hair.  I'm also smiling so you know how much I enjoyed writing the 10 Days series!  

My last post, which I happen to love the most because I just love books was

Using Living Books to Teach Music

Wow.... look at the past two weeks of music here at Homegrown Learners.   I had so much fun!  

Day 1: The Importance of Music in Our Children's Lives

Day 2: A Simple Way to Incorporate Music - SQUILT Notebooking Download  

Day 3:  Five Resources for Incorporating Orchestral Music in Your Homeschool

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 7:  Non Stress Musical Learning ~ Maestro Classics Giveaway

Day 8:  Let's Sing - Creating a Repertoire 

Day 9:  Using Living Books to Teach Music

Now it's your turn to link your collage from the past week!  Please include the button from my sidebar, or link back to this post somewhere in your blog post! 

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!

Living Books and Music

A series about teaching music could not pass without a mention of the many wonderful Living Books that can be utilized to learn about music.

What exactly is a "Living Book"?:

 Living books are those books that inspire ideas - the unique thoughts originating from the thinker - not information which originates elsewhere. They inspire because they are written in a story format by an author who is passionate about the subject, making his interest contagious to the reader and sparking an emotional response. These books leave the reader wanting more of the subject, not less. They contain literary language, intended to help the reader's mind form a vivid mental picture. If there are illustrations, they are accurate and inspiring.

(taken from The Real Life Home)

Rather than bombard you with a huge list of Living Books, I simply want to share my three favorite resources.... and one of them is FREE!   I just about squealed out lout when I discovered this a few months ago.

Child's Own Book of Great Musicians Series

These wonderful books were published in the early 1900s and written by Thomas Tapper.   They are beautifully written and give your child a sense of actually KNOWING the composer at the heart of the story.   The text speaks DIRECTLY to the young reader and brings up moral questions as well.   We have read several of these and LOVE them.   You can print them and put them into a cute book, or you can just read them on your Kindle, iPad, or computer.   There are even review questions at the end!  

Download the books from Project Gutenberg

Listen to the books at Books Should Be Free. 

Opal Wheeler's Great Musicians Series:

I want to own ALL of these wonderful books.   They present the lives of composers in delightful stories that have intrigued my children and inspired them to seek out that composer's music.

You can order the books with or without companion CDs, and I'm sure you can find them in your library.   There is a wonderful review of them at Curriculum Choice if you want to know more. 

The Carnival of the Animals: Poetry by Jack Prelutsky

This piece, written by Camille Saint-Saens, is perfect for introducing children to instruments of the orchestra.  We have found a beautiful version with poetry by Jack Prelutsky.   The book comes with the CD and is perfect as a read-aloud with music interspersed between the verse.   The beautiful illustrations are done by Mary GrandPre, who illustrated all of the Harry Potter books!  

I also have a chance for you to have your very own copy of this book!   Tomorrow, I will be wrapping up the 10 Days of Teaching Music series with a collage of all the 10 Days Posts.   If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I host a Friday linky called Collage Friday. 

Everyone who links a post with Collage Friday tomorrow will be entered to win a musical care package from me - which will include a copy of this book and CD!    Please don't feel it's necessary to make a fancy collage  (Photobucket has removed the Fotoflexer Collage option - DRAT!!) -- as long as you have a group of pictures from your week you are free to link with Collage Friday.  

   

Day 1: The Importance of Music in Our Children's Lives

Day 2: A Simple Way to Incorporate Music - SQUILT Notebooking Download  

Day 3:  Five Resources for Incorporating Orchestral Music in Your Homeschool

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 7:  Non Stress Musical Learning ~ Maestro Classics Giveaway
Day 8:  Let's Sing - Creating a Repertoire 

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!

I'm also linking this post with Read-Aloud Thursday.  I just love Amy's blog, Hope is the Word, and I know you will, too!!

 

Let's SING! ~ Creating a Repertoire

So far in this series I've talked  about music history and playing the piano.  I have also shared my favorite resources for learning about orchestral music, and also how to simply incorporate listening into your homeschool days.   

Something I NEVER want to forget with my children, however,  is singing just for the SHEER JOY of singing.   

Image courtesy Flickr

Every child should have a repertoire of songs they can sing.   Consider this your musical gift to them. 

  

 {  Repertoire - A list of pieces that a person is prepared to perform.  } 

Today I want to equip you with just a few resources to get your children singing! 

Favorite Resources for Singing:

1.  Raffi Songs to Read ~ I can't tell you how many times we read and listened to Baby Beluga!   There are many, many titles to choose from in this series, and we could never get enough of them.  Any music done by Raffi will be enjoyed by your children.

2.  Scholastic Mini Books ~ These printable books and lessons are great for teaching the BASIC songs... nursery rhymes and other standards every child should know.   I made an entire co op class out of these mini books and we learned so many songs this way!

3.  Piggyback Songs ~ Do you know what these are?  Piggyback songs are songs that help teach our children something, set to familiar tunes.   For example, here's a great little phonics song set to the tune of Old MacDonald had a farm:

Old MacDonald had a word, E I E I O,

And in that word he had a C, E I E I O,

With a /k/ /k/ here and a /k/ /k/ there,

Here a /k/, there a /k/, ev'rywhere a /k/ /k/,

Old MacDonald had a word, E I E I O.

You can just Google "Piggyback Songs" and come up with a ton of responses... but I happen to like Pentatonika. 

4.  Hymns for a Kid's Heart ~ I happen to love all of the books in this series.   It comes with written piano music and also a CD, as well as a brief introduction and lesson about each hymn.  Hymns are an essential part of our musical training, and this resource is VERY helpful.   Read the review of this series at Curriculum Choice.  

5. Mister Mark ~ This is a shameless plug for a friend of mine from college who just happens to be a great composer and children's performer!   We own two of his CDs and they are wonderful!  They all teach your children something, and they're just SILLY and FUN.   His newest CD, Go Galileo, has a great combination of songs about science. You won't be disappointed in them!


  
I have a challenge for you:  Have your child(ren) create a personal repertoire... their very own list of songs they know by heart and can sing.    Add this to a music notebook, or post it somewhere visible in your homeschool.   Children loves lists and they love listing their own accomplishments!!   


I have created a simple "My Repertoire" printable for you!    

Day 1: The Importance of Music in Our Children's Lives

Day 2: A Simple Way to Incorporate Music - SQUILT Notebooking Download  

Day 3:  Five Resources for Incorporating Orchestral Music in Your Homeschool

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 7:  Non Stress Musical Learning ~ Maestro Classics Giveaway

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!