Fun Music for your Children

I'm always looking for fun music for my children..... a few years ago while looking through the catalog, Music in Motion, I saw a CD done by a college music ed. classmate of mine! He was the kind of person that you just knew would go places with his music. He started out as a music educator in the Dallas, TX schools and now holds a church job and writes/records his own music for children.

I quickly sent out an email to my college friend (he is going by the name "Mister Mark") to congratulate him and he sent me his first CD, You've Got a Song, in the mail. I began using some of the music in my cherub choir at church and the kids LOVED it! My own kids listened to it in the car and after a while we were all singing the songs. A couple of years after that we got the information for a local chorister's guild event, and the guest clinician/conductor for the day was my friend, Mister Mark! I am so proud of him, and his music is infectious and fun. You can listen to his songs on his website.

Today we were listening to the song "Go Galileo" -- My five year old can tell you that Galileo was the master of philosophy and made changes to the telescope. There is another song about the three states of matter that is still stuck in my mind as well. His second CD is all science oriented, and the first CD is a hodge podge. My favorite song he has done is "Amazon Rock" and you can listen to the full song on his website.

If you want fun music that gets your kids singing and dancing, this is it - and as a bonus they will remember some important science facts as well!
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Introducting Musicals to your Children

Today's post is about musicals because my husband and I are going to see The Phantom of the Opera tonight for our anniversary. I have NEVER seen it - a crime, I know. Needless to say, I'm very excited and I think it's safe to say my husband is, too.

Since I was a Music Education major in college and used to be an elementary music teacher in my former life, music is a must in our homeschool curriculum. We used to do a lot of informal music study in our house, but now that I have the sole responsibility for the education of my children I love that I can make it a big part of our learning.

When my daughter was 3 1/2 I took her to her first musical, Beauty and the Beast at the Fox Theater in downtown Atlanta. Although our seats were the very top row (and I'm not kidding - the very top row), she sat on my lap and was enthralled with every minute of it. We listened to that music literally for years afterward.

I think our next musical was Fiddler on the Roof. Since it is financially impossible for us to go see all musicals downtown, we went to see this at a local private school where my good friend is one of the music directors. Tickets were $10 and the production was FABULOUS! The story was good for children her age (she was 6 at the time) and the music was most certainly contagious. My daughter is blessed to have a granddaddy who lives nearby that also loves musicals, so he would purchase DVDs and CDs for her. We watched "Fiddler on the Roof" a lot after we saw it live, and even my son (who was then 3) liked parts of it.

Another great musical is Once Upon a Mattress which is just a different version of The Princess and the Pea. We saw this again at the same private school and loved it. The next year we saw Seussical there - and for months afterward my daughter and I would be singing "A person's a person no matter how small!".

Other musicals we have just watched at our house include:

The Sound of Music
South Pacific (for older kids)
Annie
The Music Man
Mary Poppins
The Wizard of Oz
West Side Story (for older kids)
Hello Dolly

And, most recently, we went to see The Little House on the Prairie musical and met Melissa Gilbert after the show!

As I think about our upcoming school year (I will be doing some serious planning all next week) I would like to incorporate a musical each month - even if they are a review of ones we have already seen. We can listen to the music and learn about the composer(s) and also talk about the time period a musical comes from and how the story reflects what is going on during that particular time. In my opinion, music is a gift you give to your children - a gift they can draw on for years and years to come. I still have vivid memories of my dad humming the 1812 overture (and that's a hard one to hum!), singing Adelweiss, and a record cabinet full of great music!

I found someone's list on Amazon of musicals - if you need help choosing musicals for your kids, I think this will be helpful! Here is a short article about introducing musicals to your children - it has some helpful tips which I like. While looking at this article, I also stumbled upon another site, "Classics for Kids". I think I'll be spending some time here as I do planning next week! Our all time favorite music comes off of 2 CDs called "Beethoven's Wig" -- this is classical music with funny lyrics, and it's catchy.

In addition to musicals my daughter takes piano lessons and I hope to get both children involved in a music program through church this fall. I'm teaching a music class for the younger ones in our homeschool co-op, so there's a little music instruction, too. My hope for my children is that they each enjoy music, play music, and share music with others. And, even if it is not their passion in life, they at least will have an appreciation they can pass along to their own children.

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Looking Back on the Fourth

The Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. I have my parents to thank for this. They are extremely patriotic and always instilled in me a respect for my country and a sense of thankfulness for all the freedoms in my life.

Here is one of my favorite Fourth photos.... taken eight years ago.

This one is high on my list, too! I think it was taken at a minor league baseball game in Ft. Myers, FL.

Many Fourth of July holidays have been spent at my mom and dad's house in Florida - as you can see, my mom likes to go all out!

Getting a little more current with the pictures (this one is a CLASSIC!)

And this one is just sweet:

Finally - something a little more current! I love how this picture is smoky from the fireworks we had been setting off.

Looking back at all of these happy memories makes me extremely thankful for my blessings. This year I am particularly grateful for the freedom to homeschool my children as I see fit, without interference from the government. I'm not sure how much longer I will have that freedom, but that I shall save for another post!

Our family has a fun and busy weekend planned - many celebrations. Tonight, we are surprising our kids with a trip to see The Atlanta Braves play the Florida Marlins, which also includes a fireworks display afterwards. We can't wait to see the looks on their faces when we show up at the stadium - they think we are going to have a picnic with friends of ours that live in Atlanta. Now that our children are a bit older (8 and 5), doing things like this are actually fun - not work!

Tomorrow we will have a family fourth of July afternoon of swimming and grilling at my sister-in-law's house who lives very close to us. Then, on the fourth of July we are having friends come over for Nachos on the Grill (thank you Bobby Flay!) and a few fireworks we will shoot off in the backyard. I am a happy tired just thinking about the next few days.

My sweet husband, who has been working incredibly long hours for the past few months, has the next FIVE days off! As I sit here and type, he has taken the kids to swim at the YMCA so I can get some work done around the house.

Today I plan to get a book to read/sing with my children all about the Star Spangled Banner. I really like this series of books/CDs from The Smithsonian. I think they are well worth the investment. Children now just don't know enough folk and patriotic music. Come to think of it, I also have the same type of book with the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" - we may have to spend some time laying around with our CD player this afternoon!

Happy Fourth of July!

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