Music Appreciation for Middle Grades

A few years ago, we used a course from Zeezok Publishing to learn about music, composers, and instruments. Our entire family enjoyed it immensely, so when we had the opportunity to review the next level, Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades, I knew the kids would be thrilled.

Zeezok Publishing LLC was started by homeschoolers in 1993 who wanted to offer top quality materials that complement educational needs. They have a variety of curricula and supplemental materials like their Z-Guides to the Movies, Civil War series, Presidential Penmanship, A Noble Experiment, literature books, and more. They continue to expand their resources and are dedicated to offering publications that will enrich, educate, and edify.

The Music Appreciation Book 2 collection meets and exceeds all of the national standards required for music appreciation for 5th-8th grades as it includes listening to music, understanding rhythm and pacing, reading music, and reading about the lives of composers. The set incorporates the following components:

• The Great Musicians Series -- 9 individual biography readers covering 7 classical composers to make up the core of the curriculum
• Student Activity Book -- the workbook for the course; the activities appeal to all learning types and include geography, history, recipes, instrument studies, music vocabulary, musical facts, timelines, character trait studies, and more
• Journal Notebook -- optional addition that enhances the study through written assignments; encourages various literary skills, creative writing, and essays
• Music Appreciation App -- QR codes provide easy access to all songs along with additional website links with instructions and demonstrations, and interactive quizzes
• Lapbook -- a hands-on enrichment that is sold separately; comes with easy-to-assemble, pre-printed pages 

Because the course works well with many age groups, there is even an option to purchase a coloring book for the younger crowd or even those older artistic kids. The pack comes with 80 professionally drawn illustrations that are directly related to scenes from the books.

The curriculum covers 4 weeks of study for each composer with an additional week for the first one:

• Frederic Chopin
• Robert Schumann
• Richard Wagner
• Stephen Foster
• Johannes Brahms
• Peter Tchaikovsky
• Edward MacDowell

Literature is the foundation of our schooling, so it is no surprise that these Great Musician Series biographies are my favorite aspect of the course. These living books, written by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher, vividly describe each composer's life. Each important aspect is mentioned and every detail is true. While these books are similar to the Music Appreciation Book 1 collection as far as containing an easy-to-read font and an abundance of simple sketch drawings, the writing itself is richer with more complex sentence structures and deeper vocabulary. The books vary in length, but average around 150 pages. Each one also has multiple samples of their sheet music woven throughout.

My only dissatisfaction in not in the writing, but in the physical aspect of the collection. Seven of the books are paperback and one is hardcover. (The final one I received as an ebook because of a mistake, so I cannot comment on the physical copy.) Aside from the two types, there are different sizes, as well, even within the multiple paperback versions. I am not sure if the format of the books changed and I received different lots, but if I were to buy this collection and received this specific set, I would be unhappy. It is a trivial matter perhaps, but I like uniformity. 

The Student Activity Book contains the learning exercises for all 7 composers. The entire book is perforated and hole-punched, so you could transfer it to a 3-ringed binder for easier use. A sample lesson plan is given at the beginning of each composure section. 

Every lesson includes these elements:

• Reading a portion of the biography book
• Answering Comprehension Questions
• Highlighting Character Qualities of the composer
• Expounding on Tidbits of Interests that are briefly mentioned in the biography book
• Learning musical information from note values to symbols to evaluating performances and more

Those foundational exercises are accompanied by many ore types of activities. For instance, in our study of Chopin, we studied details of a Polish Christmas (did you know they have a 12-course meal?!), discussed nicknames, were inspired by the sights and sounds of the outdoors like the composer, and learned many interesting facts about Poland. Our favorite activity in the study was eating a poppy seed cake made by my daughter.

Later lessons throughout the activity book include mapping skills, making lists of contrasting things, word search, deciphering coded riddles, learning about folk instruments, and more. The end of each composer section contains a quiz and full answer key for the lessons.

The QR (quick release) codes are a new feature for this course. The physical CDs from the first book have been replaced with an app site and online music. I had never used QR codes myself, but I had seen my husband do it. I downloaded one of the recommended apps in the book, opened the app, pointed it at a code, and music started playing. It is incredibly easy to use! Easier than finding a track on a disc.

There are pages in the front of the activity book filled with codes that correspond to the composers' music that is found in the biography books. The codes list the page number from the book and the title. There are also QR code throughout the activity book that direct to additional video links. There are videos teaching how to read music, highlighting artists playing instruments, expounding on history, demonstration musical styles, and much more.

While an app is convenient, it is not necessary in order to use this portion of the material. There is also a direct link to the website where you can access all of the music and other videos. 

The Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades is a fabulous resource for teaching kids about music and composers. Our family loved the biographies, the activities, and the additional resources. Though we chose to forgo creating the optional journal notebook, we did verbally discuss the activities as a family. I used the course primarily with my 11-year-old and 9-year-old, but my other kids (ages 13, 7, 4) joined in on portions of the curriculum, as well.

You can sample all of the Chopin lessons by clicking the link at the bottom of the description of the product. If you're interested in cultivating an appreciation for music in your student, Zeezok Publishing has what you need.

You can connect with Zeezok Publishing on the following social media sites:

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Make sure to head to the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to read more reviews of this music curriculum and see which composers other homeschool families have studies this summer.

Music Appreciation

We are a music-loving family that understands the importance of good, quality music in our lives. That's why I was excited to review a product about music appreciation. Leighton went to college for a music major. We were both very involved in the music program while there (in fact, it was while playing in the handbell choir that we got to know each other and fell in love!) and continued to participate in various aspects of the music program in our church. You can often hear music playing or random singing while in our house. Yes, we love music. However, I've never incorporated music study into our days. Oh, I meant to; I just never knew where to start or how to proceed.

And then came the Music Appreciation: Book 1: for the Elementary Grades. We started our study with Bach and quickly learned that this wonderful homeschool music program from Zeezok Publishing LLC was exactly what I needed.

Zeezok Publishing LLC was started by homeschoolers in 1993 who wanted to offer top quality materials that complement educational needs. They have a variety of curricula and supplemental materials like their Z-Guides to the Movies, Civil War series, Presidential Penmanship, A Noble Experiment, literature books, and more. They continue to expand their resources and are dedicated to offering publications that will enrich, educate, and edify. 

The Music Appreciation Book 1 Collection meets and exceeds all of the national standards required for music appreciation for kindergarten-6th grade. The set includes a student activity book, music discs, lapbooks, and individual biography books for 7 classical composers (dating from 1685-1828).  

The curriculum covers 4 weeks of study for each of the composers:

• Bach
• Handel
• Haydn
• Mozart
• Beethoven
• Paganini
• Schubert

The biographies are absolutely perfect for this age level. From the size of the book to the font to the writing style to the pictures, it's everything a child's book should be. My older 3 kids (ages 10, 8, 6) loved the book and begged me to read "just one more chapter" each day. The accurate story was written so the elementary ages can comprehend, but also has richer vocabulary woven throughout. It includes words like trudged, haste, nestling, oaken, and scarcely. Nearly every page or page spread has a black and white picture that seems perfect for the era. There are even portions of sheet music written by Bach sprinkled throughout the the book.

The student activity book contains the learning exercises for all 7 composers. The entire book is perforated and hole-punched, so you could transfer it to a 3-ringed binder for easier use. A sample lesson plan is given at the beginning of each composure section. 

Week One of the Bach study looks like this:

• Read Chapter 1
• Answer Comprehension Quesions
• Character Qualities
• Tidbits of Interest
• Assemble Lapbook Folder
• Bach Family Facts
• Places that Bach Visited Map Activity
• Learning About Stringed Instruments Activity

This curriculum is very easy to use with multiple ages. I read the book aloud to the kids and then we completed the activities together. They always race to see who can answer the comprehension questions first, and I enjoy seeing how much they retained. There's so much more than just answering questions though. There are exercises about learning character qualities, mapping, random facts (did you know Bach's hands could span 12 notes? or that he had 20 children?), history of 18th century Germany, copywork, and plenty of  sections dedicated to music (i.e. terms, instruments, styles). 

While we've enjoyed all aspects of this study, our favorites have been the hands-on activities. We made a loaf of rye bread and enjoyed it warm, fresh from the oven like Bach. We preformed an oxidation experiment with pennies to understand why the top of St. Michael's church in Hamburg turned green. We even were able to pluck out some of Bach's compositions on our keyboard using the music in the book.

  

Along with the written music, the curriculum comes with discs so you can listen to the music, as well. The book gives a brief description of each song and lists the matching track number, making it incredibly easy to use over the course of the study. The kids and I all enjoyed listening to the beautiful music of one of the masters. We do listen to classical music at times throughout our days, so it was fun to watch the kids faces light up as they recognized songs. "Hey, this sounds familiar!" or "I've heard this before!" we commonly heard as the songs played.

The final component to the curriculum is the lapbook. My kids adore lapbooks. They're time-consuming and require much work, but they are such a fun way of learning. I like that my kids will look through their lapbooks long after our study is complete and recall what we've learned. Booklets, pockets, pieces, moving parts--they're all part of the lapbook charm. This one even includes an entire game board on the back that's focused around Bach's life. 

As far as lapbook go, this one is easy to print and easy to assemble. There are no directions to print any of the pages on cardstock (though it would provide stability), so it's just a click of a button to get the whole thing to print at one. The pages print in color, which saves time during the assembly, as well. There are detailed directions in both the student activity book and the lapbook CD for the activities and assembly.

I am blown away at the quality of this curriculum. Seriously. It is packed full of information on not just the composer, music, and instruments, but incorporates much more, too. And not only that, it's fun! Between the reading book, the exercises, the hand-on activities, the music, the lapbook, there's something for every learning style--visual, kinesthetic, auditory. We've started our study Handel, and I can tell this one's going to be a hit, too. 

If you are wanting to teach music appreciation in your homeschool, I highly recommend this collection.

You can connect with Zeezok Publishing LLC on the following social media sites:
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If you'd like to read more reviews of this curriculum, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Peter and the Wolf Review

We were excited to receive Peter and the Wolf from the Maestro Classics stories in music collection. 

We are a big music-loving family. My husband majored in music in college and lead both the choir and the congregational singing at church for many years. He and I have both been in multiple singing groups and a traveling handbell choir. (Actually, it was that choir and playing our parts next to each other that brought us together!) It is our desire to give our children a love of good music. One great way of doing that is through Stories in Music from Maestro Classics and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This series, meant for children an families, uses music to tell stories. You can listen to the music from a soundtrack without ever having seen the movie itself and get an idea of the emotions taking place. Music moves you. It reminds me of a day while watching something when my 4-year-old asked, "Why is she mad?" After I explained that she wasn't, he questioned, "Then why does the music sound like that?" Music tells a story.

Bonnie and Stephen Simon understand the importance of music. They want families to be not only entertained by their productions, but also educated. They both have many years of professional experience (to name a few of their numerous accomplishments: Bonnie as the former executive director of the Washington Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Stephen as the music director of the same organization for 25 years). Now, they work together to create and compose these symphonic works.    

Peter and the Wolf, written and composed by Sergei Prokofiev, is a well-known story. It's about a boy who has animal friends, doesn't obey his grandfather, and has a run-in with a wolf. Not only is the story beautifully told, but it is described in an easy-to-understand way, as well. The narrator explains that each character is represented by instruments in the symphony orchestra.

Bird = Flute
Duck = Oboe
Cat = Clarinet
Grandfather = Basoon
Wolf = 3 French Horns
Hunters = Woodwinds (marching), Kettle Drums (shooting of guns)
Peter = Strings 

Pointing out the individual instruments helps to recognize them throughout the story and makes it fun to follow along. My kids and I enjoyed listening to just the instrumental portions without the verbal story and discussing which character was being highlighted and what kind of attitude was being portrayed. Music is powerful!

There is a section devoted to the composer. Prokofiev grew up in the Russian countryside, where wolves were a real threat. He was the only child of wealthy parents. His father taught him chess while his mother taught him piano. By 9 years of age, he had composed his own opera. At 13, he was the youngest student to be accepted at St. Petersburg Conservatory. By the time he graduated, he was already a published composer. He traveled while preforming his own music and eventually came to America. The critics here claimed that he was "throwing ink at paper," but people still flocked to his performances. He left the US, got married, had children, and returned to Moscow. It was there he was encouraged to compose a story for children. He wrote the story in just one week and composed it the next. Peter and the Wolf has been loved by people all over the world. Not only is the musical score enchanting, but the story is one to be admired. It's about a boy who has the courage to face danger and the ability to think quickly to find a solution to his problem. He becomes the hero!

The rest of the CD is full of  all sorts of interesting things. There is the entire instrumental story performed in the Russian style, musical terms, descriptions of music as sound effects (rope lowering, wolf's jaw snapping, hunters shooting guns), an explanation from the conductor of the musical theme, more fun Russian music, and other valuable information.

Along with the CD is included a 24-page activity book. It contains biographies, a small portion of sheet music, info about the music, games, and more. This little book is great to teach the kids more about the music, instruments, and people, but I found myself soaking up the information as well. My kids liked the games the best: crack the code, musical question, word search, crossword, matching the instruments, identifying the mouthpieces, and others.

My kids and I listened to this work many times: driving, folding laundry, coloring, or whatever. They enjoyed listening along and learning and reading through the activity book, as well. They've even asked if we could get more. Maestro Classics has other titles such as Swan Lake (reviewed by some of y Crewmates), Casey at the Bat, The Tortoise and the Hare, and more. They have fun things on their website like games and coloring pages as part of their Kids Club and offer in-dept curriculum guides that accompany specific titles. If you'd like to give your family the love of music, I suggest heading over to listen to some samples. We've been impressed with the Stories in Music.   


You can connect with Maetro Classics on the following social media sites:
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Twitter
Pinterest
YouTube


You can read more reviews of this title or reviews of Swan Lake on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Maestro Classics

We were blessed to review two titles from the Maestro Classics collection: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music.

We are a big music-loving family. My husband majored in music in college and leads both the choir and the congregational singing at church. He and I have both been in multiple singing groups and a traveling handbell choir. (Actually, it was that choir and playing our parts next to each other that brought us together!) It is our desire to give our children a love of good music. One great way of doing that is through Stories in Music from Maestro Classics and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This series, meant for children an families, uses music to tell stories. You can listen to the music from a soundtrack without ever having seen the movie itself and get an idea of the emotions taking place. Music moves you. Just the other day while watching something, my 4-year-old asked, "Why is she mad?" After I explained that she wasn't, he questioned, "Then why does the music sound like that?" Music tells a story.

Bonnie and Stephen Simon understand the importance of music. They want families to be not only entertained by their productions, but also educated. They both have many years of professional experience (to name a few of their numerous accomplishments: Bonnie as the former executive director of the Washington Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Stephen as the music director of the same organization for 25 years). Now, they work together to create and compose these symphonic works.    

The story Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton is brought to life through this presentation. As the steam shovels are becoming outdated and replaced with newer engines, Mike stays loyal to his own steam shovel, Mary Anne. They work harder and faster than they ever had before and attempt to prove that they are still profitable. The music, along with the Irish bagpipes is beautiful and catchy. The story leaves you rooting for the underdogs. My kids (8, 6, 4) were immediately sucked into the tale. They had never heard the story of Mike Mulligan before, so it was fun for me to watch them as they became nervous, wondering if he and Mary Anne would succeed. The music perfectly matches the emotions the character feels at the story takes place. But that is just the first track of the CD! The rest of it is filled with so much information, such as the conductor himself (Stephen Simon) explaining why he chose certain instruments and pointing them out in the story. Those sections truly help you understand the music and give you a greater appreciation of it. My little ones asked to listen to this multiple times over the past few weeks.

Along with the CD is included a 24-page activity book. It contains biographies, a small portion of sheet music, info about the music, games, and more. This little book is great to teach the kids more about the music, instruments, and people, but I found myself soaking up the information as well. This package costs $16.98 and is good for ages 4+ and families.

I'll be honest, I chose My Name Is Handel: The Story of Water Music for my husband. I knew he would appreciate the music as he loves classical composers. I knew Handel only because of the "Hallelujah Chorus" and Messiah, so everything about this story was new to me. It explains who Handel was and why he wrote "Water Music." Just like the other title, this story is told on the first track of the CD and contains 5 more tracks of learning. They explain concertos, suites, and oratorios. They talk about how Handel was a showman and what he did one opening night to prove it. And they explain why everyone stands when the "Hallelujah Chorus" is sung. While I found the facts fascinating, I could see that my little ones were tuning it out. They just weren't drawn into this story as they were the other. I suppose it does really surprise me. The other was an adaptation of a children's book and this one was more of a biography. I'm sure they appreciate this one more as they get older.

This CD also come with a 24-page activity book with pages describing the instruments, talking about Handel and the time period, and more. This package costs $16.98 and is meant for ages 5+ and families.


My kids and I listened to these works many times: driving, folding laundry, coloring, or whatever. They enjoyed listening along and learning and reading through the activity books, as well. They've even asked if we could get more. Maestro Classics has other titles such as Peter and the Wolf, Casey at the Bat, The Tortoise and the Hare, and more. They even have fun things on their website like games and coloring pages as part of their Kids Club. If you'd like to give your family the love of music, I suggest heading over to listen to some samples. We've been impressed with the Stories in Music.   

To connect with Maestro Classics, you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

You can read more reviews of these titles or of the others on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

KinderBach Review

The 2014 Schoolhouse Review Crew year has begun! We are very excited to see what fun and challenging things we get to share with you this year and what products will benefit our homeschool the most.

We started the year with an area that is important to our family: music. Leighton has a music major and is the music director at our church. I sing in the church choir and played the piano many, many years ago. Many years. Alyssa, our 5-year-old, has a desire to learn to play the piano. I could take the time to teach her myself, but it's been many years, remember? It's so much easier to let KinderBach do the teaching.   

The KinderBach online piano lesson membership with teacher corner is designed to give kids ages 3-7 an early introduction to music. Studies prove that the piano is the best instrument with the most benefits to aid brain development and that this is the age frame that is the most opportune to begin playing. The program incorporates videos, worksheets, music, and cute characters into a fun learning experience. It teaches note reading, rhythm, singing, composition, and music vocabulary. It can be used both at home and in the classroom. Karri Gregor, the creator, talks to the kids on their level and draws them in.

The lessons can be viewed on DVD, but we used the online portion. It made it so simple to hook up our small keyboard in front of the laptop as Alyssa completed her lessons. The lessons are short and engaging. The student not only learns about music by watching the video, but also by having fun with games, puzzles, coloring, and singing. For the most part, Alyssa watched the lessons by herself, but I joined in on the games or coloring at times. Everything's more fun with a friend, right? 

There are 6 levels (60 weeks) of interactive lessons and 240 videos. They start with the simplest introduction of the piano keyboard and end with scales and rhythm songs. There are plenty of fun printable pages that coincide with the lessons. Activities from coloring to cutting, pasting, and more keep the little ones involved. There are also games to get them moving. Alyssa loves getting some rhythm instruments and playing along with the characters on the screen. 

The program is simple enough for a child to use on his own. Once I log in, Alyssa can navigate the videos on her own and gather the needed daily supplies (worksheets, crayons, scissors, glue, rhythm instruments, etc). Since the program is self-paced, the child can work through the videos as he chooses. Each video is actually pretty short (most less than 5 minutes), so Alyssa will watch multiple videos a day.

Alyssa loves learning with KinderBach. She enjoys all the aspects of the program. I love that she loves it. The only thing I can say that is somewhat negative is that this is a very early learning program. In order to truly be able to play the piano, she will need something more. The again, KinderBach is meant for kids 3-7, to give them an early introduction, not to made them professional pianists. So, it is accomplishing it's purpose.    

Memberships start at $7.99 a month and can be used with the entire household. From now until February 28, you can save an extra 40% with coupon code KBclear2014. You can even try 2 free weeks of the program. To get instant access to all 6 levels or to purchase any extras (coloring pages, MP3s, CDs, sheet music, story books, etc) click HERE.

You can follow KinderBach on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Would you like to see how other families used this? You can read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew.