HappyGrace
03-03-2008, 11:19 PM
I bought a bunch of stuff early in the year to do a composer study ala Jessica at Trivium Academy, but got sidetracked by adding in Latin, etc., this year. So I finally decided to just listen to this in the car, which we've been doing for a few weeks. The first several times through, dd8 looked at the book along with listening, and read the info about the composers too. She can now name every song on there by composer and title, and is recognizing the songs other places (she heard a Haydn song while out with dh, who knew nothing about her new interest, and she blew him away by correctly identifying it and then telling him that it's pronounced Hay-den, but spelled Haydn.)
But more than that, it has sparked a HUGE interest in composers for her. By choice on her own she's listened to most of the Classical Kids CDs, the Vox Music Masters CDs, reading the Opal Wheeler books about composers, reading Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers books, etc. She's asking for more and more. She draws pictures about composers' lives, constantly throws dates out that they did this or that, etc. Tonight she had me print out blank staff paper and tried to start composing her own song for her recorder!
Even ds5 is walking around humming "Happy Farmer" by Schumann. Needless to say, I'm ordering Vol. 2. I should give props to Jessica, since I think it was from her post that I originally discovered Classical Magic.
I do want to point out that there are a couple of songs that conservative people may want to know about-one it talks about trolls, one about ghosts-BUT do not let this put you off if possible!! I almost didn't get it because of this, but it is completely in context with the song. Within the wording they put to the song, they are trying to help them remember what the song is about, so Danse Macabre would have that feel/words to it. It is very well done, and completely appropriate since it helps them remember what the composer was trying to put across.
This has really been one of the big hits around here. You can ck out their website at www.classicalmagic.net. (I am in no way affiliated, just a happy customer!)
But more than that, it has sparked a HUGE interest in composers for her. By choice on her own she's listened to most of the Classical Kids CDs, the Vox Music Masters CDs, reading the Opal Wheeler books about composers, reading Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers books, etc. She's asking for more and more. She draws pictures about composers' lives, constantly throws dates out that they did this or that, etc. Tonight she had me print out blank staff paper and tried to start composing her own song for her recorder!
Even ds5 is walking around humming "Happy Farmer" by Schumann. Needless to say, I'm ordering Vol. 2. I should give props to Jessica, since I think it was from her post that I originally discovered Classical Magic.
I do want to point out that there are a couple of songs that conservative people may want to know about-one it talks about trolls, one about ghosts-BUT do not let this put you off if possible!! I almost didn't get it because of this, but it is completely in context with the song. Within the wording they put to the song, they are trying to help them remember what the song is about, so Danse Macabre would have that feel/words to it. It is very well done, and completely appropriate since it helps them remember what the composer was trying to put across.
This has really been one of the big hits around here. You can ck out their website at www.classicalmagic.net. (I am in no way affiliated, just a happy customer!)