It’s August of 2017.  My oldest is a Junior in High School now, and my youngest is a Seventh grader!  Where has the time gone?  There are still so many things I want to do with them!

My kids have their own individual learning styles and personalities, and they are not in to doing the same things that I am!  (Strange, I know).  For example, the Summer Olympics in London did not go well for me.  I found this great downloadable Olympics LapBook.  I loved putting it together!  London history, history of the Olympics, tons of places to keep track of the Gold Medals.  My kids would not even look at it.  I was so sad.

As a bookstore manager for homeschool materials, I come across many, many, MANY books.  And I have to admit, I have used my kids as Guinea pigs to try out a variety of them.  It’s a great way to determine how much time and energy is needed, and how much interest there is in the material.  LapBooks may be fun for me, but my kids just don’t get into it.  (One of these days I will tell you about my World History timeline book.)

 My DO-OVER this time is all about studying classical music and the master composers.  10 years ago, when we first opened the bookstore, I started David Quine’s  Music and Moments (cornerstonecurriculum.com) with my nieces, nephews and children as a class for the teachers kids.  I recently came across the bin that still held the curriculum, CD’s and the kids folders.  Their personalities shining through!  Unfortunately, the bookstore became busier than expected and we never finished the curriculum.  At the same time, at the bookstore recently, I came across Amy Pak’s (Homeschool in the Woods) Composers LapBook.  Again, I cried, “I need a DO-OVER!”  My kids will never go for it of course, so maybe I will do it for myself.

So if you’re reading this, and you’re wondering what to do with your kids this year for Art, might I recommend studying the Masters.

1. First, choose a curriculum as a guide:
   • Music and Moments with the Masters is an excellent curriculum to guide you through studying the masters in-depth.  It’s divided into four (4) years, but obviously you can make it your own.
   • Beautiful Feet’s The History of Classical Music for Intermediate Grades.  This is a one (1) year study using a variety of resources (ie. The Story of the Orchestra, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers) and literature (ie. Dance Me a Story, The Farewell Symphony, A Coloring Book of Great Composers by Bellerophon) in 75 lessons.
2. The fun part is the supplements!
   • I love the printables in Amy Pak’s Composers Hands-On History Activity-Paks.  So many activities to create a card game, symphony page, and timeline.  I’m in love with the visuals!
   • Dover Coloring Book series: “Great Composers” and “Musical Instruments”.
   • Color the Classics – Composers Series by Carmen Ziarkowski.  This series has a variety of pages to color for each Composer or Hymn Writer.  It is a 2 piece set that comes with a sample of the Composers music.  Inside the front cover, a School Year Plan is provided if you wish to use this series as the curriculum.
   • For a variety of downloadable material by composer, see currclick.com
3. Need to step it up for various ages?
   • The Gift of Music by Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson – RA: all ages; IR: 7th+.  A very thorough book on the lives of the composers with suggested readings and musical selections.
   • Getting a Handel on Messiah by David W. Barber – RA: all ages; IR: 7th+  David Barber has a few titles to recommend regarding music history, such as If It Ain’t Baroque….  They are conversationally written, and can add to any music curriculum.
   • McGraw-Hill’s The World of Composers series – RA: all ages; IR: 4th+.  Many of these can be found at the library.

Don’t forget to check out the CD pack from Cornerstone Curriculum, or search them out on iTunes and Amazon music.  If you can only choose one, I highly recommend “Peter and the Wolf”.  Beautiful Feet recommends “The Music Masters” 18 CD collection.

Shopping Recommendations:

• Shop Local! – As a bookstore manager myself, I highly recommend shopping your local homeschool resource store.  They work really hard to be there for their homeschool families! If you have trouble finding one in your area, let me know!
• Shop the publishers directly!  These publishers put much energy into creating great homeschool resources,  so I recommend shopping their web-sites:
  • cornerstonecurriculum.com;
  • bfbooks.com (updated);
  • homeschoolinthewoods.com;
  • currclick.com.
• For the out-of-print, and hard to find pieces, I’m including Amazon pictures and links.  By clicking links into Amazon Marketplace, I do earn a small commission based on your purchase.  It doesn’t change the listed price, it just supports my glorious book addiction.

Thanks for visiting! Leave me a comment or question!