Tag Archives: Charlotte Mason

Composer Study: Johann Sebastian Bach

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I don’t know how we passed over Johann Sebastian Bach when we were doing composer study a few years ago, but I’m glad we’re be listening to some of his music this year with Classical Conversations.  Here are a few of the “extras” I’ve pulled together to expand upon our study at home.

 

Audio Resources

Video Resources

For my younger children, one of their favorite ways of learning about classical music is watching Little Einsteins.  There are several episodes that feature music by Bach:

Books and Other Reading

Posted in Charlotte Mason, Classical Conversations Cycle 1, Composer Study

Composer Study: George Frederick Handel

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George Frederick Handel

Back when my big kids were little, we spent some time learning about several great composers. As our family grew, somehow that got put aside, which is one of the reasons I’m glad we’re doing Classical Conversations. We’re getting ready to head into the last six weeks of CC for this year, and I thought I’d take some time to revisit some of the resources we found the first time we talked about George Frederick Handel. (His name has different spelling variations. This time we’re going with the Anglicized version.)

Since our time in class on CC community day is spent primarily listening to one specific piece of music, I thought I’d share the resources again for others who want to learn more about Handel’s music during their days at home.

Audio Resources

My Name is Handel from Maestro Classics

One of my main resources this time around will be My Name is Handel: The Story of Handel’s Water Music from Maestro Classics. The first track on the CD is a 38 minute story about the story behind Water Music. This is followed by a short biography of Handel, a silly song called “My Name is Handel” with words set to the Hornpipe theme from Water Music, and a closer look at Handel’s music with Maestro Stephen Simon.

If your kids like silly songs, check out “When the Angels Play” from Beethoven’s Wig 3: Many More Sing Along Symphonies, which puts words to Handel’s (Harp Concerto in B♭)

Another great resource that’s available free online is from Classics for Kids. They have four short episodes related to Handel, including one on Water Music.

Hallelujah Handel from Classical Kids

The main thing we listened to last time we studied Handel was Hallelujah Handel by Classical Kids, which tells the story of Handel and an orphan boy.  My kids love Classical Kids CDs because they tell entertaining stories while introducing the music of the featured composer, who is always a character in the audio drama. Hallelujah Handel is one of our favorites in the collection, and since I think everyone should be familiar with Handel’s Messiah, I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

If you just want to learn more about Handel’s life, check out The Story of Handel . My kids aren’t wild about this series because they’re pretty much just composer biographies with their music playing in the background, but I still think they’re worthwhile. We’ll get out some building toys or coloring pages and listen while we play,

Books and Other Reading

The book Hallelujah Handel tells the same story as the Classical Kids CD, but from a totally different perspective.  I enjoyed it just as much, especially the illustrations.  Last time Ian and I both enjoyed Handel (from the Famous Children series), as well as Handel and the Famous Sword Swallower of Halle, which weaves biographical information around a fascinating incident from Handel’s hometown.  This time around I’d like to try reading Handel at the Court of Kings by Opal Wheeler and Handel (from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers series) by Mike Venezia.

Video Resources

For younger children there are two Little Einsteins episodes have music by Handel: “Annie, Get Your Microphone”  and “Rocket the Bug” (both feature Water Music).

For older children and adults, Musical Contexts: All About Handel is short by informative.  Also, if your library has videos available from Films On Demand like ours, there are three documentaries on Handel. For an extended study on Handel’s oratorio Messiah, check out Handel’s Messiah: The Biblical Message Behind the Musical Masterpiece.

I’ll be adding a post about Bach and updating my resource list soon since we’ll be talking about them over the next few weeks as well!

Posted in Classical Conversations Cycle 1, Composer Study

Curriculum vs. Framework

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Keep CalmMy husband has often marveled at my inability to follow a recipe.  I tend to view recipes as a starting place, and 99% of the time I make at least one adjustment based on what ingredients I have, our family’s likes/dislikes, something I think sounds good, etc.  Usually I’m pleased with the results, but occasionally I learn a lesson about what doesn’t work.  Still, I love the freedom of using my kitchen as a place for creating something just for our family.

It must be a personality thing, because I have a very similar approach to homeschooling.  Just like with recipes, I rarely follow any curriculum exactly the way it is intended.  Consequently, I am reluctant to spend money on an all-inclusive curriculum, knowing that I’ll probably just tweak it anyway.  Thankfully, there are some wonderful free resources available online, and even though I will probably never follow one to a tee, they help me build a sort of “framework” that provides structure to our homeschool year while allowing me plenty of flexibility as far as what I will include to complete our educational experiences.

Originally my plan had been to follow Ambleside Online (one of the best free resources out there, in my opinion), and we’ll still be looking there for a lot of guidance.  I love the richness of their literature suggestions, and reading through their information about the Charlotte Mason method over the last few years has really shaped my educational philosophy.  Our plans for school will primarily consist of booklists for each subject (using various forms of narration to ensure that the material in those books is absorbed).  Still, there are things about AO that I want to adjust for our family.  If I only had one or two children, I think I would feel fairly comfortable following most of the AO curriculum as written (as well as I follow anything), but I think for our larger family I would prefer to keep everyone together for as many subjects as possible.

Building Around 4-Year Cycles

In my search to find the best way for our family to learn together, I was most drawn to 4-year cycles.  They’re popular with “classical” homeschoolers, but I wouldn’t necessarily put myself in that category because there are many elements of classical education that don’t excite me at all.  The idea of cycles, however, has intrigued me since I first read about it.  I know I have trouble grasping the big picture until I’ve seen everything laid out at least once and then can start making connections and putting together the pieces of the puzzle in my mind.  Being able to go deeper with the same material as the children get older makes a lot of sense.

With four children (and possibly more someday?), there are other benefits as well.  Rather than trying to help each child through an individual history track based upon their grade level, they can just join in our family history lessons as soon as they are ready, and I don’t have to worry about them missing something because within 4 years they’ll have been exposed to all the major events of history and will get to go through it again to pick up on things they might not have caught at a younger age.

I plan to use cycles not just for history but for other subjects as well.  If we can touch on all the major areas of science in 4 years and then repeat that cycle, by the time they finish 8th grade they should have a pretty good foundation.  (I imagine as they reach high school they’ll step away from what the family is doing in order to spend more time on particular classes.)

With Bible, I’m planning a 3-year cycle, allowing us to not just read through the Bible but have time for more in depth study as well.  (I’m very excited about the main resource I’ve found for our school Bible study… more on that coming soon!)

Ditching the Recipe

There are plenty of curricular options that follow 4-year cycles, but as I said before, I’m not very good at sticking with someone else’s plan.  For some subjects I may use a “spine” (either a book or a curriculum that can serve as a backbone for an entire year or more), but I’d prefer to just loosely work our way through various books, videos, and other resources that fall into our flexible framework so that we don’t end up getting too tied down to the idea of completing a curriculum at the expense of spending a little extra time on the things that pique my children’s interest.

Thinking this way especially helps me with long-term planning.  When I come across resources I think would be a good fit for our family, I don’t have to worry about trying to piece them all into a cohesive plan.  Instead, I just figure out where they fit into our cycle and look forward to getting to use them.

I’ll be sharing a little more about my plans in these individual subjects and what that will look like as we head into 1st grade over the next few months.  There’s a whole world to learn about with my children, and I’m so excited about taking the next step of this journey with them.

 

 

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