Music Class? Help!

[sbowers]

I am new to homeschool. I want to make sure my children have all the experiences they would receive from public school. I want to have music once a week but I'm not sure where to even start. I have music figured into our schedule but have nothing set up for it so we end up doing another activity in it's place. Any suggestions would help. Thank You

[Stephony]

my children are enrolled in an online Band. It is called Mr Bandman.

[Momma Crystal]

How old are they?

Relax about them having the experiences of public school. What you provide through homeschooling will be far richer. I promise.

You could learn the recorder together. You could make musical instruments from junk around your house. You could download some different genre's of music via itunes and do a little research on each one. You could check some books on different composers or musicians out from the library. You can go see an orchestra, a jazz band, a string quartet, a singing group etc etc etc in concert. Maybe your child is ready for piano or violin or something like that. You could have your children join a local children's choir. The possibilities are endless.

[mcmary]

My daughter is in a community youth choir and takes weekly voice lessons. Most kids in schools play recorder around 5th grade. You could purchase a few and a songbook with instructions and learn together...

[CeciliaT]

Stephony, I've never heard of that but, could you send me some information on this online Band or Bandman to my email address. It sounds something my children might be interested in.
trevino.cecilia@yahoo.com
I'm from Texas too. Uvalde county.

Thank you,

CeciliaT

[CeciliaT]

I started mine on recorders which I purchased at Family Dollar for a dollar a piece and downloaded simple pieces designed for children online for free. So, my childrens music class cost $5.00 a year plus the ink and paper which I estimate it to have equaled to about $20.00 total a year 14 years ago. Now it would probably be about $30.00 a year because the black ink costs $20.00 the rest is paper and the recorders are still a dollar a piece at Family Dollar. I would recommend that as your children get better at it, you buy a better quality recorder but, for pre-schoolers to 1st graders the cheap plastic ones are ok. Anyway I leave that decision up to you.

Here are some websites and easy recorder fingering charts I found for free in just a couple of minutes. There is just so much out there, the difficult part is sorting out what works for your family.
http://fivejs.com/wp-content/uploads...rder_chart.pdf

How to Play the Recorder for Children | eHow.com

Download RECORDER PDF Free Sheet Music

Free easy sheet music for school orchestra, band & ensemble

K8 KidTunes: Interactive Recorder Fingering Chart

YouTube - How to Play the Recorder : How to Play the Recorder

[denimay]

I got a set of books called Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers (Amazon.com: music for children: Books) I think I got mine from scholastic....they are short biographies written for children. I got some CD's of classical composers (I thnk from Time-Life) and during the school year I would play the music (all the time when I was not direct teaching) and I'd read the book several times discussing interesting parts with my kids. I would write the name of the current composer on the board and every so often during the day I would ask, Who is this composer?? The kids would shout out the answer and then continue on with their work. After a couple of weeks I'd switch to a new composer. I would review all of the previous composers every time we finished with the new one. At the end of the year I would write the names of the composers on the board, give my kids a blank paper and play maybe 40 to 60 seconds of music and the kids had to write down the name of the composer. Consistently my kids could identify 8 to 10 classical composers by listening to a small scrap of their music AND they could tell you something specific about each one (Mozart was a child prodigy for example). I think this counts as music history and appreciation........

And anyone can play the recorder......get one that comes with an instruction book and learn it along with your child. cheers! deni.........

[fairylover]

My fourth grader is great at identifying the Grateful Dead or John Denver.

[denimay]

*LOL* I had one 1st grade class that I subjected to my 'Elvis' Greatest Hits' a LOT and now they're all juniors in high school and they still will do a little 'shimmy' and croon "I'm all shook up! yea...yea.." when they see me around town..........

[fairylover]

Some things from school really stick with you.