Homeschool Music Appreciation for Elementary Grades
Music has been rather neglected in our large-family homeschool. Sure, the kids listen to music and sing in the annual Christmas program at church. We even bought a piano recently.
But actually learning about music? Not so much.
Until now.
I received this product for free and was compensated for my time. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not required to post a positive review. See our Disclosure Policy for more information.
Recently Collin (grade 6) has been using Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades from Zeezok Publishing. He is learning about musical instruments, composers, history, geography, and more–all without a huge time investment on my part.
About Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades
Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades: Book 1 is a full two-year curriculum that includes a student activity book, music discs, lapbook CD, and seven composer biographies. I am thoroughly impressed with the quality and scope of the entire curriculum.
The core of this music appreciation course is the Great Musician Series of composer biographies. These readers are top-quality living books that engage the student with facts about the composer’s childhood and adult life.
The student activity book complements and expands on the reader. The activity book includes an impressive variety of hands-on activities:
- geography lessons and map activities
- history lessons
- music vocabulary and facts
- timelines
- handwriting practice
- and more
The lapbook CD includes all the printables needed to assemble the lapbooks for each composer. It also has basic information about assembling a lapbook and using various folding techniques–great for first-timers like me!
The music discs include selections from each composer, making it super easy to listen to the various styles of music while learning about each composer.
Using Music Appreciation in Your Homeschool
Music Appreciation for Elementary Grades is a homeschool mother’s dream! Seriously, there is just so much to love about this curriculum.
1. For starters, there is no teacher’s manual to juggle. Everything is included right in the student activity book: a weekly list of assignments, key to activity sheets, and more.
2. Of course, this also means that there is minimal teacher preparation or actual teaching time involved for children who are reading well on their own.
3. The option of working through the course (mostly) independently is very attractive to some students and also frees up time for busy homeschool moms.
4. The unit study approach incorporates so much learning beyond just music appreciation. History, geography, positive character qualities, handwriting, and more are an integral part of the lessons.
5. The lessons appeal to all learning styles. Visual, auditory, kinisthetic, or a mixture of these–there are learning activities that everyone will enjoy.
Zeezok curriculum received two 2015 Practical Homeschooling Magazine awards:
–1st Place Music Appreciation – Great Musician Series (the biographies the curriculum is based on)
–2nd Place Music Appreciation – Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades
Thanks for sharing your perspective on the Zeezok music appreciation curriculum. One thing we’ve noticed about a lot of resources for homeschool music appreciation is the focus on classical music composers and facts about reading music. Do you think there is interest for additional music from around the world and different types of activities that involve children actively engaging in music such as composing or other activities? We’re in the process of creating resources for http://www.raisingcreativechildren.net and want to focus on what would be most helpful to people.Thanks!