Wishing for Tomorrow

March 16, 2010 by Christine

I admit it. I wish away certain moments and stages in my children’s lives. I guess I don’t know anyone who doesn’t occasionally do this, but I know many older women who tell me not to.

From their perspective, it’s clear that the moments and stages will pass quickly; from mine it often feels like an eternity till bedtime. The future seems bright and full of promise; today often feels like drudgery. I battle this feeling on some days more than others as I change diapers, sit someone in time out again, correct the same spelling word over and over, and say, “No, you can’t watch TV” for the 15th time.

The more I read in search of the perfect formula for saintly motherhood, the more I realize that the books on my nightstand are written to portray an ideal, and not a daily reality.

Failure today is inevitable; thankfully, forgiveness is failure’s close companion.

The future [is] not where real life [begins].
Each day [is] God’s perfect will for me.

In fact, it’s not just because we’ll regret time passing when we’re old and the children are gone. It’s not just that these moments will become sweet memories to savor as we rock on our porch decades from now. It’s instead that each moment, each today, is a block with which God is building us into the mothers, the teachers, the individuals, He plans for us to be. There have been times in the past few months and years when I didn’t, couldn’t, see the plan. I have questioned whether there even was a plan and, if I were to stumble upon it, why I should follow it at all.

Whatever the Lord requires, He also enables.

God’s perfect will for me is today. And isn’t it true that tomorrow never arrives but instead becomes today? I don’t want to pine for the elusive greener grass on the other side of midnight only to find that waking in the morning provides merely another opportunity to pine again.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Matt. 6:34 (MSG)

God is doing a good work in me (and you!) today. He is building, refining, preparing, requiring, enabling. My prayer is that today, we’ll let Him.

Quotes taken from Sally Clarkson’s The Mission of Motherhood.

Christine is a Christian, homeschooling mom to three boys and a girl, ranging in age from 9 to 2 years old. She is a musician by trade, eclectic in homeschool style, and continues to grow and learn along with her children in this journey of life and discipleship at home. Visit her blog at Fruit in Season.

Tags: Encouragement, focusing our hearts, Godly Living, motherhood, Parenting, Sally Clarkson, The Mission of Motherhood

Making Writing Interesting

February 2, 2010 by Christine

3 Comments

In our schooling, I’ve always struggled with what to require for writing. I love to write, always have, and I believe a big part of that has come from my love for reading good literature. In one sense, I want to allow that natural desire to write flow from loving the way words can be crafted in the books that my kids love. I do, however, think there should be some guidance from me.

While I haven’t ever used a set in-depth curriculum with my children, I have tried a few books on writing and have found them each to be lacking in something, whether it’s the “coolness” factor of the assignments (which would then spark some creative genius), or the cohesiveness to develop true writing skill. Until this year I have been at a loss as to how to proceed.

This year, spurred by a good assessment in the summer, I decided to follow the advice of the woman who assessed my son. She encouraged us in our writing pursuits and basically said,

If he’s reading well (he is) and writing occasionally (including organization, first and final drafts), then that is enough.

It was a freeing idea- no writing stress! Instead of trying to follow a set schedule of writing projects (do this on day 1, this on day 2, etc.), I made up a list of writing prompts for my oldest two and require them to choose one per week.

They write, I correct and suggest, they rewrite, and they’re done. Sometimes I include a report about something in our study (history, geography, science) but usually it doesn’t revolve around academics. I want them at their age to learn to love ideas, theories and events without being pushed into “research”, thereby squelching their desire to learn.

My writing list looks something like this:

Write about a time when you felt sad (or scared, or angry).
Write a paragraph from the perspective of a kite on a windy day.
Write an acrostic poem about yourself using your first and last name.
Write a fairy tale beginning with “Once upon a time…”.
Describe what your ideal pet would be like.
Interview someone and write about what you find out.
Write a short play with 2-3 characters. Include the setting and any extra sounds, movements or emotions.
Write a story about the journey of a penny throughout one full day. Use first person.
One word prompt. (I would give them a word such as “bagel” or “desert” and have them craft a story around it.)
Write out the directions on how to do anything you like to do. Include every little step!
Choose a character from one of your book and write a story that fits him/her.
Zoo story- write about a certain group of animals and an adventure at the zoo.
Write about someone in real life who you admire.
Write a poem about the season or month that it is now.
Write a letter of encouragement or thanks to someone.
Write your penpal a letter.
Compare and contrast two characters in books you have read.
Complete this sentence in a full paragraph: “If I could breathe underwater (or out in space), I would…”

I consider writing a worthy and exciting pastime and I want my kids to enjoy it too!

What works for you in teaching your children to write?

Tags: creative writing, Encouraging Words for Writers, struggling writers, teaching writing, writing helps, Writing Prompts

Use Big Words

December 18, 2009 by Christine

7 Comments

My then 8-year-old bounds down the stairs to find my mom and me as we are discussing nothing in particular.

“That pot on the stove, it’s chittering; I think it’s ready.” And off he runs, ready to conquer whatever is on his lego-conscious mind.

“Chittering?” my mom says. “Is that even a word?”

“Yup, something he must have read somewhere,” I answer with a smile.

I want to raise children with good verbal skills. I love when my toddlers use words like “actually” or “suddenly”, and string together colloquialisms that sound like they should be coming from an adult. In my experience, there are specific ways to encourage this kind of vocabulary in children and it begins very early. Though my mom didn’t know what ‘chitter’ meant, she was really the one with the natural ability to encourage conversation with babies and older children. What I learned from her, I use in our daily life and learning, making it my own as I go.

No baby talk. This doesn’t mean that we should never speak in a cutesy tone to our infants, but as a rule, conversations with babies should be full of fun and colorful words and descriptions about the world they are absorbing. A child who understands more at an earlier age, will eventually speak in the same way he’s been spoken to.

Answer their “whys” with big words. Just when we want to pull our hair out from all of the questions that toddlers and preschoolers ask is when we need to instead take a deep breath and give a truthful and detailed explanation. Whether it’s “Why does the sun always shine on my side of the car in the morning?” or “Why do I slide better in my socks than my bare feet?”, we shouldn’t be afraid to use big words that they are not familiar with. Of course, hearing the question “What does that mean?”, is an inevitability we should then be prepared for.

Choose good literature for read-alouds. We as homeschoolers are always on the lookout for the best books for our children, and there are better book lists by homeschooling companies than there are by anyone else. Some books are just light years beyond others in quality, especially considering the pop-culture atmosphere of mediocrity today. Books with not only good vocabulary, but also long sentences and intricate sentence structure should be at the top of our list. Children can grasp so much when read to by an adult who adds flair and meaning to the words on a page.

Be a walking thesaurus. If my son were to say of his sister, “Maddy’s being really annoying asking me to play with her over and over,” I could respond by saying, “She’s quite persistent that way. Why don’t you oblige her just this once?” He might not know the definitions of “oblige” or “persistent” but he can infer those meanings by their context and be better able to define them if they come up again.

Play word games. Scrabble, Bananagrams, Scattergories, and many more, are fun ways of introducing new words into children’s vocabularies.An atmosphere of intellectual respect goes a long way toward helping children fulfill high expectations. Verbally, our children are capable of absorbing language and making it their own, naturally and without compulsion, if we love language ourselves.

Christine is a Christian, homeschooling mom to three boys and a girl, ranging in age from 9 to 2 years old. She is a musician by trade, eclectic in homeschool style, and continues to grow and learn along with her children in this journey of life and discipleship at home. Visit her blog at Fruit in Season.

Tailored to Fit

November 30, 2009 by Christine

Who’s the Teacher Here?

October 23, 2009 by Christine

5 Comments

“Come on down, we’re going to start schoolwork!” I call up the stairs.

“But, Mom, I’m teaching Maddy to play Battleship!” my 9-year-old replies, with a hint of annoyance for being interrupted.

Hmmm, Cartesian graphing definitely counts as math…and he’s teaching her, I think to myself. “Sure, take your time!” I call back.

Teaching is the best way to remember information. Just think of it in terms of us as the homeschooling parents. Do you remember all of your high school history? I sure don’t. I’m learning now. As I teach it to my children.

Edgar Dale, in his brain research, summed up in the Cone of Learning, found that (paraphrased):

WE REMEMBER
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
70% of what we discuss with others
90% of what we teach others

I’ve been trying to apply this theory in our homeschool, now that my oldest two are at a point where they enjoy each other’s company and can engage in some more advanced games and concepts on their own. The more I seek them out, the more opportunities I find to briefly hand the reins to my oldest to help his younger sister. The benefits are many- sibling cooperation, communication skills for both, retention of material- and I have noticed a great deal of growth in their relationship because of these efforts.

Many times, as in the Battleship example, they take it upon themselves to work together before I ask. The simple act of explaining the directions of a game requires a child to put their thoughts together, express them coherently, and follow through with demonstration. I have witnessed my son teaching his sister proper violin posture by having her correct his “bad” positions, helping her with her reading, and guiding her in her attempts to whistle. I have also seen my daughter, who is six, begin to “teach” her younger brothers, and even her stuffed animals!

My goal is to create an environment where it is OK to “not know” something because there are many patient, caring family members willing to teach you when you want, or need, to know. Slowly I am seeing the fruit of this effort.

I encourage you to try and find small ways throughout your day when your children can teach- whether it’s you, a sibling, or the family dog!

Tags: Cone of Learning, Edgar Dale, Encouragement, history, Homeschool Techniques, Homeschooling Methods, Math

Listening with Purpose, Part II

September 11, 2009 by Christine

2 Comments

“Mom, I don’t like this song!” my 6-year-old shouts from the back seat of the van.

“Why not?” I answer.

“Because it makes me feel sad, like I’m at a friend’s house and I have to leave,” comes the reply.

Music has such power– power over our emotions, our ability to focus (for good or bad), and our energy level. The song my daughter didn’t like had a soulful oboe solo, a gently wailing melody in a minor key that had a hint of sadness in it. She heard, responded, and decided that she didn’t like how it made her feel. Children intuitively sense differences in music, even small ones, and though they don’t know the terminology, they need to be given the opportunity to express their feelings as they listen.

In this part of the Listening with Purpose series (the first of which can be found here) we will focus on the styles of classical music and how to incorporate them into your homeschool.

This will not be a post of details. I’ll throw in a little history here and there to tie it all together, but for the most part, beyond introductions to specific aspects of classical music, we’ll look at ways to gently, and without much fuss, sneak in some extra-musical flair to your homeschool week. Non-musicians often let intimidation get in the way of some beautiful additions to their week, and it doesn’t have to be that way.

The word “style” in classical music is rather vague. It can apply to time periods in history and the music that was written within them; the area of the world in which the music originated; sub-categories within a specific genre (like vocal music); or even the way the instruments articulate their parts. For the purpose of this post, I will be focusing on time periods and the characteristics that shape the classical music of those times. We have great opportunities as homeschoolers to shape the aural environment in our homes in order to match what we are studying in other parts of our learning experience.

Classical music from 1400 AD falls into these basic historical periods. They overlap in some cases so the years listed are not completely firm:

• Renaissance: 1400-1600AD (with music from Palestrina, Victoria, and Gabrieli)
• Baroque: 1600-1750 (think Bach, Vivaldi and Handel)
• Classical: 1750- ca. 1840 (Mozart is king here, but Haydn and a couple of others are in the mix too)
• Romantic: ca. 1840-1930 (luscious stuff by Rachmaninoff, Chopin , Tchaikovsky, and Berlioz, for example)
• Contemporary: ca. 1930- present (this music can get very academic and sometimes weird, but there are many gems here by the likes of Stravinsky, Glass and others. It’s actually my favorite time period.)

First and foremost, we need to hear music, really listen to it with an uncritical ear, to even form an opinion about it. Children are blank slates when it comes to the arts, and have no preconceived notions about what “should” be. Music that they’ve heard before becomes theirs quickly, so that when they hear the same piece as background for a commercial, in an elevator, or at a concert they have a sense of ownership.

The same thing can happen with history, literature and art when it is tied to music of the period you are studying. Doesn’t music “bring you back” to certain times of your life, whether it is high school, band camp, or a wedding you attended? We can bring learning to life when we make a small effort to provide music as the glue in our lessons.

Here are a handful of ideas to take this enormous span of music and narrow it to suit a normal day-in-the-life of a typical homeschooler:

During reading time, play some Palestrina choral music, such as this CD. Palestrina has an ethereal and calming quality that fits perfectly in down times. We have been known to have “Palestrina parties” (my husband’s invention) when all of the kids have to conduct what they hear. Of course, for them it simply means waving their arms to the beat and the shape of the music.
While flipping through a book of art by Monet, Degas, Renoir or Cassatt, play Debussy, who wrote music in the impressionistic style that paralleled the same movement in the art world.
During the Christmas season, while decorating the tree or wrapping presents, play some Giovanni Gabrieli brass music or Handel’s Messiah. The story behind the Messiah is an inspiring one.
While learning about kings and queens of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, listen to Handel’s Water Music and Fire Music suites. If you’re feeling up to it, learn some Baroque Dance moves.
Watch Fantasia with your children. The music from the video includes Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, and Dukas.
While learning about Napoleon and his time, listen to Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. Beethoven wrote it as a tribute to Napoleon, but then rescinded that dedication when Napoleon betrayed the people. Check out this book from the library.
Listen to the entire Mozart Requiem and have your children come up with 5 adjectives for each movement. The movements are so diverse and beg for discussion. The story behind the Requiem is fascinating as well, as it was unfinished at Mozart’s death. Mystery, intrigue, illness all figure in to the end of Mozart’s life.
Many pieces have a specific story that they illustrate (think “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in Fantasia) or a something that they represent. Listen to “Peter and the Wolf” by Prokofiev, Saint Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals”, or Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition. Get a book on the subject to look through and then have the kids draw or write about what they are hearing.
Mike Venezia’s books on composer’s are favorites in our home. They give interesting and easily readable life stories of many of the well-known composers I have mentioned. They are cheap too!
Have fun at this website trying to put the composers in their time periods once you’ve explored some of their music in the activities above.

Music need not be a difficult “Do I have to??” addition to your homeschool. Five to ten minutes of planning and web surfing per week could allow you one great lesson. Or, better yet, let the music speak for itself as you play it around the house or in the car. Make the choice to include it, and you and your children will be blessed.

Tags: classical music for children, incorporating music, Listening with Purpose, music in homeschool, music in your day

Art Museum Scavenger Hunt

September 6, 2009 by Christine

8 Comments

There is something magical about a child’s first up-close-and-personal experience with fine art. The richness of the subject matter, the variety of styles, genres and time periods, the range of emotions and colors, all combine to make lasting memories and mental pictures that will influence our children’s perception of art for their entire lives.

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
Henry David Thoreau

I myself remember each time I have been to a new art museum – from the Rijksmuseum in Holland, to the Children’s Book Illustrator exhibit on our trip to Maine – and each experience has filled me with a sense of beauty that can’t be replaced. No child is too young to take part in the expressions of beauty displayed in your local art museum.

Of course, without proper focus and direction, children can become overwhelmed and come away with nothing specific for their memory to retain. That is why, as with anything else in our homeschooling adventure, it is our job to prepare them for the journey with a well-planned “prelude” of expectations, questions and guidelines for looking at, and seeing, what is before them. Some museums have children’s activities and exhibits to start them off, but don’t be afraid to bring them to see the regular exhibits as well. Giving them specific concepts, subjects, and styles to look for will make for an exciting hour or two lost in the world of art! The anticipation is killing me, so let’s get started!

Here is a list of just a handful of ideas for the search:

a portrait of a child
a traditional still life (like this one or this one)
a cubist still life such as this one
a painting made only with dots (pointillism)
a painting primarily in warm colors
a painting primarily in cool colors
a painting primarily in black and white
a sculpture made of metal
a painting with lots of shadows (such as this one. The term for this kind of painting is chiaroscuro meaning “bright-dark”)
a painting of a celebration
a sculpture of an animal
a painting using mostly geometric shapes
an impressionist painting (in the style of Monet)
a painting using thick globs of paint
a painting with a feeling of sadness
a painting of a battle
a painting or sculture using symbols (such as an olive branch, dove, etc.)
a sculpture that is broken
a landscape with people only included in the background, or not at all
a portrait that looks almost like a photograph
a portrait that is completely unrealistic
a piece of art that doesn’t seem to you like a piece of art
a painting of a specific place (Paris, London, George Washington crossing the Delaware, etc.)
a painting with a lot of your favorite color in it
a painting of a snow scene
a painting of Mary and Jesus (there are so many styles to find with the Holy Family as subject that a lot of discussion can take place about what is different and the same- expressions, use of light, shape of face, colors, etc.)

Download this list to print and use on your next scavenger hunt.

I could go on forever! Use this list as a jumping off point for your scavenger hunt and adjust it according to the ages of your children. Have the older ones choose two to compare and contrast, or choose a style that they particularly like and write a report. Younger ones can simply find a picture in an art book and recreate it with art supplies. If you are not near an art museum have the children search in a large coffee table book on art from your local library.

The sky is the limit and the possibilities for discovery are endless! I hope you enjoy taking your family on this search-and-find mission!

Tags: art, art scavenger hunt, chiaroscuro, Children's Book Illustrator exhibit, Henry David Thoreau, homeschooling, impressionist art, incorporating art in homeschooling, pointillism, Rijksmuseum in Holland, symbolic art, Visual Art

9 Ways Bilbo Can Help with Language Arts

July 17, 2009 by Christine

4 Comments

No, it doesn’t have to be Bilbo. It can be Pippi, Huckleberry, or even Old Yeller! Regardless of what you choose, there is not much more you can achieve with packaged language arts curriculum than you can with a good old-fashioned, well-written book. Over the years we have purchased a few books to guide us in our endeavors, but more often than not I end up just using good fiction from our bookshelves and scrap the “textbook-y” stuff.

In all of the following exercises I’ve used the first chapter of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which is the current read-aloud for my oldest.

Copywork/ Dictation- In choosing copywork and dictation, depending on the child’s age and ability, I have always looked for good sentence structure, quotes, proper and common nouns, varied punctuation and interesting content. For my 9-year-old, I would choose a dictation paragraph such as:

”Good Morning!” he said at last. “We don’t want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water.” By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.
Parts of speech- There are many ways to incorporate learning parts of speech. The most straightforward way is to simply copy a page in the book and have the child use colored pencils, a different color for each part of speech, to underline what you are choosing for him to work on. Though this is not particularly thrilling, it gets the job done. A better way is to find a descriptive paragraph, type it out in larger font, and provide your child with colored M&Ms or skittles. The child can place different colored ones on the parts of speech you ask for and eat the ones he gets right! You can also have a younger child act out the verbs and draw the nouns, or you can print out 3 x 5 cards with the part of speech names you want to work on and have the child jump from card to card as you slowly read each word. A wonderful paragraph (complete with adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, action and helping verbs, and proper nouns) I would choose would be:

Gandalf in the meantime was still standing outside the door, and laughing long but quietly. After a while he stepped up, and with the spike on his staff scratched a queer sign on the hobbit’s beautiful green front-door. Then he strode away, just in time when Bilbo was finishing his second cake and beginning to think that he had escaped adventures very well.
Dramatic reading/ Skit- Especially if you have multiple readers, this activity can be so much fun. Choose a section of the chapter and turn it into reader’s theater, a puppet show, or even have them memorize a number of lines each and put on a skit. The first exchange between Bilbo and Gandalf, only two or three pages long, is silly and full of drama and would make a perfect skit.

Typing – Again, this may not be an exciting exercise, but it’s much more exciting to type out a favorite passage of a favorite book than it is to copy a boring example in a textbook! Any paragraph that has opportunities for italics, and the use of the shift key is great for practice.

Sentence structure - One of the best ways to improve writing quickly is to vary sentence structure. Have your older child take one sentence and rewrite it a number of different ways. For example, the sentence He had a cloud of them about him already, and in the dim light it made him look strange and sorcerous could be written with a prepositional phrase first (In the dim light, looking strange and sorcerous, he sat among clouds of smoke rings), or with a dependent clause first (Because of the cloud of smoke hanging about his head and the dimness of the room, Gandalf looked quite strange and sorcerous) or even as a question (Didn’t he look strange and sorcerous sitting among those smoke rings in the dim light?)

Fluency Reading – I have found that though my 9-year-old reads a number of grade levels above his own, when he reads aloud it is still a bit stilted and awkward. So I take a portion of a chapter we are reading and ask him to read it back to me a few times until it is fluid. A couple of times a week is all that is needed to improve skills in reading aloud.

Memorize Poetry – Many classic novels have poetry as a part of their stories. Alice in Wonderland, James and the Giant Peach, and The Hobbit are just a few. Memorizing poetry not only puts wonderful language in a child’s brain and heart, but also trains the ear and can be useful in furthering rhythmic skill. The first “song” in The Hobbit begins like this:

Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates-
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!

This passage wouldn’t be useful for a manners lesson, but it would be fun to perform!
Punctuation - Take a paragraph in a book that has varied punctuation and type it out, removing all of the punctuation. Or you can type it up with mixed punctuation and have them correct it.

Dictionary/ Thesaurus work – Good quality literature is a treasure trove of new vocabulary. Working a chapter ahead of whatever you are reading, find ten words and have your child look up the definition and part of speech. Then when those words pop up, the child will take note and recognize them in context. Some words in the first chapter of The Hobbit that I might find appropriate for my 9-year-old to define are: morsel, depredations, throng, conspirator, audacious, solemn, dignity, and rune.

I’m sure you could come up with many more ways to shake up a chapter in your favorite read-aloud! I’m fully convinced that children learn best when soaking up wonderful language from well-written literature that has stood the test of time.

Tags: Bilbo Baggins, Copywork, Drama, homeschooling, Language Arts, Making Language Arts Fun, Memorization Skills, Old Yellar, Parts of Speech, punctuation, Reading Fluency, The Hobbit, Typing, Using Resources

My Curriculum is My Kids

June 18, 2009 by Christine

15 Comments

To Whom it May Concern,

No, I am definitely not. More patient, I mean. The mere mention that I am homeschooling my children seemed to bring up a barrier between us that I’d like to demolish. For some unknown reason, the first thing you thought when you found out is that I must be more patient than you.

That is just plain wrong. I wish I could convince you.

You see, my conviction to homeschool my children does not come with a set of other-worldly characteristics that subsequently separates those who can from those who can’t. To the contrary, it is a decision that comes from deep beliefs and desires regarding my children’s education that then requires daily recognition of my own weaknesses. Lack of patience is one of those weaknesses.

The decision, therefore, is bigger than I am. I am no superwoman. I am not perfect. I am not even all that organized! What I am is committed. And stubborn. And a bit crazy. And boy, do I love those kids. That combination, I believe, is what it takes to do this thing called homeschooling. We all are capable. Or perhaps, to put it more truthfully, we all are equally incapable. It’s a monumental task, but one with immeasurable rewards.

Maybe if you witnessed the kind of things that happen each day you would understand. Maybe if you were peeking in on a morning that I slept too long and the littles were already arguing over a toy at 7:45 a.m. and my first response was to snap at them, you wouldn’t suggest that I have more patience than you. Maybe if you saw a time when my oldest took two hours to do ten math problems and my frustration got the better of me you’d realize that we’re all struggling with the some of the same flaws. Maybe if you were sitting beside me on an evening that I was just too tired to plan anything and decided to wing it with our schooling the next day it would be apparent that I am all too human, homeschooler or not.

The truth is, patience is not something you can buy at the store (don’t I wish!) but rather something that is attained bit by bit. I have had days when no patience was required (though few and far between) and days when I needed bucketloads more than I felt I had. There are a couple of things I do that help me along the way, as I stumble through this humbling and rewarding homeschooling journey.

Pray. I pray for patience daily. Plugging in to the source of all strength and wisdom is essential.
Adjust my expectations. Two year olds cannot sit still and wait for a 45 minutes lesson with an older sibling to be finished. So I can’t expect them to!
Remember that I will fail, and God’s mercies are new each morning.
Try to enjoy each moment, for the years fly by way too fast.
Laugh a lot. At myself, mostly.
Ask for forgiveness. My children need to know that we never have it all figured out, but we can go to the One who does have it all under control and get our slate wiped clean.

So believe me when I tell you that I’m just an ordinary mom called to an extraordinary task! I’m not qualified with an extra helping of patience or any other virtue, but I do love seeing my kids learn and like to think that I’m learning right beside them.

For now, my goal is patience. My curriculum is my kids.

Care to join me?

Sincerely,
Christine

Tags: committed to homeschooling, homeschooling patience, keeping expectations realistic, patience, prayer, real homeschooling mom, rewards of homeschooling

Listening with Purpose, Part I

May 31, 2009 by Christine

3 Comments

Listening with Purpose, Part I

A lot of us…allow music to be a background to what we do and because of that we forget that listening is an active challenge to the brain. There’s so much auditory material in the background of our lives and it has made us lazy.

Graham Sheffield, chairman, Royal Philharmonic Society

Classical music is everywhere. Not just in elevators as the phrase suggests, but in restaurants, buses, supermarkets, and commercials. We are taught, by the sheer fact that our everyday life is saturated with it to ignore it. We are conditioned to let music in general and classical music especially, take the role of background noise. What then are we missing in the process?

Helping our children listen with purpose requires our own ears to first be opened. Chances are that it has been a long time since you have listened to a piece of classical music with a critical and focused ear. How many instruments can you pick out? What’s the main melody and who has it first? How does the tempo (speed of the beat) affect you? What mood is being conveyed? Is the piece primarily legato (smooth) or marcato (marked and accented)? Lots of questions? Yes, there’s a lot to learn!

Even the youngest of children can attain aural discrimination with little effort and time. Of course, this means that classical music must be in their environment. The car is a perfect place to play listening games. Everyone is in the same place by necessity, and usually everyone can hear equally well. A bit of prep work will go a long way to making car trips fun and educational. After all, what homeschool mom or dad doesn’t appreciate logging in some school hours on the way to and from their many activities?

Some important areas to focus on while teaching your children (and yourselves!) to listen to classical music are instrumentation, pitch and rhythm, style and mood, and form. In this article I will focus on the first two topics.

Instrumentation:

When you have a bit of time to explore, visit the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s instrument page and choose one or two instruments from each family. Listen to each example and come up with adjectives to describe the sound. Flutes might sound smooth and “hooty”; harpsichords sound sharp and bouncy; cellos sound mellow and flexible. Don’t make value judgments on your children’s choice of adjective, just get them thinking. Very few words are meant to just describe sound, so music borrows terms from visual (bright and dark) or physical properties (light and heavy, big and small). Allow them to use whatever analogies fit for them.
Once you have explored a number of instruments, find music that isolates different families of instruments. Giovanni Gabrieli wrote wonderful brass music in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Mendelssohn’s Octet for strings is an accessible and fun piece for all ages and has a lovely melody that is easy to remember. Chanticleer is an excellent choral group that has dozens of CDs to their credit. African music often has isolated percussion sections.
After listening to music for each family, listen to symphonic works with all of the instruments playing simultaneously (Some good ones to start with are Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture or Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony and you can easily find some history to go with both of these pieces to round out their lesson). Make up bingo cards with pictures of all of the instruments you’ve studied and see who can identify all of them first. Have them pantomime the way to play each instrument in a game of Musical Charades. Before long, your children will surprise you in the grocery store by shouting out, “Mom! I hear an oboe!”

Pitch and Rhythm:

Pitch refers to the frequency of vibration of the sounds you hear, the relative high or low of the notes, and rhythm refers to the orderly (or sometimes disorderly) structure and organization of the sounds in relation to time. These concepts are a bit more intimidating, but with some time can prove to be rewarding ones to study.
The best way to begin pitch experimentation with your children is by getting them to sing themselves. Young children (up to 2nd grade or so) have very limited ranges, especially on the lower end of the spectrum. Visit this online piano and after clicking on the word “scales” at the top right side, click the play button for the C scale. (Just in case you’re wondering what a scale is, watch this.) The C scale, beginning with middle C on a piano, is the main range for a young child. There are exceptions, but you will find that most children will not be able to match pitch much below or above those pitches. Adults have much lower ranges so what’s comfortable for you probably will not be comfortable for your children. Try out some recordings of children’s choirs to get an idea of the range your children can use.
Purposeful listening for pitch can include the high and low of the music, the concept that smaller instruments make higher sounds (tie in some science and acoustics while you’re at it!) and larger instruments make lower sounds, the contour/shape of the melody (I like to have my children “paint” the line in the air with a paintbrush, or even their finger- up when the notes go up and down when they fall), and the consonance or dissonance of a piece (whether the notes sound like they blend well, or grate on each other).
The best way to begin teaching rhythm is to find the beat. Whenever you hear music anywhere, tap the beat on your children, or have them tap it themselves if they are older. I used to tap when I held the babies in the snugli, or bounce with them and dance around the room. March with them to the beat, have them jump, give them pencils to use as drumsticks. Does it get faster or slower, or stay the same? Kids naturally feel the structure in music and you’d be hard pressed to have them not respond physically. As long as they’re not in danger of wrecking your furniture (or harming a sibling!), let them!
To further work on rhythm, have them divide the beat. Tap the main beat of any piece that you hear, then break that in half and tap double the speed. Can you triple it? Quadruple it? The key is to help focus your children to stay even and steady with their beat. Give them a pencil and ask them to conduct. (Have them watch this to see what a conductor does.) With concentration, they can learn to feel it rather than hear it. That is when the music really gets into their gut.
Some classical selections that are wonderful for the study of pitch are Mozart or Rossini arias from their operas. The melody lines are beautiful and have interesting contour. For easier pitch matching, choose more women singers than men but be sure to use a variety overall. Mozart’s Requiem also has a wonderful piece called the “Confutatis” that has juxtaposed sections of rhythmic, low parts sung by men against high, legato (smooth) lines sung by women. Copland’s Appalachian Spring has wonderful melodies and solo lines for different instruments. Any music can be analyzed for pitch study and you will be surprised by what your children notice when you ask them to really listen.
Likewise, any piece can be used for finding the beat, or talking about rhythm. Try Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain or Pictures at an Exhibition. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is rhythmically exciting, while Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is rhythmically simple and fluid.

Once you begin practicing focused listening, you won’t be able to stop. Every piece of music you hear will have nuggets of beauty that stand out and those jewels you find will go with you throughout your life. Sharing this gift with your children will give them lifelong appreciation for The Finer Things.

Christine is a homeschooling mom of four, three boys and a girl ranging in age from infant to 7 years. A musician by trade, she desires to help other homeschoolers find the beauty and simplicity in teaching the arts to their children. Visit her blog at Fruit in Season.

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