Posted by Administrator on 1/31/2014
Adding musical education and musical appreciation to your curriculum is
easy—even if you aren’t a virtuoso musician. Keep in mind that musical
education has many different avenues from which to choose, including
instrumental lessons, music theory/composition and music
history/appreciation. Here are a few tips that will help you on your
family’s musical journey.
Posted by Administrator on 1/29/2014
to
Homeschooling
Music is an integral part of human culture and human history that
touches each of us from the womb and throughout our lives. Musical
compositions can express a wide range of moods and feelings and move the
listener emotionally and intellectually. Music can entertain, inspire,
and uplift. It forms a key element of worship. Music provides a rich
backdrop for the most significant moments of our lives. Music
composition and performance is a powerful vehicle that can move our
spirits and demand a response as we listen, play, and sing. With such
power and richness, music is certainly a blessing from God offered for
our enrichment. Given the profound ways that music touches the human
soul, expanding our homeschooling education plan with a selection of
musical elements certainly makes sense.
Posted by Administrator on 1/28/2014
to
Critical Thinking
One
of the darkest and most depressing worldviews is nihilism. Again we encourage
you to read James Sire’s The Universe
Next Door to gain more insight into this viewpoint.
Posted by Administrator on 1/22/2014
to
Homeschooling
When selecting a text or curriculum for a particular film, you should
look for these things. The tools you choose should provide an outline
and synopsis of the film that provide an overview or road map to guide
the learning experience. It will help you and your children understand
what is going in within the movie as well as how relationships,
situations and events interrelate within the movie itself. This overview
should introduce the historical context for the film so that your
children can properly understand and position the context of the film.
Moreover, questions, discussion starters, and various activities all
play a role in facilitating the educational process.
Posted by Administrator on 1/22/2014
to
Homeschooling
One of my fondest childhood memories is of music class in my small,
private school. On some days, we entered a dimly lit room, piled with
pillows on the floor, where we reclined and listened to great works of
classical music. Encouraged to imagine a scene that corresponded with
the dramatic, or soothing, or rollicking music, we all relaxed and
enjoyed one of God’s greatest creations. At other times we experienced
instrument show-and-tell or sang silly folks songs about cats on red
roofs (that I can still sing to this day!). And one year at the school
fair, we reenacted a scene from the opera “Amahl and the Night Visitor,”
to the delight of our parents. I have always loved music, and I believe
that love can be attributed to the wide variety of music to which I was
exposed during my youth, the fact that my family was musical and sang
together in the car and at church, and years of music lessons which I
truly loved–unlike so many children. Those three elements, along with
some intentional teaching about composers and styles, are key to helping
our children appreciate good music as they grow.
