Saturday, October 29, 2011

Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers Review

While planning our year of homeschooling a few months ago, I had SOO many things I wanted the girls to learn about. We have enjoyed learning about trains/travel, pioneer life and read a number of Classic books but I also wanted then to start learning about music. They have been listening to Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi since they were babies so the actual music would not be a new thing to them, however the people behind the music would be a new discovery for them.

 I started getting ready for this  aspect of school by purchasing a dvd series called  Little Amadeus. I thought this would be a great starting point to get the girls interested in learning about the people who made this amazing music we've been listening to! :) And THEN, I just happened to get an email from Joy at Timberdoodle, asking if I'd like to review Bright Ideas Press'   Young Scholar's Guide to Composers!! What amazing timing!!


I must say, I think I would rather have the hard copy of this book rather than the e-book version. I am just a more hands on type of person and have a hard time flipping through pages online versus having a book in hand. That being said tho, I loved the way the book is organized into periods and the helpfulness of the teacher introduction and then the student one also. In the teacher introduction, it gives you a layout of how to use this book daily, which I really appreciate. I hate getting a huge book of wonderful educational information and feeling overwhelmed with how to present it.

My daughter is a bit on the young side for this book (2nd grade), but she has still gotten SO much out of it and will continue to as we work on it the rest of the year. I like that the book includes different games/ ways to review the names of the composers, the periods they came from and the songs that they wrote.

Over all, I think this is a GREAT resource, perfect music for homeschool and makes learning this part of history very easy. There would be little to no planning involved but SOO much learning!! I am so glad we got to review this book and would refer my friends to it without hesitation. :) While you're at it, be sure to get your free homeschool catalog... you won't be sorry!! :)

We have so enjoyed learning about Mozart and other musicians and can't wait to use this to help us learn more about Tchaikovsky as we move into the holiday season and our favorite ballet, The Nutcracker in the next few months! Music is such a wonderful part of learning! :)

Legal Disclosure:
As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.