Homeschool

I Love Conferences

March 28, 2012

I love conferences.  From the moment we hit the exhibitor’s parking lot, it’s an adventure.  After long hours of driving, it’s a relief to jump out of our ’99 Ford Expedition and enter the lofty exhibit hall.  I register, locate our booth, and look around to see (for certain) who will be our conference neighbors.  [...]

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Traveling in Europe

October 22, 2011

Professor Carol is in Europe with her husband Hank where they are collecting more materials on history and culture.  Paul Bass of The Homeschool Channel is traveling with them this time, adding  his film-making expertise to the project. The first few days have resulted in some great video, including performances of Bach’s music, an in-depth look at Bach’s life [...]

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Buying Season Tickets

August 30, 2011

We have thought about it for years, and we’ve finally pulled the trigger: we hold season tickets to the symphony.  For the kids, of course – we’re always going to take a kid!  But how, in this economy, on one income, can we possibly justify spending money on season tickets?  Even extremely reasonably priced season [...]

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Suggestions for Using the Discovering Music Curriculum

August 8, 2011

How long is each DVD-lecture? Lectures range from c. 25 minutes to 1 hour. Is it necessary to watch all the lectures in order? Yes and no. Understanding any given lecture does not depend upon having viewed the previous lecture. However, a student’s overall sense of the progression of history and cultural change will be [...]

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A New Year of Learning

July 6, 2011

I guess it’s the heat.  I’m feeling a bit draggy.  Are you? Our Texas drought has dashed any hope of a normal agricultural season.  The barn is hot.  The animals are hot.  It’s hard watching our livestock foraging for anything that resembles grass. Yet, I know a freshness will soon arise.  It does so every [...]

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He’s a Music Man

June 13, 2011

He’s a what? It bustles with energy, this Music Man Museum in Mason City, Iowa.  The corridor jumps to life with a full-sized reconstruction of  “River City” from the 1962 Warner Brothers film The Music Man and the whole place is filled with kids.  Some are touring the museum with their families.  But others are [...]

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Teaching Within the Family – Part 3

June 9, 2011

While it’s certainly more expensive than teaching one’s own children music lessons, hiring an outside music teacher has much to recommend it.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I taught our oldest two children piano for over two years, largely because of financial necessity.  The push to look for an affordable option came for [...]

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If Mom (or Dad) Teaches Music Lessons

May 20, 2011

I recommend two firm boundaries for parents who teach private music lessons to their own children.  (In my last post, I outlined some of the advantages teaching one’s own children music lessons.) First, fix the lesson time and stick to it.  A specific time obviously helps the music student, but it also helps other family [...]

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Should Mom Give the Music Lessons?

May 16, 2011

Learning to play an instrument is a great way to expose your child to music and its developmental advantages.  Giving your child private music lessons is not the only way, of course.  Curricula that explore the development of cultural movements and ideas, such as Discovering Music, can connect events and solidify an understanding of civilization [...]

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Designing Your Child’s Classical Curriculum with Eliot’s 5-Foot Shelf of Books

May 4, 2011

What’s green, takes up a five-foot bookshelf, and promises to “carry you forward upon this road to the high goal toward which all of us are making our way“? If you shout The Harvard Classics, then you’ve guessed correctly. The 51 green volumes once widely known as the Five-Foot Shelf of Books still offer a [...]

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