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We have a ton of free Music Appreciation materials for beginners. We added music into our homeschool day several years ago when the kids were 7 and 9 and the kids learned the notes on the staff, rhythms, and basic facts about some of the most famous composers. They had a lot of fun… from using wood spoons to slam down on different music notes… to playing music bingo, practicing...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published April 4, 2016 · Last modified December 31, 2018
Today, I wanted to mention a few fabulous free music resources that may be of interest if you are covering (or plan to cover) music appreciation in your homeschool. Thse include composer cards, lapbook pieces, and posters. Back a number of years ago we had some of the posters up of famous in our homeschool room. At the time, I focused on one composer a week and we listened to...
It has been quite a while since I last talked about music in our homeschool. Things are going really well for the kids. Right now we’re using a number of fun Christmas music activities to help the girls learn the notes and symbols. We’ve been playing Susan Paradis’ Christmas Light Bingo to keep reviewing the various music symbols: Although ED learns to play pieces pretty quickly on the piano, she...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published October 14, 2015 · Last modified October 12, 2015
This past week, we talked quite a bit about different music symbols such as treble clef, base clef, natural sign, flat and sharp symbols, crescendo, quarter notes, half notes, etc. etc. (We also went over various notes as we’ve done previous weeks, though I won’t talk about those activities this week.) We played Music Bingo (the easy version). For the link to this and other free music activities, see our...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 30, 2015 · Last modified September 29, 2015
We’ve still been moving slowly, but steadily through our music curriculum. My older two are definitely understand all the material we’ve gone over, but it definitely takes ED longer to remember all the notes… which is why all the games we’ve been playing have been so wonderful! She needs a lot of repetition and it is not yet translating to what she does on the piano (she just memorizes what...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 16, 2015 · Last modified September 15, 2015
Music continues to go really well for us. I’m glad I’ve got the general plan and all the printables organized and ready to go at a moment’s notice. It means that music really is getting done about 3 days a week. Hooray! So this is Week Two following the rough Beginners Music Curriculum that I put together this summer. My write-up here really is geared more for my youngest (ED...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 9, 2015 · Last modified September 7, 2015
A week or so ago, I shared my general plans for music this semester, but I thought I’d try to share what actually happens from week to week with pictures. Remember, you’ll find the printables (or links to the games and activities) in the pdf at this post: Free Beginner’s Music Curriculum: Learning Notes, Rhythm, Music Notation and More! Last week was our first official week of school, so we...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published August 24, 2015 · Last modified December 29, 2018
I had a realization recently. While the kids can play pieces on the piano, they cannot read music! So, the plan is to slowly but surely make sure they learn and build on those skills. I hope they learn at least two octaves of notes and their corresponding location on the piano/keyboard. I also want them to learn some of the basic music symbols and music notation. I gathered a...
Kindergarten / Music / Summer Activities
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 30, 2014 · Last modified March 16, 2016
I went to girl scout camp every summer for years… and then worked as a girl scout counselor for several years after that. I loved when we sang songs after our meals. Those songs have stuck with me all these years. This past school year we didn’t do nearly as much music as we normally do. I wanted to add in some fun songs this summer… especially for my youngest....
Greg Hewlett has a new children’s CD out that he is giving away completely free over at his blog. His album, Heirloom, is solo piano accompanied by nature. It features quiet lullabies and two original songs written by Greg. Heirloomis for children, though adults will enjoy this beautiful music too. Nature sounds are included on all tracks (though you can choose a version without nature as well). You can listen to...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Holiday: Christmas Activities / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published December 19, 2013 · Last modified December 8, 2015
My kids have been asking for more Christmas music to play on the piano. I went to two of my favorite music-related websites and saw both of them have free Christmas music for beginning piano players. Some of it is perfect for DD who is now on her second year of piano and some of it is great for ED who just started learning piano this fall. The first website is...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Freebies / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published September 24, 2013 · Last modified March 26, 2016
For many years, we did kindermusik classes. It was a wonderful mix of dancing, playing instruments, singing, learning about rhythm and more. When that finally came to an end — our friends moved away 🙁 — we spent the semester just working a bit on piano, singing songs (here’s a link to a kids song packet I put together for the kids this past summer). But I really wanted to...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Music / Must Read
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published July 12, 2013
I’ve been working on gathering our music resources for this next fall. I want to introduce the kids to a bit of classical music. I’d like them to have a little more familiarity with some of the famous composers. I found this CD, The Idiots Guide to Classical Music, used at our local used bookstore for 99cents. It has small snippets from many, many famous pieces. It has 99 tracks!...
Elem-Children's Music 1 (6 yr old) / Homeschool Den / Music
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published June 25, 2013 · Last modified August 20, 2018
Yesterday I mentioned that we are trying to add in more music to our summer. I shared a packet of some fun kids songs we’ve been singing. We’ve also been more regular about practicing instruments. DD is learning a new piece on the piano and I started sitting down with ED again to help her learn some pieces on the glockenspiel. I started all of the kids around the age...
Do you believe education can be exciting, inspiring, and full of joy? We do too!
I love the quote by William Butler Yeats, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." It's about getting the kids involved, engaged, and fired up about learning (while juggling the rest of life too!)
A bit about me: I have my Master's from Brown University. I have more than 20 years of teaching experience. I was a high school teacher for many years both in the U.S. and internationally and also taught for the University of Maryland before leaving to homeschool my 3 wonderful kids.
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This post has links to dozens of posts and resources both for new and veteran homeschoolers for everything from finding homeschool curriculum to general homeschool advice and encouragement.
Click on the image above to see the History Units we covered in our homeschool.
What science topics could I teach my 5-7 year old - Homeschool Science Curriculum
Click on the image above to see the Science Units we covered in our homeschool from elementary through middle school (and beyond!).
A list of the books we've used most in history, science, math, language arts, etc.
Click the image to check out our packets on Earth Science, Rocks and Minerals, the Atmosphere, Weather, Energy and More!
Units are also sold separately.
This is one of our most popular units. It covers the Layers of the Earth, Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Volcanoes and More! It is included in the Earth Science Bundle (see the picture/link above).
Click the image to see our Biology Units on Animal and Plant Cells; the Biology Unit on Biomes, Food Chains, Symbiosis; Scientific Classification & Taxonomy (Domain/Kingdom/Phylum/Class, etc.); Botany - Plant Kingdom and Oceans and Oceanography.
Click on the image to see our Animal Bundle - including the Animal Unit, Life Cycles, the Rainforest, Winter (Polar Animals) & Hibernation, Chameleons, Wolves, Cicadas and more!
The Human Body Systems, Skeletal, Digestive, Circulatory, Muscular, Nervous, Endocrine Systems and More (with lots of hands-on activity ideas)! We usually study a different body system each year.
Click on the image to see our units on the States of matter, Properties of Matter, Electricity & Circuits, and the Chemistry Unit (Get to know the Periodic Table in a fun way!)
This is a free checklist I put together of the various science units I hope to cover in the elementary and middle school years.
Do your kids know the 4 largest countries? Which countries have the most people? The longest river? This packet covers basic world and U.S. facts and also covers geographic features and land forms.
Click on the image to check out our 100-page unit on World War I.
We have used AAS for 6 years! AAS is an affiliate link.
Dozens of posts about how to create a homeschool writing workshop.
Click on the image to check out all of our fun K-2 Math Packets.
This is one of the best values we have... more than 20 PDFs with games, activities and worksheets to learn/practice the multiplication facts ($7.00).
Click on the image to discover some of the pages, posts and homeschool resources within our blog that might be the most useful for you including a long list of our freebies!
Click on the image to check out our 100+page Rocks and Minerals Unit.
This is a fun, hands-on unit for early elementary students!
How the body is organized from cells to tissues... organs to body systems
Click on the image to check out some of the Spanish worksheet bundles we have available!
Click on the image above to check out our German worksheets.
Click on the image to find out more about our units and packets.
