Our first year with SCM. Help

We used 106 Days of Science when my kids were about the ages of your sons. It was a fun course. We add in living books as part of their independent reading or as family read alouds and really enjoy the Thornton Burgess books. Your boys would probably like the story Rascal by Sterling North – we are listening to it now. We use a mixture of God’s Design, Apologia elementary texts, and living books to learn science in the younger grades.

We use a book called The Great Composers for Music Study. It has a picture, short bio, and list of important works of each composer. It is pretty easy to get CDs of their music. We concentrate on one per term. Here is a link: 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Composers-Jeremy-Nicholas/dp/1847240135

I really like the SCM art portfolios. Great quality and so easy to use.

Mine are ages 11, 9.5 and 7.  We’re going to be doing Storybook of Science next term.  For my 7 year old, I plan to purchase Kathy Jo DeVore’s copywork for Storybook of Science (available on LuLu) as an extra/compliment to the daily readings.  7 yr old will do oral narrations as well.  The other boys will take turns on oral and written narrations.

We, too, have the SCM artist portfolios and they are amazing.

For music, we own most of the Classical Kids audio, as well as the Vox series which has a much more in depth biography.  I have found the key to my children really “getting to know” the composers is to do the study for an entire term (not less than 8 weeks and ideally, 12 weeks) and during the term listen to NOTHING else (no other composers).  After the completion of the term, take two weeks “off” and during that time, mingle and mix around your listening among all the composers you’ve studies to date, and then after the two week “break” go into you next composer focus.  We’ve been doing this for almost three years and my kids can truly tell you without hesitation whether a piece is Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethovan, etc….it’s quite something!  And they love them all.  Without any “formal” instruction (all we do is listen and read a biography) my boys just began to FEEL the music and the style of each composer.   Composer study has been VERY fun for us.  

Momschooler, yes, we use Youtube for our composer music.  We have been following the artist and composer rotation from “All Things Bright and Beautiful” blog for a few years now.  The mom that hosts it does a nice job gathering pictures and music.  She posts a new piece of art, piece of music, and poem each week.  The artist, composer, and poet remain the same for approximately 12 weeks.  It is a free resource that has served us well.  

Website:  www.classicalmusicnartcharlottemasonstyle.blogspot.com/