music week!

After studying Lentil last week as part of our curriculum, we took this week to have a little music unit in our home school. It's been super fun so far so I thought I'd share some of the things I've found that we've enjoyed.

Surely you've heard of The Piano Guys, right?? They're SO COOL! This is one of their latest videos and we have watched it multiple times since yesterday. So creative and incredible. Natalie especially could watch them all day.


We've talked a lot about the different types of instruments and the kids are getting good at identifying strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Yesterday we listened to some Lord of the Dance music, some Mariachi music, some polka, pointing out where on the map these genres originated, and today some Sousa marches and blues harmonica. We have a Mexican restaurant in town called Tequila's that has a live Mariachi band on Friday nights, so we are going to take the kids there for dinner on Friday. They can't wait!

Youtube is a home school gold mine, but surely you already know that if you home school. I find videos of all kinds on there, but it's been especially useful for music week. The kids really enjoy watching the music.

A book we love and have checked out several times from the library is I Know a Shy Fellow who Swallowed a Cello.

It's a funny story with lots of instruments and must be sung, not merely read ;)

Since we've been talking about sounds and vibrations, tomorrow we are going to try these "What's the buzz" toys from Familyfun.com

Also on the schedule for the rest of music week is Fantasia 2000 (on hold for me at the library) and then we are going to try illustrating and animating some songs of our own. Should be fun! I'm open to more fun musical ideas!!