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A Life Better Than I Deserve
Nov. 5, 2009
Review: Bright Idea Press
Recently I was provided two free books from Bright Ideas Press in order to review these products for the Homeschool Crew. I did not receive any monetary compensation in exchange for providing my honest review, and the opinions expressed represent my own and my family's experiences with this product. To read more about this product and many more exciting homeschooling products, please visit the Homeschool Crew web page.
A Young Scholars Guide to the Composers by Melissa E. Craig, Maggie S. Hogan and Richard B. Pinkerton was just what our family needed for music appreciation this year! I have been using this primarily with my 8th and 5th graders, but my 2nd grader and preschoolers have certainly been listening in to the interesting lessons I've been reading aloud as well as the wonderful music samples and discussions about the music. I think they are actually much more actively involved, even at their young ages, than a casual observer may suspect.
You know, I really like just about everything about this 298 page music resource. It is easy to use, both Christian and chronological in its approach, covers an entire year and provides the necessary music you will cover in the form of web links. Having covered medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, we are currently enjoying selections from the Classical composers. We have been spending about 20-30 minutes daily studying musical composers and their chronological historical time periods with this wonderful curriculum. Some days are longer because we may be reading about a composer's life and filling in notetaking pages and then listen to a short musical selection, while others we may only listen to a musical selection and discuss it. This book also includes some fun bonus materials I've detailed below.
Strengths:
- Covers 4th - 8th grades
- Minimal teacher preparation required
- Christian
- Chronological
- 32 weekly lessons (one year of lesson plans) including: 6 musical eras and 26 biographies of famous composers
- timeline and maps included
- composer information cards with game directions
- note-taking pages
- quizzes
- answer keys
- coloring pages
- listening suggestions (internet links)
Was there anything I didn't like? Okay, I did really wish for the paperback to be spiral-bound. Making neat copies of the notebooking pages, coloring pages, and more from the paperback just was not working out well. This was easily rectified at my local office supply store for less than $5. This made the volume not only easier to photocopy, but even just easier to read aloud the articles about the composers and then flip over to the back section to find the musical selections I would need to pull up on the computer, often while my 8th grader finished filling in notebooking pages.
The other thing is that I also sometimes wish I had the CD-Rom version instead since I have been typing in somewhat long musical selection links at least a couple of times per week. A clickable link would have been easier. I thought I could find the right links for the youtube links by simply typing in the composer and the piece, yet I still found I had to type in the provided link codes by hand. Yet, I still also really like being able to open the book and read aloud to my children from it while they fill in the note-taking pages. If Bright Idea Press would offer the paperback and CD-Rom as a package deal, I think I would be in love with this program! Which version (paperback or CD-Rom) will serve your own family best will depend on your own family's preferences and needs. You will also want a computer with a good internet connection, as the music selections will require a good amount of bandwidth. We do have high-speed internet connection, so it worked just fine for us.
This book is available in the following formats:
$34.95 Paperback book
$29.95 CD-Rom version
This company also sent me Hands-On Geography by Maggie S. Hogan. I like this book as well, but I must admit that the format of this one is quite different. This book, instead of being an easy, complete one year study which requires little preparation from the teacher, is actually more of an idea book for the teacher. I like that it is designed to encourage teachers to think "outside the box" and that it is really rather packed with some great hands-on activities, especially for the more kinesthetic learners in your family. Many pages are reproducible and creative, but many of the activities must be assembled, photocopied, or in some way created by mom. Wonderful, but this really requires advance preparation by mothers.
I'd love to say we completed several of the projects in the past weeks, but I have actually only completed a few. One (gasp!) I even cheated on just a little--I used a beeswax candle-making kit instead of following the candle-making directions included within this book. As soon as I discover where my precocious toddler has placed my camera/computer data cable, I'll add those candle photos right here! We also enjoyed the geography card game and took that one on the road with us to play in the car. I had never noticed how many states have the mockingbird as their state bird! I have also begun creating some fun nature field guide observation pages with the children. I wish I had had that section for some of our previous elementary science studies. Although it does not tie in quite as well with our current elementary study of oceanography, I still really like this idea as well.
Strengths:
- Kindergarten - 5th grades
- Reproducible
- Creative
- Includes many outline maps
- Ties the study of geography into many different school subjects
- Includes instructions on how to create many activities, games and projects!
- 142 pages of some really creative, hands-on activities targeted just for this age group
This 142 page book is available for $14.95 in paperback and I was able to photocopy from it much more easily than the much thicker composers book which I had spiral-bound. Considerably more teacher-intensive for most of the activities, but definitely worthwhile for the homeschooling parent who has the time to really go through this book and utilize these great plans. If I were not so busy already, I would probably have done more with this book.
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Nov. 6, 2009 - Untitled Comment