My kids are constantly asking me to turn down the music, or to change the songs as we don't have quite the same taste in music.

The one thing we do agree on is our smart music.  Smart music is what I call classical music... when they were younger I would tell them that listening to it would make them smart so they always wanted to listen to it.  This is one of those things that works well for the under 5 crowd, but not so much any more.  My kids are old enough now to know when I'm embellishing, BUT they still enjoy listening to smart music.

I don't have a music background and several years ago I read THIS article by Jude Wanniski, and we just started listening.  Everytime we got in the car we didn't turn on talk radio, or the top 40... but Gershwin.  We eventually worked our way thru the list to a degree.

The whole internet thing has changed it all though... I can listen to anything as a preview or for somewhere in full for free online.  It has made the whole listening to different music easier for a family in the sticks of NW Georgia.

For a while we used the ambleside curriculum , and while we no longer follow their program I do tend to loosely follow their schedule of composers and suggested pieces.  Being the non-conformist that I am, I do change it out as I mood strikes.  So this month... Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius. 

I was fairly familiar with Grieg, but had never heard of the other dude.  So now we learn about them... who they were, when they lived, why they wrote what they wrote....  Very cool stuff...

So our playlist for the month is this:

The Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg

Finlandia by Grieg

Piano Concerto in A minor  by Grieg

Symphony No 2 by Sibelius

The video is from Peer Gynt which is their favorite piece of the month....