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For the 3rd year in a row, I have a goal to spend some time doing artist and composer studies. I absolutely love art and music and wish to encourage that appreciation in Ben. But I think in the past, I’ve tried to make it too academic and not nearly enough fun. I have to remember, it’s all about exposure to wonderful and beautiful things. We enjoy listening to classical music, especially our CDs fromThe Classical Kids Collection and Fun with Music. Ben also absolutely loves books like Art Fraud Detective. So this year, I’ve decided to approach art and composer studies with a more fun, less academic, attitude. To that end, I have decided that for music, we’ll spend some time each week on the Classics for Kids radio show website. If you are not familiar with Classics for Kids, you’ll want to click over there and check them out. You can listen to past and current radio shows, read facts about composers and listen to their music, as well as hear the sounds of most instruments. Ben loves any excuse to spend time on my new laptop, so this should work well. Of course, we’ll also continue listening to our CDs. As far as artist study goes, I think we’ll mostly just use books like Art Fraud Detective and Can You Find It. These books are so fun and a great introduction to art. We also really enjoy the Metropolitan Museum of Art website. They have a section called Museum Kids with fun, educational, interactive activities. And hey, that’s more time spent on my laptop! It’s good for me to let go of the idea that everything has to be totally planned out. We don’t have to study Degas and Dvorak in September, Cassatt and Handel in October, etc. in order to have quality time spent learning about music and art. It can simply be listening to music and stories, reading through fun interactive books and websites and visiting our local art museum or attending a concert or two. Our local orchestra has a program for children that I think we’ll check out this year as well. Sounds like a fun way to learn, doesn’t it? |
