Summer Art & Music History

Maureen Wittmann's book (For the Love of Literature),  as well as the talk she gave at our homeschooling conference a year or two ago, inspired me to set a focus for library books/music over the summer months. 

Last year I focused on Math.  We read a lot of the Sir Cumference series books as well as some other fun/interesting math books.  My kids made mobious strips for weeks!

The year the focus will be on Art and Music History.  I highly recommend the Classical Kids series CD's, my personal favorite is Beethoven Lives Upstairs.  I requested some from the library that we haven't heard.  I've requested many art books such as What Makes a Raphael a Raphael, Katie Meets the Impressionists,  Degas and the Little Dancer, and Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series (apparently these are fun cartoon books).   I've requested 25 items in all.

 I got all my ideas from Maureen's book For the Love of Literature.  I then went back to my library list and suspended some of the books so that everything within a given time period will arrive at once.  So, my intent is to "study" one time period at a time.  I knew the likelihood of me pulling out the book every few weeks and requesting the next set of books would be pretty small.

My intent isn't to spend a ton of time this summer drilling art and music history into my kids' heads.  But rather, to have a pile of library books that are all somewhat related that we can read and talk about.  I want to expose the kids to more and more "subjects" in a lighthearted/fun way as part of life.  I want them to learn that learning doesn't always have to take place with a syllabus and a set goal that we are trying to attain.  I will pull out our add a century history timeline (I absolutely love this!) and put people in their proper places though :)   That's about the only part of it that they'll likely relate to school...and that's O.K.  They do enjoy putting people on the timeline and "discovering" things like Mozart was alive at the same time as George Washington!  It helps them achieve a better understanding of history as a whole rather than a bunch of little subjects.