This blog is my attempt to document our busy but BLESSED lives raising and educating our children for His glory. A child of God, wife to one, and mom to 6 fabulous kids. We are in our 15th year of homeschooling using a Classical ~ Literature based approach.

Come along for the good, the bad & the ugly.



Sunday, September 30, 2012

Music Together: Family Favorites ~ a TOS review

You might not know that I am quite musically inclined…shhh, It’s my little secret.  As a child I played the violin and I was in choir since elementary school. When we lived in Rhode Island in 9th grade I even had a solo for O Holy Night (my favorite Christmas song) for the Christmas program. However, I got so worked up over singing in front of a big crowd that I lost my voice and could not sing. My love of singing is still there, just not so much in front of people :-).

Photobucket

My girls are quite musically talented and love to sing also. When the review for Music Together came out we were so happy to be chosen. We received the Music Together “Family Favorites” CD and the companion “Family Favorites Songbook for Teachers”.

Music Together is an internationally recognized early childhood music program for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, first and second graders, and the adults who love them.   ~website

Music Together was founded by Kenneth Guilmartin and co-authored by Lili Levinowitz to bring music education to children in a simple and easy-to-incorporate format.

The Music Together philosophy is based on 4 easy main points:
1. All children are musical
2. All children can achieve basic music competence
3. Participation and modeling of parents and other primary caregivers is essential to a child's musical growth
4. Growth is best achieved in a playful, musically rich, and non performance oriented learning environment

last week of Sept. Misc 033 last week of Sept. Misc 034 last week of Sept. Misc 035

The CD features 19 of the best-loved Music Together songs. You can listen to samples of all of the songs on the “Family Favorites” CD page. The CD retails for $14.95 or you can download individual tracks for $.99 each or purchase the entire album for $9.99. Also available is a  Songbook for Teachers that includes 112 pages of music and teaching suggestions for each of the songs on the Family Favorites CD. It retails for $29.95. A combo package of  Music Together Family Favorites CD and Songbook Combo is available for a special price of $39.95 (a $5 discount). Right now, if you use the coupon code “Schoolhouse” at checkout you can save an additional $2 on your purchase!

 Photobucket

  Award-winning CD:

  • A Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award
  • Earlychildhood News Directors’ Choice
  • Earlychildhood News Judges’ Selection
  • National Parenting Center Seal of Approval
  • NAPPA Gold Award
  • iParenting Media Award
  • Learning®Magazine 2008 Teacher’s Choice
    for the Family
  • Creative Child Magazine Preferred Choice
  • Children's Music Web Award
  • Mom's Choice Gold Award
  • Parent-Tested Parent-Approved Award

Music Together offers 2 programs, a family class and a preschool class. Both of which are taught by trained Music Together teachers. Licensing and teacher training information is available on the website. Even if you do not have a class in your area you can still take advantage of the program by purchasing the songbook and the CD.

last week of Sept. Misc 053 last week of Sept. Misc 056 last week of Sept. Misc 058

I used these materials specifically with Montana and McKenzie. They both love these songs and dancing and singing along. McKenzie especially loves song number 9, John the Rabbit. She loves singing the chorus portion, “Yes, ma’am”. Seriously, we play that song alone like 50 times a day! The older girls cringe when she requests her music especially now that it is on my phone. The songs were all very catchy tunes and kept us singing and dancing along. We would definitely recommend this CD for anyone looking for good, quality music for there little ones. 2 thumbs up!!! Be sure to check out what my Crewmates thought of Music Together by clicking on the banner below.

Photobucket

Company ~ Music Together

Product ~ Family Favorites CD & Songbook

Price ~ $39.95

Ages ~ birth – 2nd grade

Photobucket

DISCLAIMER: I received the Family Together CD and Songbook from Music Together, in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but are not influenced by the company or the free product provided.

DC Trip

Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 640Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 608

we spent a lot of time in front of this huge dollhouse…it is amazing!

Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 534 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 535 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 582 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 586 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 594 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 603  Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 614 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 615 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 618 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 629  Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 646 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 659 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 667 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 761  

I hope you enjoyed a glance at our family vacation.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Great Wolf Lodge/Jamestown-Yorktown vacation

Just posting a few pictures from our vacation last week. We had a blast with our family friends, The Zeno’s and look forward to seeing them in 10 days for Apple Picking. Here is our trip in pictures.

Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 012 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 016 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 022 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 023 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 026 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 027 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 029 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 030 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 040 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 042 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 054 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 065 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 073 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 075 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 102 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 125 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 127 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 132 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 138 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 156 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 159 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 227 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 231 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 251 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 257 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 300 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 308 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 330 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 332 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 378 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 387 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 393 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 396 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 406 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 418 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 470 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 479 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 490 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 501 Sept. vacation 2012 GWL, JMSTWN, YRKTWN,DC 528

tomorrow I will share photos from our DC trip.