Semester Of Science (Human Body) Part 1

     Howdy everyone! Welcome to my first blog post about hands on learning. Jump over and read my bio for more information about me and why I'm writing about this special learning tool.

     I thought I'd start you out with a bang for my first few blog post by giving you a semester of science. When my daughter, Jillian (now 6), started showing an interest in science at an early age, I was kind of worried I would not be able to meet her needs. I may have even been dreading it a little bit. I'm sure you can relate, even if it's not science that gave you a scare, maybe it was math (for me it's only math now). I believe my past science teachers would all be surprised to learn this about adult Bethany: I am totally in love with science! I'm not sure what is different now then when I was in school but I am so interested in the topics I am teaching. Doesn't it make school so much more fun to teach if your learning, too? Anyway....

     The topic of the Human Body has been fascinating children since the beginning of time. Ok, I don't have proof that's true but I wouldn't be surprised to one day learn that Adam and Eve taught their kids about guts and body functions. Surely kids way back when asked their parents where poop comes from. Don't be squeamish, people. We all wanted to know at some point. For some reason kids really want to know what is going on under their skin. The great thing is, I have some very cool experiments and ideas you can do at home to teach your kids all about the human body. Let's start simple.

     If you look in the back of the book: The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body, you will find the inspiration for my human body chart. 

 
 

     Let me tell you how I made the coolest chart you've ever seen (hey, I know you were thinking it).  This background is a roll of mailing paper (found at Dollar Tree and Walmart near the mailing envelopes section). I rolled the paper out and had J lay on it then cut it to size across the top. I trace my kids on the trampoline with side walk chalk a few times a month so it was simple enough to trace around her using a pencil. I did have to erase or else her right leg would have been about as thick a ruler but that's why I used pencil first, right? After corrections were completed, I used a black sharpie to trace the pencil markings. Being a bit of a perfectionist I turned the paper over and followed again with the sharpie (it showed through from the back) so you couldn't see the eraser marks. I did this with all the organs and such which I'll admit did take all the artistic abilities I claim to have and also doubled the project time. It may not be worth the effort for you, do whatever you feel comfortable with. As I was working on my chart I turned on Netflix and let the kids watch The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body. Yes, they did get to watch it twice since I chose the hard perfectionist way. Option B: If you are already saying to yourself: No way could I draw this! Never fear you can simply do a google search to print out organs and glue them on.

 

 

    What makes this hands on learning? As we learned about each topic we colored them in. That's it. Simple. You see, J loves to color and I've realized if I give her something to color as we are learning she does a much better job at paying attention. It's true, give it a try! It works great with History.

 

     You will notice in the next picture I added the  bladder since J specifically asked about it. Customize it all you want. You may also notice that I got a better camera since starting my human body chart (yahoo!!). Perhaps you spot the brain on the shelf as well. We will get into that project too in the coming week(s) as we get more into experiments and such. So, here it is, the finished project . . . 

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Let me know if you take this on! I'd love to see your super cool human body charts as well. Stay tuned for next week's 'Semester of Science (Human Body) Part 2'.

 "God did not put us on earth to fail but to succeed gloriously," - Richard G. Scott. 

 

Learn more about Bethany

Avoiding Crash and Burn

Today's post brought to you from the LDS-NHA archives.  

Avoiding “Crash-and-Burn” Syndrome

by Michelle Duker

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It happens all the time:  Parents decide that they need to bring their children home to homeschool. They study, prepare, buy books and curricula, and jump into this new experience with both feet. Soon, however, many parents begin to worry that they have made a mistake. “This just isn’t working.” “She wants to go back to school.” “Maybe I can’t do this after all.” We have all heard of the “burnout” that can afflict home school moms; let’s call this form that crops up in the first year the “crash-and-burn syndrome.” It causes untold frustration and often leads to children re-entering the school system.

     Today’s new home school parents, thanks to the rapid growth of home schooling, know quite a bit about the technical aspects of home schooling; they've read articles, books, websites, browsed at home school fairs. But most of them are unprepared for the tremendous change in lifestyle that homeschooling entails, for both parents and children. It is important to allow plenty of adjustment time to avoid a “crash-and-burn” experience.

     Many parents are unprepared for the practical effects of moving to the “all-children, all the time” channel. Both parents and children had previous routines and habits, but the new reality of being at home all day, and being in the company of parents and siblings all day, can put stress on existing relationships.  Impatience and quarreling abound; mothers try to keep houses at pre-homeschool levels of order; some children have never really learned the principle of obedience and everyone ends up frustrated.

The prescription: proactive teaching, and time to allow relationships to grow and adjust to the new demands.

     The entire family needs to “catch the vision” of this new endeavor. Homeschooling is intensely relational; at times what is learned can be almost totally dependent upon the quality of relationships in the home. Parents can teach a strong, scriptural vision of the family, with cooperating, serving parents, and obedient, learning children, growing in love and unity, placing family relationships solidly in front of outside relationships.

     A period of “detoxification” from public school can help children adjust to a new daily routine, new expectations, new levels of interaction with Mom and siblings. Some writers suggest at least one month of “detox” for each year the child has been in the school system. Don’t stress formal learning too much in this period. Instead, this is a good time to set daily routines; establish or strengthen the habit of obedience, spend time rediscovering each other, find out what makes each child “tick," explore informal learning experiences, and pray.

     Many times, we mothers, in our single-minded pursuit of the best for our children, bring home “too much school” right away.

     Homeschooling is a new way of life. If we wanted to teach a child to swim, we wouldn't drop him in the deep end of the pool and come back five hours later. Some of our children may feel like this when, after a short break, we plop them down at the kitchen table with a list of eleven subjects! Try prioritizing. Choose a couple of challenging subjects, and a couple of fun ones. Then, when the children are successfully doing this, we can add other subjects. Do remember--you do not have to do it all the first year!

     Try also to keep fathers as involved as possible. Homeschooling is going to change all of Dad’s relationships too, even if he isn't doing the teaching. Take time to find out his expectations, work together as a team, and make sure he feels involved.

     How can we strengthen family relationships in the stressful period after pulling the children out of school?

     Make family worship a priority, especially daily prayer and scripture study. Seek the guidance of the Spirit, at home and in the temple. Spend time connecting, re-connecting, getting to know each other’s habits, preferences, and pet peeves. Meet discipline issues head-on. Spell out the necessary obedience and respect that will be needed in making this transition work.

     Adjust expectations. "Hannah Homeschooler-Forever" may appear to have perfect children, perfect house, perfect everything. You will not. (She doesn't really either). Get used to it. The kids will squabble, the laundry will never get done, you’ll forget to put dinner in the crock-pot, your mother-in-law will insist on calling in the middle of spelling. The children can, and will, learn anyway.

     The first year of bringing the children home to learn will be full of challenges and difficulties. But facing the necessary adjustments with patience and faith will help the entire family to make a successful transition to a new lifestyle. One day, your new-homeschooler friends will be looking to you as an example. And you’ll be ready to pass the torch to them. 

Harvests of Homeschooling

This Thanksgiving (2013) will be the last for my family before “everything changes forever.” As many people country-wide gather and feast and count their blessings, I’ll be storing in my heart every second of this “last Thanksgiving,” where every one of my children will be at the table, humming and yumming over their food and playfully bantering with one another because they know each other so well. I’ll be remembering the last time I said, “This is the last Thanksgiving before everything changes forever.” That was 18 years ago, when I was very pregnant with our first child, who will turn 18 two weeks after this Thanksgiving. The domino effect of missions, marriages, college, and careers will soon begin to alter everything. It’s as it should be, but it still hurts.

I have many blessings to count this Thanksgiving, but the one I’m favoring is the blessing to be able to homeschool; the blessing of getting to spend so much of these 18 years together. Our family has been together so much more than we’ve been apart and for that I am truly grateful.

For this article, I decided to ask fellow homeschooling mothers what they see as “harvests” of homeschooling. While experiences and insights vary among us, I think you’ll agree that homeschooling has blessed everyone abundantly.

Melora Bracken, of Petersboro, Utah, says, “Every day I reap the harvest of having the delightful company of my girls. I get to experience every moment of discovery, discouragement, and joy at the simple things. I get to harvest THEM.”

Some of the blessings of homeschooling that Jennifer Tillitson, of Weston, Idaho, counts are, “During Halloween time, I have enjoyed watching my children change from wanting to dress up as a storm trooper to a person whom we have studied, like George Washington, Archimedes, and Benjamin Franklin. It has been wonderful to watch them have different role models they want to emulate. They love to study. Especially my older ones. They study for 10 to 12 hours a day and wish for more time. They study things that they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to, like Hebrew, robotics, plays, and year-long studies on certain subjects (Constitutional era, or WWII era). My younger children like homeschool because they can get their studies done earlier in the day and have time to further some of their interests.” And perhaps most important, “They have increased in love one to another.”

Sally Bishop, of Logan, Utah, tells the story of a long, patient harvest with her daughter: “I pulled [my daughter] (now 17) out of school after first grade. She was obviously having a reading delay, and while the reading delay did not bother me, her response to it did. She was painfully aware that she was in a different color reading level than all her classmates. It embarrassed her. This anxiety evolved over the year such that in the spring, she would cry in her bed every morning, "I hate school, you can't make me go!" And I did make her go, and it felt like child abuse….

“So, after homeschooling for a while, it became evident that her reading delay was substantial. But she didn't seem to be dyslexic or have an easily identifiable reading disability, so we just read lots and lots of books. A few years later, I had horrible bronchitis and couldn't read aloud every day, and I helped her discover books on tape/CD. That child could devour a 25-hour book on CD in less than 2 days.

“The summer she was 11, and Harry Potter 7 was due to come out, she flipped a switch or something. She went from struggling to read aloud Magic Treehouse books, to reading Harry Potter 7, literally overnight. Not only did she read the entire HP7 book by herself, but the week before its release, she read a fanfic version of HP7 that was over 700 pages of pdf document, at the computer, over a week's time. She read over 1000 pages in 2 weeks that were several grade levels above her ability just the month before.

“As a means of motivation, I encouraged her to log all the books she read on her own. I gave her ledger paper, and (not really understanding her OCD nature yet) she glommed onto that. She still keeps that log, 6 years later. Several years ago we calculated how many pages she's read, and it was well over 50,000.

“Her reading ability is not the main harvest here; it's her joy in reading, joy in learning and CONFIDENCE. I knew, considering her hyper-awareness at being behind in first grade, that if she had been pulled into resource (and she would have been, maybe even for several years), it would have crushed her.”

Melissa Draper, of Smithfield, Utah, has noticed that homeschooling makes for more frequent communication in her family, which leads to more open communication. She’s even noticed a change with her adult children who weren’t homeschooled because they see that she is there for them. Also, Melissa loves that, “My husband is more actively involved with their education. He digs into what speaks to him about WWII, he learns ballet moves so that his daughter can practice hers with him, he puts up with Shakespeare because we're in a play and then he finds out that he really loves Shakespearean comedy. He holds them accountable more for what they are learning and less for getting assignments in on time because of the atmosphere in our home. The assignments are just a manifestation of the learning going on.”

I think we all have probably noticed another blessing Melissa has appreciated: “Increased understanding for me in the gaps of my education. This has helped me understand what I truly want my children to learn about and where to focus my efforts. It has also helped me realize that each person's education can and will be different if it is to serve them. When a person's education serves them, they are equipped to serve the world.”

Finally, Melanie Showell, of Amalga, Utah, sums up the harvest well. “Homeschooling is like my garden. You work hard planting, pulling weeds, feeding and watering, amazed at how your little plants are growing. Sometimes it seems your garden isn't progressing into the beautiful plants you would like them to be. There are frustrations! Every time you turn around you see another weed. You pull it, and before you know it, another grows right where you left off. You get tired. You cry and yell for more help, but alas the bulk of the responsibility is on you. By the end of the season, you want to quit, to let someone else worry about all of the fruit in your garden. You decide to head for one last perusal of the garden. Much to your surprise, you find that there are weeds all around your fruit, threatening to destroy them. Yet amazingly enough, your precious fruit is much larger than you anticipated. The fruit has multiplied beyond your imagination. You say to yourself, ‘How did this happen?! How did you spread and grow into this beautiful plant with so much to give?’ And that is the moment that you realize all of your sweat, all of your tears in nurturing this garden was worth it. Yes, your little plants have grown! They are surrounded by weeds! Yet they are beautiful, and bearing the most delicious fruit you have ever tasted.

“It tastes of love shown to a younger sibling, or help given to mother, when the child could have gone playing. It’s the peace that comes when everyone is choosing to love one another, instead of serving their own selfish needs. Yes there are still weeds threatening each tender plant, but my tender plants are growing faster than the weeds. They’re stronger than the wind. They are becoming who God intended them to be. That is the greatest harvest of homeschooling I have seen in my family.

“It isn't always easy. Sometimes the wind and rain blows on the gardener so strongly that the gardener is tempted to quit. Yet, the tender plants are waiting for their gardener to love them enough, to protect them enough from the weeds, wind and rain. As they reach for the sun, you smile, knowing it will be worth it.”

You Might Be a Homeschooler...

(Round 5)

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…if you have freedom in the morning to really get to know your new kitten and devote time to taking care of her properly…

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…and you even have time for the ingenuity to make homemade toys for playing with her.

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…if it doesn’t matter too much that your edible Parthenon seemed to succumb to the Turks as soon as you built it, because your “class” and your teacher already saw it and just can’t wait to eat it.

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…if you get to enjoy to the fullest every last minute of a weekday 9 am - 5 pm Medieval Day Camp…

…because you don’t have to worry about bus and school schedules.

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…if you can ENJOY the unexpectedly quick, cold turn of the weather, warmed up with cocoa and a good book.

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…if your book club reads a real-life epic adventure like Canoeing with the Cree and then you actually get to go on a canoeing adventure of your own to get a taste of what it was like.

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…if your book club reads the entire Little House Series and a “normal school day” includes dressing up for a pioneer cambric tea party…

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…or experiencing what school was like in pioneer times in a historic one-room schoolhouse.

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…if Emerson, Thoreau, and transcendentalism are discovered on a rock island in the middle of a pond on a gorgeous autumn day.

A Day in the Life (of Your Family)

What do I do all day? Let me tell you!

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Supplies: Paper Pencil Camera, optional

Benefits:

• Give an hourly update of life at your house! • This is a literary snapshot of the reality of your life.

Directions:

1. Choose one day you want to write—try to keep that day free of too many outside activities. 2. Keep a notebook handy (in your hands!). 3. Document what your family does all day. Break it down by hours. 4. Write down conversations, routines, activities, and thoughts that you have as the day progresses. 5. Skip an hour if you need to, or document the morning of one day, and an afternoon of the next. 6. Don’t forget to add your observations and reactions to things (how cute the kids were as they put on the puppet show, etc.) 7. Make it REAL! Don’t sugar coat your life, write about the spilled milk and the wrestling matches. 8. After your days of writing, take time to type everything up. Add anything that you forgot.

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Hints for Parents and Teachers:

*** When I do this, I usually take 2 or 3 days. (I am really trying to capture the essence of our life, not specifically what happened on a particular day.) It is difficult to catch everything—and your hand starts to cramp from writing non-stop!

I break it down by hours and put 1 hour in an envelope marked with the hour on the outside. I try to include funny sayings, what the kids do, their hobbies, interests, and events that keep us on the run. I only do this once a year, usually in January. It has been a Valentine gift to my husband and our grandparents. Start early, it takes time to observe and write, then it takes time to type everything up.

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Do It Again!

We have added snapshots of our life. Have older writers keep track of their own day. Track a character in a book’s day. Use your imagination to break down hour by hour and describe their day.

The October Unit Factory

I love seasons and holidays.  I love them so much it’s difficult to not get caught up in them to the point of neglecting other things.  Always on the lookout for ways to have my cake and eat it, too, I’ve got lists of ideas for “festive schooling.”  These range from the obvious and more traditional to the sometimes wild and crazy.

Below is a list of a few unit suggestions for the month of October.  The beauty of units is that they can last a day, a week... even a lifetime.  So whether you’re looking for something for the entire month, or just a way to pass the daylight on October 31, have a look and see what strikes your fancy.

The really fun thing about learning is seeing how all things connect.  Many of the suggestions are smaller or larger parts of each other.  You can isolate certain aspects, or tackle it all together.  Some of the ideas will have suggested activities or websites.  These are just the tip of the iceberg.  Resources and possibilities are endless!

The Night – October is a good month to study a different aspect of nighttime each day.  This can include nocturnal animals, nighttime occupations, bedtime (rituals, dreams...), night festivals, the sky at night (moon, constellations, Earth’s rotation...), and its opposite – light (Daylight Savings Time, fire, candles, electricity...).  I recommend reading The Complete Book of the Night, by Sally Tagholm.

The Skeletal System – Get started at here.

Bats, Cats, Owls and Fowls – This web page and this web page have some free and easy access information, worksheets, crafts, and activities. Just type your topic into the internal search engines.

Fantasy and Fiction – Now is a perfect time to learn about and decide what is real and what isn’t.

Costuming – Learn about fashion through the ages, how to sew a costume, or see how imaginative you can get in creating a costume.

Mystery – Study some of the greats:  read Agatha Christie or some of Sherlock Holmes’ adventures.  Find out what makes a great mystery and try writing your own.

Times and Seasons – Kind of a “duh,” but expand on it.  If you like nature walks and journals, relish them in October!  Sketch the same tree every day, detailing the differences after time and wind and weather.  Chart sunrise and sunset.  Learn about the history of Daylight Savings Time.  See if the Farmer’s Almanac is correct in its predictions.  (By the way, Ben Franklin had something to do with Daylight Savings, almanacs, electricity, wood stoves to keep warm, and more!  You could learn about him and cover several things at once!)  Learn leaf and tree identification.  Take up photography during this beautifully colorful season, either by taking a professional class, or by handing your kids disposable cameras for documenting the signs of autumn in a book of their own.  I recommend reading Look What I Did with a Leaf! By Morteza E. Sohi.

Edgar Allan Poe – If you like dark, gloomy and horrifying, this is your man.  There’s nothing uplifting about his work, and yet his writing, for some, is magnetic.  Definitely considered a classic author and poet, I’m not sure his tales are for everyone.  Still, if you’re interested, go here.

Frankenstein – While Mary Shelley’s famous novel about a monster is usually classified a “horror story,” it is much, much more.  It is poignant, provoking and a masterful look at ethics, behavior, identity, and love. If you have older youth, it could spark a great discussion on morality and be compared to many of today’s current events. Frankenstein is said to be the very first science fiction novel, and Shelley wrote it when just 18 years old!

The Celts – A large part of the Halloween “story”, the Celts themselves are a fascinating people.  Good places to start learning about them: here and here.

Fear - You'll likely recall Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous words, "...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  Profound to those mature enough to understand and agree with it, it's a statement children may find ridiculous.  All creatures fear what they don't know or understand.  October is a perfect time to teach how many of our fears rise from ignorance.  Knowledge is power!

As a family, study something that seems scary.  Demonstrate how to properly research a topic, summarize information, transfer the new knowledge into a "show and tell" project or paper with proper documentation.  Then allow each child to choose their own object of fear and follow the same steps on their own (or with a little guidance depending on age).  Some suggestions would include snakes, thunderstorms, spiders, and the dark.

You could also learn about the physical responses to fear.  Learn about adrenaline, how it affects us, why some people actually like to be scared, and maybe even discuss “highs” and drug addiction.  Discuss safety and prevention (Fire Prevention Week is in October!).  Talk about “fight or flight.”  Maybe even learn a little self-defense.

I recommend reading What Was I Scared Of? by Dr. Seuss.

Sounds of October – This time of year the stores have many recordings of scary sound effects.  If you like, make your own recordings of sounds.  It can be great fun for each child to individually make their own tape and then play it for their siblings to have them guess what the sounds are.  It takes ingenuity to create sounds for thunder or wind with nothing but what’s in the house.

Great October music includes:

 Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” – Does the music match the seasons?

            “Danse Macabre” by Camille Saint-Saens

            “Night on Bald Mountain” by M. Mussorgsky

            “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from “Peer Gynt” Suite by Edvard Grieg

            “Toccata & Fugue in D Minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach

            “Linus and Lucy” The Music of Vince Guaraldi played by George Winston

            “Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin

            “The Ride of the Valkryies” by Wagner

Tastes of the Season – Go to a local Farmer’s Market and purchase one of every apple variety you can find.  Do taste tests and compare flavors.  Poll your family, friends and neighbors as to their favorite type and make a graph of apple favorites. Learn how new varieties of apples are created.  Experiment with making applesauce.  Do mixing varieties give better flavor?  What about adding cinnamon candies or vanilla extract?  What texture is best?  Do you prefer it a little crispy, or as complete mush?  Do you like it better served cold, or warm from the stove?

Pumpkins lend themselves to all sorts of mathematical activities, including estimation, measuring circumference and weight.

Don’t forget the Halloween candy!  From simply counting the objects to naming and sorting according to shape, the trick-or-treat bag is a bag full of math tricks.  Fraction fun (What fraction of your treats are candy bars, what fraction of your candy bars contain nuts, what fraction of your candy was made by Hershey?) patterns, tangible Venn diagrams, graphs, greater than/less than calorie counts and so on.

Halloween History - Regardless of how you personally feel about Halloween and all that seems to go with it, it’s a good idea to learn about its history and origins.  In doing so as a family, you can compare old customs and beliefs with what we know and do today, and more importantly with what you believe and want to foster in your children.  Dispelling ancient myths and superstitions, discovering hidden truths, understanding the value of science, knowledge, enlightenment and testimony- these things can enrich your homeschool.  Halloween isn’t just about devils and demons.  It’s about harvests, new beginnings, loved ones, and eternal life.  Check it out and see what you think!

For basic information check out these four web sites:

1, 2, 3, 4

For teaching ideas, worksheets, crafts, activities, unit plans, etc. go to these two web sites:

1, 2

Mood Music

As a person who strongly prefers stories, especially epics, in their original literary form to the abridged and often altered form in film, I still have to admit that I like many of the film versions as well. Why? It’s because of the music.

I am an avid collector of movie soundtracks. From the moving and melodic piano masterpieces of the 2005 release of “Pride and Prejudice,” written by Dario Marianelli, to pretty much anything Patrick Doyle writes for motion picture soundtracks (“Henry V” and “Sense and Sensibility” for starters), to the haunting oboe of Ennico Morricone’s score for “The Mission,” the soundtracks of the lives of movie characters touch me in deep, soulful places I sometimes forget exist. “Movie music” makes up, in part, the soundtrack of my life.

Classical music also has this effect. I remember being enthralled as a child in my elementary school music class when I first heard Camille Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre. The music teacher coaxed us to mentally visualize mischievous spirits and goblins dancing and leaping about after midnight. The effect was thrilling.

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I’ve watched (and listened) in delight as my own children have passionately embraced music. I have yet to see them reject any musical genre. They appreciate the drama and variety of Classical music just as much as any “stick-in-your-head” Rock ‘n’ Roll song. I laughed a long time when, while listening to Saint-Saens’ “The Swan,” my 4-year-old exclaimed, “Oh, pretty! You’re in love!” And then he giggled himself silly.

Classical music should cause a person to think, envision, and feel. As homeschooling parents, we should encourage vivid and creative imagination whilst listening to Classical music. It’s interesting to just play a piece and then ask your kids what the music makes them think or feel.

Perhaps you’re not keen on suspenseful music for your young ones. No worries. Still, Danse Macabre is an amazing piece of music, perfect for Halloween. Whatever your seasonal interpretation, choose some “mood music” this week, and let your children go.

Here is just a sampling of Classical music appropriate to this time of year:

Autumn, Nature, and Thankful Reflections:

  • The Four Seasons: “Autumn” by Antonio Vivaldi
  • Appalachian Spring: “Simple Gifts” and “Variations on a Shaker Hymn” by Aaron Copland
  • “The Storm” from Symphony No. 6 in F (the Pastoral) by Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Carnival of the Animals, particularly “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saens
  • Trois Gymnopedies by Erik Satie

Costumes, Parades, and Dress-up Fun:

  • Rodeo: “Hoe-Down” by Aaron Copland
  • Entrance of the Gladiators by Julius Fucik
  • William Tell Overture: “Finale” by Gioacchino Rossini
  • The Gypsy Baron: “Einzugsmarsch” by Johann Strauss, Jr.
  • The Tale of Tsar Saltan: “The Flight of the Bumble Bee” by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
  • “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” (from Solomon) by George Frederick Handel

Mysterious, Sensational, and Spooky:

  • Also sprach Zarathustra (otherwise Zarathustra, or “Sunrise”) by Richard Strauss
  • Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
  • Peer Gynt Suite: “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg
  • “The Ride of the Valkryies” (from the opera Die Walküre) by Richard Wagner
  • Scenes from Swan Lake by Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky

Additionally, I recommend the music of George Winston. Though considered “New Age,” not Classical, his solo piano works are especially nice this time of year. The seasons themselves were Winston’s early inspiration for much of the music he’s written. Pieces such as “Colors/Dance,” “Living in the Country,” and “The Snowman’s Music Box Dance” lend themselves to visions of happy family fall outings. George Winston also plays the music of Vince Guaraldi (composer of the Charlie Brown soundtracks). No autumn atmosphere is complete without such familiar greats as “Linus and Lucy,” “Treat Street,” and “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.”

Whether your children sketch, paint, dance, act, or meditate to the compositions, add a little “mood music” to your fall festivities.