Subtitled: Out of the Frying Pan and into the Pot…and How We are Surviving
On Sunday night I smiled to realize something: Directly following our crazy-busy weekend was…two full weeks of swim camp.* I smiled because what else can I do but deal with it? That is, after all, what we busy moms do best.
Now then. Because we have a half hour of drive time both there and back, I lean heavily on CDs of all sort to see us through. Music soothes the savage beast and in my case, there are six of them! (Not counting me. Ahem.)
Well, I’ll tell you. Making Music Praying Twice is going to see us through the next two weeks! I love these CDs, and you will too.
Making Music Praying Twice is a music curriculum that focuses on the liturgical year. I received a sampler CD at the homeschooling conference three weeks ago and we listened to it nonstop. I have since gotten the full 5-CD set (the homeschool edition) and couldn’t be happier. This program will be perfect for my family.
There are 95 songs total. Each disc is a compilation of sacred and secular music. It’s great! We go from “This Little Light of Mine” to “Jubilate Deo”. [grin] We began our study with the Easter-Pentecost CD because of its summertime theme—lots of bumblebees & birds & all—and plus, learning about the Resurrection and the Holy Spirit is always relevant.
We’ll start the Fall/Ordinary Time curriculum in early September.
What else? Well, the vocals are crystal clear and very pleasant. In fact, one of my favorite musicians is on board! The music is as diverse and entertaining as it is edifying. There’s Native American music, traditional tunes, folk, spirituals, Japanese and Latin.
Yes, Latin.
I don’t know about you, but I need these bursts of Gregorian chant to boost my morale and remind me—again and again and yet again—of who I am and where I’m going.
My children, too, need these reminders.
If you’d like to learn more about this music program, you can visit their website and request a free CD. (Here’s the link for that.) You can also click on the image of any one of the five CDs (they’re at the bottom of this page) and listen to numerous samples.
Even if you’ve already finished your planning for the new school year, these CDs are one of the easiest things you can add. Trust me; they’ve even made Baby Anthony smile…
…and that’s something to sing about.
There’s one last thing on this hot & sunny Tuesday and it’s a giveaway! I have an extra copy of Making Music, Praying Twice (The Easter/Pentecost edition). Would you like it?
Leave a comment on this post in answer to the following question: How do you make room for music in your home and/or curriculum? Or perhaps you don’t currently make room for music in your home and/or curriculum, in which case you should leave a comment saying, “I really need this CD!”
The giveaway ends at 10:00 p.m. Central Time. I’ll pick a name and announce the winner tomorrow morning.
UPDATE: The giveaway has now ended! Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on bringing music into the home.
All for the greater glory of God,
*I have written about the madcap adventure of swim camp before—here and also here.
Probably because we don't have any little ones running around yet..(and hopefully that will change soon!), we haven't made any real formal attempts (aka deliberate) attemps to incorporate good, solid music into our routines. As for me, I love listening to music (a variety of types) and have it on all the time – in the kitchen in the car, etc. My dh on the other hand prefers more the silence in the car or talk radio and we have had to compromise on many occassions. As such, I think this CD would be great to try out. It might meet us both in the middle. Thanks Margaret and God Bless! – Marie
Hello,
I am a nanny and I watch my two-year-old niece each day. I am just delighted with your post because lately I have been wondering what kind of kid's music CD's I could find with good, simple Catholic music, in order share God's love and the gift of faith with my niece!
I currently bring my niece to music classes (Music Together–its a franchise and a great program) where we sing a lot of secular songs. I have witnessed how she really absorbs the music and loves to sing, so I would like to give her the opportunity to sing about the Only One Who really matters: God and His Love. I know that music is a great way to expose children to the truths of faith, and I will definitely look into this CD set.
If I could be enrolled in the drawing, I would be most grateful! Thank you Margaret (and the Holy Spirit) for this post.
Sincerely,
a spiritual friend
For some reason I can't leave my name when I try to comment on your blog, so I hope I can enter as Anonymous. We love Music, and like you, we often do Music lessons in the car. This program sounds great,and I'd love to be entered in the drawing.
My kids love to listen to music while doing chores or eating snack. I will often break into song when frustrated because it beats yelling at them!
Thanks for your generosity.
-Melissa G.
Our "music curriculum" consists of Wee Sing CDs in the car along with anything else we happen to pick up at the library. We change things out seasonally: Nutcracker at Christmas, Latin Classics during Lent and Eastertide and Dr. Demento *blush* during uhh…Ordinary Time. 🙂 My kids are 6 and 3 but they can beginning to pick out pieces they recognize from Tchaikovsky's ballets and Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
Hi Margaret,
We haven't incorporated music into our daily routine nearly as much as I'd like. At the beginning of this past school year, my first foray into homeschooling, we were singing a couple songs a day, but that went by the wayside. Now it's just generally the Christian kids songs in the car, which are great – though it would be nice to have a more Catholic alternative. Thanks for entering me!
I also use the "in the car" method of teaching. Whether it is a good book on tape or some good music, we spend enough time in the car that I hate to see it wasted. We also like to sing along at the piano. I have a good book of old classics and the girls enjoy learning to sing the songs they read in the Little House books.
I have yet to find our musical niche! We listen to classical cd's but I feel as though I'm lacking as a homeschooling mommy because we don't play any musical instruments. It's an area I need to work on (among many others). Thanks Margaret.
Mags, your "little" girl suddenly looks so big and grown-up! Yikes. 🙂 Thanks for the review!
"I really need this CD!"
We've tried other programs but none of them suited my kids well. This looks wonderful though! Thanks for the heads up!
Oh! I have been searching for something like this! It sounds like something that would be wonderful for my children and I.
We use Lingua Angelica (Christian Latin Music and Prayers) as part of our homeschooling curriculum; and we have a piano that both children enjoy playing informally — lessons aren't on the table right now. I play in the handbell choir at church, but so far the kids are too shy to consider joining the children's music program there.
We all love music; this CD sounds like a great possibility for us to expand on what we're already doing. Thanks so much for sharing the info!
I am ashamed to admit I am a music major and music in our homeschool always gets put on the back burner as the school year progresses. I would love to have something to listen to in the car like you are doing. We have a bridge tunnel we have to use frequently and there is always at least a 3 mile backup. Last week it was 9 miles and it took us 2 hours to go 20 miles!!!
We use MusicMasters in the van and at lunch time, but we could use something to sing along with because, quite frankly, I LOVE to sing and my husband has been corrupting them with 80's music. Help me to bring them back the right direction!
I am not musical at all, so our music consists of piano lessons. We do listen to CDs classical to kid CD's to Kelly Clarkson (dad's influence)
I'm going to check out their freebie thing, thanks for posting this, we definetely lack in this area. But…to us homeschoolers I think the public schools lack in this area too, I remember only one thing I learned in Music class growing up, it was the song "Hang down you head Tom Dooley" Great song!
Oh, love the baby pictures, keep them coming, he's such a doll!!
Our kids have a favorite CD by a good priest friend of mine. They request him often (so much so that I have to politely decline). Most often, we listen in the car. It was a great way to wean off the DVD player. Who knew kids could like a cappella? 🙂
Margaret, thank you so much for sharing a review of this music curriculum. With our recent cross country move I was unable to attend any curriculum fairs this year. I'll definitely be ordering the free cd. Thank you for posting the link.
The way music is incorporated into our curriculum is on by having a *Fine Art Friday*. Every Friday we listen to the Music Masters on CD and print a lesson from Stories of the Great Composers or Meet the Great Composers (we have both). We also use Lingua Angelica especially during Advent and Lent. I love, love, love the idea of a music curriculum that focuses on the liturgical year. It's something my kids and I can all use.
I am just beginning the adventure of homeschooling my 7 and 10 year old daughters and have been trying to figure out how to incorporate music into our daily schedule, so I could really use the cd!! I know we will have practice time for violin and piano, but I want to include lots of listening time, as well.
Thanks!!
I simply LOVE music, and always have! Growing up with a WIDE variety of musical influence (my grandfather's songs from the 30s to my brothers' classic rock to constant singalongs to Broadway musicals and everything in between) I am always working to expose my girls (and growing) to GOOD music! My husband fostered my love for chant, my years at FUS instilled the love of P&W, and the wishful singer in me spends my time playing it all for my kids.
Classical plays a huge role in car rides because it helps the baby fall asleep. Does anyone know Joe Wise? kids' Christian from the 70s and absolutely wonderful, and just as hard to come by. Bill Gaither Trio has great stuff for kids, again from that same era, and my toddler now sings along with a lot of those songs. Morning routine is a great time for singing along in our house.
The one thing I really feel lacking is quality music with CATHOLIC roots. THe folk-y CHristian is nice, but does not really fulfill that "praying twice" goal. SO, Dear Margaret, I would LOVE this CD set!!! With my plans to homeschool and my love of music it would be a perfect part of our family's day!
We're not to homeschooling yet as my oldest is only two, but she LOVES music and gets through Mass by thumbing through the hymnal and asking "when we sing?". We got a few too many Sesame Street CDs in the beginning and I've been trying to put more thought into what we introduce now as we take those CDs out of circulation! This sounds great and I may just have to put the set on her birthday list whether we win this CD or not. Thanks, Margaret! And also, Anthony is ridiculously adorable. Our youngest is only five months, but seeing pictures of him makes me want another tiny little newborn already!
-KC
I'll begin homeschooling my almost-five-year-old this fall. I'm putting together a curriculum and, as a newbie, I appreciate the heads-up for this resource! I have three little girls, and I know what you mean about music soothing the savage beast. I remember trying to tandem nurse after my second child was born. I'd put on "Sleep Sound in Jesus" by Michael Card as I tried to get them to sleep. I think it was more for my benefit than theirs!
I am always looking to include non-tv and computer related things into my 3 kid's lives, and am in awe of the home schooling moms. I would love to include liturgical (and fun) music into their lives. My Aspergers son (it's on the Autism spectrum) really loves music, it seems to speak to him. Thanks for the heads up to these cd's.(even if I don't win)
We are such a carpooling family and I love to listen to music in the car and we've memorized all of our cat chat cd's. Please put my name in your hat for the cd give away and thanks for all of your posts, that encourage me each day:) debbie
Music becomes my prayer many times. I know my music collection well enough that when I need to pray, but don't know how to start, all I have to do is find the right song. I would love to add some more beautiful music to my collection. Plus, our 10 year old soaks up music like crazy. He nearly drove us crazy with David Crowder's "Glorious". Everything was "glorious" for the rest of the day. The couch, the dogs, his hair… It would be great to introduce him to more variety. 🙂
Blessings!
Hannah
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! for posting on this! I'll def. be checking into it!!
BTW…we'll just be starting our 2nd yr. homeschooling and I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate music….
'I NEED THIS CD!!!!' 😀
Wow, all these giveaways! Fun. We listen to chant and polyphany on Sundays. The rest of the week, we sing, all day long! Everything from kids songs to stuff from The Sound of Music to classical (Gianna's learning the Tu Virginum Corona from Mozart's Exultate Jubilate right now). None of us sings very well, but we love to sing! 🙂 I may do piano next year as well.
We play music of all genres all the time; my teens NEED good music to listen to and we NEED this kind of good music that is God-centered in our lives to remind us about His goodness. And, if we win, we will certainly think of you every time we play it and send prayers heaven-word for you all. 🙂
I am one of those who really needs this CD. My children love music. What child doesn't? But, I just cannot seem to remember to put it on or begin singing. I have begun having singing bathtime, where everything we say is sung, just to enjoy music. Turning on the CD player cannot be that hard, right? The trick, I guess, is that I have to plan to do it, and I don't. Anyway, my children are young and not yet playing instruments, so we'll see where the next few years take us. I'd love to sample the music!
Margaret,
I really DO need this CD…. My last three of six children, a third- and fourth-grader, and also a VERY BUSY just-turned-2 year old brother, this almost-50 (and very tired) mom need an easy, solid music addition to our curriculum!
Thanks so much for the give away.
God bless you and your beautiful family.
I DO NOT need the CDs, but I just wanted to say that Anthony is ADORABLE! I know I say that everytime I comment, but really, I just want to eat him up. Such a beautiful babe.
Hi,
I would love this CD. My new baby and I listen to music every day, mostly irish and latin american music so some great religious music would be awesome to have. I think music is one of the best learning tools!
Thanks and God bless!
I'm game! I agree – keep the baby photos coming. He's a sweetie!
Thanks for the great review! Our family loves to pass the car/traveling time with CD's. Please, count me in on this drawing. Glad to see a happy and content Anthony with an adoring older sis.
After graduating college w/ a BA in Music Education, you'd think I would do more in our homeschool! Sadly though, I find myself lacking in anything structured. I do, however, expose the munchkins to a variety of musical styles (all appropriate, of course!) & we almost always have some type of music playing in the house & car. Over the past couple years, we've featured a "Composer of the Month" or "Musical Period of the Month."
"Making Music Praying Twice" sounds great. Please enter me!
We are an eclectic bunch to say the least.
In my house we may be listening to Nat King Cole, Green Day, Dan Zanes, Madeleine Peyroux, Classical, … the list goes on. Our music has ALL been placed onto the computer and we listen to it via iTunes. I'm pretty sure i could live without television, but not MUSIC. It moves me in so many ways. I think my children feel the same way.
While I can't say we have a formal music curriculum, the kids listen to music in the car, sometimes at bedtime and definitley while cleaning! As for Catholic CD's, we enjoy Cat Chat and Foxhoven Family Singers, but new variety in our home would be a blessing! Thanks for this great review. And thanks for continuing to share your mothering adventures with us. Your blog is just so delightful! – Kelli H.
As you said, "I really need this CD!"…Anthony is so cute!!!
This is actually my very first post to a blog of any sort, so bare with me. 🙂 I am just starting out on the journey for homeschooling. I have 6 children, (all under the age of 10) and have been looking for something to have for music curriculum this fall. I was at the MCHEC a few weeks ago as well. With having nothing to start with, and having to buy curriculum for 4 of the children, I am looking for any and all deals I can find. I would love to be entered for the drawing for this CD set. We really do need a music curriculum. Growing up I played the violin, the viola, the clarinet and sang in the chorus, so I am wanting to make sure my children have the same love of music that I have/had.
Pick me! Pick me!
Music is huge in our household. One of the things we do is use the free music from our cable company. My husband and I dance with the kids to waltzs, oldies, and classical music. We pretend to play different instruments. Sometimes we form a band and march around the house. When the kids get really crazy in the winter, I find that putting on the music settles them down and makes them focus on something positive.
Thanks
Darlene Sundheim
I really need this CD!
That being said, we listen to lots of music during school time, but not so much a curriculum as just background music, trying to expose the kids (and myself) to the music of many different cultures. I wrote a plea on my blog a while back for recommendations for world music and got lots of great suggestions. Since then our collection has expanded to include music more from Asia, Africa and Europe (Greek and Celtic), as well as some blues and classical, but one thing we are missing is some good Catholic music such as you describe. So even if I don't win this CD (you've gotten a great response so far!) I thank you for the review as it sounds like just what we need here and I will likely get it anyway if it is affordable.
As much fun as music in the car is (and boy, does it lead to fascinating questions, the kind you can only ask your mother when she's not staring you in the face!), I've also been delighted to find that music played during bath/shower time leads to exuberant singing and nicely segues into evening prayers.
I'd love to try this set in the shower!
Grace and peace,
Emelie
I think this one is AWESOME. We have music time right after our morning offering. The kids practice their piano lessons for 1/2 each. Then we ususally listen to some classical music during math or writing time. Music is on all the time here. The 2nd thing my husband does right after work (after the greetings of course) is go on the piano himself and play. This is his "down" time.
Hope I win but, thank you for the links either way.
God bless,
Elizabeth
We haven't done any formal music during our homeschooling day, but next fall we plan to have Classical Music Wedesdays…Wednesdays are our free day..we use it for catch up work, doctors appts, ect…so we will now use it to study classical music..the lessons only take about 20 mins… We do take advantage of car time and listen to a variety of music and of course my girls like to dance to our Nutcracker CD and the Flower Fairies cd…
With a 3 yr old and 15 month old, we're not yet doing formal music study. But I have a big iTunes library and try to play a variety of music: classical, chant, jazz, zydeco, Irish folk, big band, U2, all sorts of stuff including some good Catholic stuff.
I also use You Tube videos to keep the girls entertained. It's amazing they will sit entranced by Bach and Beethoven and Mozart. I especially love to find videos that show the musicians playing the instruments. Thanks to You Tube 3 yr old Bella can identify cello and violin and banjo. It takes some time hunting around to find good videos, but once I find a nice one, I put it in my favorites list and we watch it again and again. I don't feel at all guilty at letting them watch this kind of music video over and over again. It's early music appreciation lessons.
And I'd love to win this cd. sounds awesome.
We use Music Masters, I put on a classical music CD during the late afternoon, and the boys take piano lessons! The CD sounds great! I also like the idea of playing music in the car (we listen to books on tape, usually). Thanks for a great post, Margaret!
Ann
I would love to get my kids more into music; but we use the van rides to/from places to get the most of our music in. I also like to leave the classical music on during school time-I hope they somehow get more of a love of it that way.
At our homeschool conference, I ALSO got a little tidbit of this making music/praying twice. I have yet to listen to it-thanks for the reminder! We did not get the whole thing so winning this lent one would be terrific. Please add me in 🙂 THANKS and GOd bless, Mary
I need this cd 😉 I'd love to have more music to share with my boys and my RE classes. Most of our music right now is singing along on Kids Place Live. Which is fun, but not necessarily uplifting.
And Anthony is just GORGEOUS! Hope his fusspot days end soon!
The baby is so lovely!
We really need this cd!
I really need this CD!!! We have two "barely hanging on" cassette tapes of the Wee Sing series. Sometimes, when I press eject…..they don't eject.
I really need this CD!!
We know all of the songs BY HEART of the Wee Sing series…and frankly…I'm a little tired of them.
Have I mentioned that we REALLY NEED THIS CD!!!
I am not so good about music. We listen to Catholic radio all the time, but I could really use these in our homeschool.
I love your blog. What a beautiful baby. Retell your story about him, because I haven't found it on your site.
We have struggled with fertility. 1 dd, 2 went ahead of us.
Teresa
Having just started homeschooling this past fall, I haven't really put much thought or energy into really incorporating music into our routine. I did recently get Paul in a Basket CD and my kids really enjoy listening to that when we are in the car. I would love to add something like this to our homeschooling adventure. Off now to peruse their site!
I hope you meant 10:00PM CT! Most importantly, cutest baby ever (but you knew that). We listen to the cheapo CDs that tell the story of the life of a composer. We go to live concerts (symphony) as much as we can. My daughter plays the piano. But we also do a LOT of traveling to extracurricular activities and I would love these CDs as my children are a bit rambunctious in the car.
I really need this CD! We actually do listen to some CDs in the car, sometimes at bed time to help my daughter calm down and relax so she can sleep. She has been going through a lot of psychological difficulties recently.
Thanks for the rec Margaret. I've been looking for a music "program" to do with my music loving elementary students. I have had a difficult time finding something between pre-school songs (ABC's, Twinkle, Twinkle etc…) and hymns.
sounds fantastic, thanks for the top tips! you might be interested in StoryBox is offering you 2 free songs from the Putumayo Kids collection http://www.storyboxbooks.com (Putumayo Kids is committed to introducing children to other cultures through music from around the world) x
Hi!
Great post! So nice to read about music playing such an active role in kids lives. It can be really rewarding, especially when you expose kids to different kinds!
Blake sent us an "aha moment" a while back, telling of his experience marrying his love for classical music with his desire to help kids. Check it out here:
ahamoment.com/pg/moments/view/3045
Hope you enjoy it!
-Mike
mike@ahamoment.com / mutual of omaha