Story of the Orchestra

We've made it successfully through the first half of our school year. 

Yay!!! And a little yippee after that. 

Last year (my very first year homeschooling) I made myself start with a basic, bare bones curriculum.  I've mentioned before I have this tendency to take on too much and one piece of advice I read over and over while researching homeschooling was to take it slow. 

I'm very happy that I have, but this year, I wanted to add a little more.  Move outside the basics. 

I read some more and did a little more research before adding Art and Music.  One of my favorite finds has been Story of the Orchestra by Robert Levine.

 

It has two sections (which I somehow didn't realize when I purchased it).  The first half is all about composers while the second half focuses on many of the different instruments found in an orchestra.  We started with instruments and have been loving it! 

 

The books breaks them down into which section of the orchestra the instruments come from (string, woodwind, brass...).  It has pictures, histories, and physical descriptions in a short and entertaining enough manner that my 11 year old loves it AND my 5 year old listens to all of it (almost a miracle). 

 

Our favorite part is the CD that comes with it.  After we talk about the instrument we get to listen to what it sounds like playing beautiful music while pretending we're the ones playing the instrument (sometimes a little wildly...okay, fine, all the time).

 

Even if you aren't a homeschooler, I highly recommend this book to any music or wannabe music lover!