Young Scholar's Guide to Composers

Young Scholar's Guide to Composers, by Bright Ideas Press, is the next on our review list.  It can be purchased as a CD-Rom book ($29.95) or a 298 page Paperback Book ($34.95).  Some other products offered by Bright Ideas Press are The Mystery of History Series and Illuminations.

Young Scholar's Guide to Composers is a 32 week chronological study of musical periods and composers.  It has been written for children grades 4-8, but could easily be adjusted for both older and younger kids.  Each lesson is either a musical period (Baroque, Classical...etc) or a famous composer.  And includes text, note-taking questions, creating a Composer Card (a great study guide with composer information), mapping where the composer was born, adding to a timeline, and of course, the music.  There are a list of online links in the book for each musical period and composer.  Also included in the book are games, coloring pages, folderbook instructions, glossary, website links, and a book list of recommended additional reading. There is some preparation needed for the use of this book.  There are copies to be made and it is a good idea to look up music links ahead of time and bookmark them.

Both the kids and I have thoroughly enjoyed this curriculum and look forward to completing it this year.  Logan has loved classical music for many years now.  He mostly listened to Mozart, Bach and Tchaikovshy.  This has been wonderful for him to get to listen to and learn about many other composers.  Isabel has never really been into classical music, but she has been having so much fun with this.  Their favorite piece, so far, is Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Spring movement.  They want to listen to it each day before we listen to whichever composer we are learning about for the week.

This has been great fun and full of so much wonderful information, presented in an easy to learn, yet not in an elementary manner.  I would recommend this to anyone who would like to add some Fine Arts to their school year.

*Disclaimer* I received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review.