Journey into Joy: 7 Reasons Why Your Family Should Investigate Handel’s Messiah
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Journey into Joy: 7 Reasons Why Your Family Should Investigate Handel’s Messiah

Could a centuries-old oratorio captivate the hearts of children? Handel’s Messiah most certainly can! In the world of classical music, George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah stands as a timeless masterpiece. Written in just 24 days in 1741, its first performance was in Dublin, Ireland in 1742 as a charity event, and later, it made its way to Covent Garden in London. It has become a standard work performed during the Christmas season. Beyond its beautiful melodies, there are compelling reasons to introduce children to this classical gem, from cultural enrichment to family connections. Here are 7 reasons why parents should…

Boosting the Brain with Music Education: The Importance of Including Music in Your Homeschool
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Boosting the Brain with Music Education: The Importance of Including Music in Your Homeschool

“For anyone to grow up complete, music education is imperative.“Paul Harvey In our highly technological world, we are told to focus on STEM – science, technology, engineering and math. And to prove to the world that we are not making a mistake in homeschooling our children, we homeschool parents may be concerned about the academic side of our children’s education. So why would we want to add music and fine arts to our children’s education? This is exactly what David Kearns, now retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xerox Corporation, asks and answers: “Why arts in education? Why education…

The Importance of Music in Child Development: 6 Areas of Development which Music Benefits
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The Importance of Music in Child Development: 6 Areas of Development which Music Benefits

Can exposure to music help your child’s development? Yes! Music is a fun and easy and IMPORTANT tool for enhancing childhood development and building your child’s brain! To understand how music aids in child development, we need to know the order of normal child development and compare it to music development. Child development compared to music development The first sensory organ to function in the womb is the ear.  The heart of a child in the womb starts beating about 21 days after conception. At 40 days brain waves are measurable. At 2 months in the womb all body systems…

How to Thrive (Not Just Survive) as a Homeschool Mom
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How to Thrive (Not Just Survive) as a Homeschool Mom

It’s almost Mother’s Day, so check out the Mother’s Day Giveaway at the end of the article! Is it possible to thrive as a homeschool mom? I always wanted to be a mom. With six younger siblings, I usually had a baby or toddler around to play with until I was a teenager. I would play dolls and dress them up, play school, and even pretended to be Mary Poppins. What could be better than being a mom with my children all day? There were a number of things I didn’t understand about mothering and homeschooling though, obviously. For one…

Generations Homeschool Curriculum Review
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Generations Homeschool Curriculum Review

For years, I have been part of Classical Conversations and used the resources suggested by Classical Conversations even when I left the community. This year, we decided to try something different. With a focus on discipleship, not merely academics, Generations Homeschool Curriculum caught my attention. In fact, they advertise themselves as Christian Discipleship Curriculum. With the spiritual battle in our world for our children’s hearts, academics is just not enough nor should academics be our end goal. It is up to God to change our children’s hearts, but should we not take every opportunity to teach them about Christ and…

The Best Classical Christmas Music for Kids
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The Best Classical Christmas Music for Kids

The Christmas season is the most wonderful time of the year. So goes the song. And when it comes to finding engaging classical music to study with your children, there are definitely some wonderful and familiar pieces from the Christmas season which will help your children to fall in love with classical music. The ideal place to start with classical music is with short listening pieces. Here is the best short classical Christmas music for kids. Most of them are pieces from longer works, which are all worthy of listening to in their entirety when you and your child are…

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Best Bible Studies for (Homeschool) Moms

Marriage. Motherhood. Homeschooling. You can’t do them in your own strength. You may have had ideas and plans for how being a wife or parent was going to go for you. But you may also have quickly found out that you are not really in control of everything, especially when it comes to how other people – our husbands and children – are going to act. So we need much grace from God in our marriages, parenting, and homeschooling. As Jesus tells us in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and…

Patriotic Summer Music Activities for Kids
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Patriotic Summer Music Activities for Kids

Patriotic Summer Music Activities for Kids Since we have several patriotic holidays over the summer, you can bring a little structure and fun to your days by doing patriotic summer music activities with your kids. Sing patriotic songs, learn a little history, add in crafts, and you will have a fun America-themed unit study for even just 15 minutes a day. Where to start: A great place to start is to learn some of the American songs of the past and their history, like The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, and Yankee…

Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood: Bible Study Review
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Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood: Bible Study Review

Recently, I had the privilege of working through Melissa B. Kruger’s encouraging devotional Bible study called Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood. Broken into eleven chapters, each chapter includes sections of days one through five, so that one can work through the material a day at a time for daily Bible devotionals over eleven weeks. Each chapter consists of a topic in the theme of walking with God: walking by faith, walking in wisdom, walking in prayer, etc. As Melissa B. Kruger states, such a study is needed to give us the right perspective as mothers during all…

Teaching Children How to Listen
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Teaching Children How to Listen

Listening is essential! In our highly visual world where both adults and children spend hours focusing our eyes on televisions, computers, video games, and electronic devices, we distinctly overlook how important it is to listen.  Listening is the cornerstone of development. A baby first orders its world through sound, since one is unable to see in the womb and since a baby’s sight is unfocused at birth.  Yet a baby is able to hear and distinguish his or her mother’s voice in the womb.  Next, in order to communicate and develop language skills, a child must learn to listen.  And…

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