Just a quick heads up! I see that Kinderbach is having a drawing TODAY. If you are looking for piano lessons for your children, Go Enter!
The email: The LAST Summer Sizzle draw will be made TODAY – August 5, 2010 at 5 pm. Make sure you are entered to win!
The prize an online membership worth $95.88!! Enter today. It’s a sizzling summer give away.
My review of the Kinderbach program from last year for the TOS Crew. We enjoyed it!
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well, I am beginning to think about leaving this port and getting in gear for the kids school year:)
I KEEP trying not to even think about schooling, but I have to admit, I really enjoy looking at curriculum and finding stuff for all the kids to do.
This year will truly be the first year I have felt remotely ready to choose our curriculums. In the past, I have relied heavily on the opinions of other, more veteran homeschoolers, state guidelines, and friends at TOS!
This year, I am really able to combine what I have learned about all the types of homeschooling and what I know about the learning styles of my children–having two years behind me is really helping to break free of some textbooks and some of my preconceived notions about how “school should be done.”
I should also say here that while I did not feel ready before now, I did feel that God was calling me to teach them, in the beginning, and that he would lead and protect us in that journey. And boy, did he! We have stumbled into some amazing miracles as we began homeschooling…and my children have had incredible experiences …but that’s for another post!
Now, I have had people ask me what curriculum I would recommend for their little ones. I am still very reticent to tell someone else what to do. I will say, though, that I have had a very good experience with Sweet Honey, in letting her preschool days be just filled with reading, helping mom, ballet and listening to her older brother’s lessons in Mystery of History, for example. She has enjoyed very unstructured days, with nature journaling and using some of the items I have reviewed on the TOS Crew, like Mathletics and Kinderbach. I will do another post, soon, sharing some fantastic early learning blogs.
Ironically, while we were very laid back, she began to read that year…all by herself. I was so pleased. She definitely loves “schoolwork” in that way little girls like playing teacher:) My husband and I decided that we would like to use a more classical approach for her schooling this year. While I was freaking out about what all THAT would entail, I got an email from a wonderful woman whose children were about to start in a new Classical Conversations Group in our area. In yet another of our homeschooling “coincidences” (I call these miracles, of course:)–anyway, we found out we were just in time to start Sweet Honey in their beginning program.
We have signed Sweet Honey up for the Classical Conversations Group in our town and I am reading The Well Trained Mind. I will be using All About Spelling as her reading program and…I just have to decide which Math. I am looking into Math U See or Miquion.. on top of all the CC stuff she will be doing soccer (hopefully on a homeschool team that may be starting in our area) and probably ballet. if you have opinions on any of these, please send me an email! I would love to hear what has worked for others!
And, here are the TOS Blogs for some homeschool inspiration for this week!
1. Buckaroo Days
2. Our Homeschool Reviews
3. Reed, Party of 6
4. Training Hearts at Home
5. Along The Way
6. I Love Science!
7. Through the Calm and Through the Storm
8. Created for Home
9. Tractors and Tire Swings
10. Guiding Light Homeschool
Summary & Rating: 4.5 What an ingenious way to teach piano! We have been using this online music curriculum since early December to teach my 4 year old about music, and the piano. As I was totally clueless about playing piano, I expected this review to be difficult for me–instead, it turned out to be a really fun thing we could do together.
We began our study using a little keyboard I got for under $20. It was a perfect size for a young child.
Using Kinderbach really opened my eyes to what a difference the internet can make in our lives. Here I was, sitting in my family room watching my daughter learn piano!
I really wanted to use all the printable pdf lessons, so in order to make this work for us, we needed to do a few things.
First, I purchased a little keyboard so we could practice along (a keyboard or piano is necessary ).
Then, I went through some of the information online. We were able to look at two weeks’ worth of lessons totally free. You can too—click to see their two week trial. Each Kinderbach lesson basically includes a video session, with worksheets to color and cut and some type of music practice—whether that is tapping to a beat or playing on the piano. To really enjoy each lesson, I found it helped for me to preview the lessons and print out any sheets we would use in that lesson, so it was streamlined.
As we use a laptop, In the early stages of our lessons, I set up our “piano time” at our large kitchen table, with the keyboard facing Em and the laptop directly behind the keyboard (See photo A).
See a video about how Kinderbach works on their site.
We graduated from the little keyboard to the big piano at Christmas, when Grams & Gramps gave us a Piano for Christmas!!
Once we were all set up, I was able to sit and play along. The lessons are broken down so that each day you can do a little bit of playing and a little coloring and singing along.
The lessons are designed by Kari Gregor who uses a cast of characters to deliver many of her lessons–small children will love Dodie and Frisco—my child certainly did. You can also move at your own pace. We actually went pretty quickly, sometimes doing a weeks’ worth of lessons in a day. (I do not know if that is recommended, but it worked for us some days when Em was really into it)
We learned about reading notes, about rhythm and levels of sounds…and this was just in the beginning trial.
At Christmas, we got a big surprise from my Mother and Father in law and received a really nice full size keyboard! (See photo B) At that point, I moved Em over to that and she did pretty well adjusting to her new location. This did make it more difficult to incorporate the worksheets (not having the desk right there) but, I began doing the worksheets nearby and then getting on the keyboard. Em was progressing nicely as far as learning notes and some simple piano playing! (Pretty good for a four year old!)
Kinderbach is available for home lessons or school lessons. They recommend beginning your child at ages 3-7.
For a total of 60 weeks of lessons, the cost is $95.88 for the year–making it VERY reasonable. If you purchase monthly, the cost is 19.99 per month. You can also buy the DVD/CD packages (starting at $40.45).
At first this seemed pretty expensive–but compared to purchasing lessons it is not. I also love the $95 price–and I would plan to set this up at the beginning of the year if I was planning ahead. I wish the monthly one was a bit less–I could do like $12.99 a month-but 19.99 is out of my budget.
I am really sorry our trial with Kinderbach is over! We really enjoyed it and it is a wonderful alternative to trekking to regular lessons. I truly am amazed at the amount of information covered and the colorful and interesting video presentations. Go try Kinderbach. I really think you will enjoy it!
To see what my TOS crewmates have to say, click here!
A trial subscription to Kinderbach was provided to me for the purpose of my review. I have expressed my unbiased opinion on this product.
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