Everyone in our family has an appreciation for music. My husband still loves the classic rock he grew up hearing on his older brother’s stereo. I love connecting with great memories through favorite music. My Big Helper loves all sorts of Christian music, and a study of that actually jumpstarted her own poetry writing.
My Little Man is in a league all his own, though. While he likes many of the genres that are typical for a twelve-year-old kid, he also really loves classical music in a way that the rest of us just … don’t. While I often play classical music while we study, we’re both super excited for the opportunity to review Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades with Zeezok Publishing.
It can be hard to find a curriculum that’s a good fit. That’s why I love this series by Zeezok, though – it’s AMAZING! The Student Activity Book is multidisciplinary and includes all sorts of ways to learn about music. Whether music study is your thing or not, you can’t help but have fun with this program.
My Little Man loves Tchaikovsky, and he chose to complete that unit of the Student Activity Book for the purpose of this review. There are seven units in this book, each planned to be done over the course of four weeks, and each unit about a different composer. Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann and Mascott Ziff, Richard Wagner, Stephen Foster, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Edward MacDowell are all included.
The Tchaikovsky unit is the next to last one in the book, so we just jumped right in. My Little Man loved that this unit had two books for him to read! The reading is spaced out over the four weeks, so if that’s not your thing, no worries – there’s time; but that’s something My Little Man loves. He devoured each book in a single sitting and was disappointed to finish them. I love seeing him so excited about something for school! The stories were very well written and easy to read. They provided a wealth of information about the life of the composer and threw in some moral lessons, too.
Getting My Little Man to read isn’t really a problem, though; getting him to stop, on the other hand, is! The excitement didn’t end there with this unit, however. My favorite part is that each unit is really a is really a unit study. There were questions to ask about the composer’s life, of course, as well as vocabulary words, but there’s also much more in additional to the musical information.
Included was a section about the country and culture in which the composer lived. This was really neat – I know very little about Russia, and the information included was fascinating.
There was also a section that included a recipe. My Little Man worked hard to make one, and trust us – these are not your typical easy-peasy recipes peddled to kids! It was real and authentic and a bit difficult to make, but that just makes the success all the sweeter – and I love the opportunity to cook and bake and work on a variety of skills together. Better yet? There are lots more recipes throughout the book! I can’t wait for us to make more when the weather cools.
I appreciate that the authors of this series included character lessons throughout the units. They were honest about when the composers made a less-than-stellar choice, but they reinforced the importance of doing the right thing. The section about Stephen Foster’s separation with his wife and daughter was sad, but I appreciate the kind way that it was handled in the book. (This really stood out to me, because when they separated, Mrs. Foster moved with their daughter to MY HOMETOWN! I never knew! I’ve already emailed my local historical society, hoping for more information.)
A trivia section relates important information in the readings to more information in each weekly chapter. These extra tidbits are all contained on one page, so they’re easy to find, and page numbers are included for reference. I loved reading these.
A big component of the weekly work is a journal that you keep. There are two really great things about this journal: you can use anything you’d like, such as a sketchbook or composition book, and the prompts are very unique. They go far beyond the typical “think about this and write about it.” Instead, there are picture prompts, prompts asking you to brainstorm song titles, and more. I love the creativity here.
The curriculum has an associated app, too. Since my phone is ancient and sends me threatening messages every day from lack of memory, we didn’t download it – but it also has QR codes scattered throughout the chapters that let you listen to the music. These were really fun – but I also appreciate the master list that’s at the front of the book.
There’s other cool stuff at the front of the book, as well. The scope and sequence of the educational objectives taught with this curriculum are charted beautifully. My primary-school heart loves the color coding! Seeing all of the skills and objects AND being able to point easily to which unit targets each one is just awesome.
All of the above fabulous features came included in the Student Activity Book, which is targeted for students in fifth to eighth grade. There are nine composer biographies that are used with this book (two composers have two books each). There are other components available, however, if you want more. A lapbook is sold separately that complements this product, and there’s also a 70-page coloring book. As My Little Man prefers to be more hands-on, I didn’t purchase these additional books, which worked well for us, as there were many visual and kinesthetic activities in these components. If you prefer to have more written options, however, these look like great choices.
I love that as I was looking through the Student Activity Book again, prior to beginning this review, My Little Man saw what I was doing and decided to hang out with me. The section in the first unit where musical notes are taught caught his attention, and after looking over the visuals for a minute, asked me to teach him to read music. I love the way that the program starts with simple knowledge, like basic notes and rests, and moves on to more complicated musical information throughout the book – all in ways that involve each composer mentioned. Since we started near the end of the book, we missed out on some of that knowledge that he needs – and I’m glad he’s so excited to start at the beginning now.
Isn’t that what we all want? For our kids to love the lessons so much that they want to do them?
Don’t take our word for it, though – click on the graphic below to read more reviews about Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades from Zeezok Publishing.
