Zeezok Publishing LLC Music Appreciation Book 1: for the Elementary Grades Review

MUSIC! We absolutely love music in our home. When we got the chance to review Music Appreciation Book 1: for the Elementary Grades  from Zeezok Publishing LLC, we were all so excited. The fact that our sons were starting to really get into their instruments made the timing perfect. Want an even better timing issue? My son was learning one of the songs that's on this set and in the book we chose to study first.



I don't want to just spill who we studied, I will give you hints.

- This composer came from a family who loved music maybe even more than my family does.
- He once was very hungry and played a violin in order to get his dinner. 
- In his day he was compared to Handel with many saying Handel was the closest in skill to him.

Any guesses?

I won't keep you in suspense any longer. Our first study was Bach! Yes, Johann Sebastian Bach known for such pieces as his Minuet in Gmaj which just happened to be the piece my son was learning on piano at the time.

Let me start with what you get with the set we received called Music Appreciation Book 1: for the Elementary Grades.

You receive individual biographies for 7 different composers. Composers such as Mozart, Schubert, Bach, Beethoven, Paganini, and more. You receive activities for each composer. You will study geography, history, vocabulary tied to music, instrument studies, and even recipes from the period your composer lived. Did I forget to mention the CDs that go along with the music study? And last, but far from least, are lapbook downloads for each composer in this study. This is truly, truly a complete set. It's music appreciation the fun way.

What We Thought:

I will admit to be a bit biased on this since we love music. But, I also wanted to make sure this was a quality product that would not short change my kids or bore them which would turn them off of music appreciation for a long time. I am happy to say I was not disappointed.

Each section has topics that really dive into each composer's life and music, but also uses their lives to teach important issues such as character. We learned about humor, hospitality, and more. I liked that the kids really started to appreciate the person behind the music they played and then learned bigger lessons from their lives.

For the biography we read it together. But, I took this chance to let each of my son's read aloud which they loved skipping that activity later since they normally have it as a separate topic each day. They would take turns reading and then I would read to end the chapter.

My kids (10 and 8) really got into this study and would ask me very good questions about Bach that went beyond the book's deep story. We took this chance to work on projects outside of the study. Now, I remember music appreciation, as does my husband, and it was NEVER this fun. I could have appreciated that class a lot more if they had used Zeezok Publishing LLC's study.

The study for Bach included science projects (yes, science) that the boys found fun and they actually learned from it. When we moved outside they found some metal on our farm that had been oxidized just like the church and, because we had studied the WHY behind it, they immediately were able to share with Grandma what had happened.

Did I mention recipes? Yeah, well, buy a bigger belt. Once we work through the entire series we will have eaten through 7 composers.

By the way, one comment my kids made was about the music itself. After my younger son got over his excitement that he already knew a piece by Bach, we started to listen to pieces he hadn't learned or didn't know. Both of my sons said at different times that they liked this music that it was famous. I told them it was. My older son said, "yeah, it's very famous, cartoons play it all the time". Ha ha. Well, at least I can count their DVD time with cartoons as educational. But I did use it as an opportunity to start to find Bach's music in our daily lives, and the boys were shocked how often they heard his pieces. I can't wait to listen to some of the other composers and do the same thing.

The Zeezok Publishing LLC's Music Appreciation Book 1: for the Elementary Grades is a wonderful bargain. Normally this is $207.62 set but Zeezok has discounted it and it's on sale for only $169.99. That's a bargain considering everything you get and the fact that it pulls in science, history, cooking, etc.

If you would like to check out Zeezok online, please check them out at:

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After reading my post you might want to check out what other bloggers are saying about Bach and other composers in this study by clicking the graphic below.

Last 36 Hours of the Freebies!!

Don't forget to join me and other bloggers for the freebies that The Old SchoolHouse is giving us the chance to share with you. Check out mine and then visit the other bloggers because we all signed up for different items to share. Hurry because these deals end tomorrow.

My Freebies

Want More Freebies

And, since we are on the topic of The Old SchoolHouse, they had a funny online that I had to share. If you are a Mom, a Dad, even a grandparent, you have probably felt this way.

Want More Freebies?

Want more freebies?

You got more freebies!

On Sunday I shared some freebies I was blessed to give to my readers. If you missed that post, check it out first. Homeschool, Gardening, and Faithbuilding

In the next few posts I am going to share even more freebies by way of other bloggers who have resources from The Old Schoolhouse. Be sure to click each link because we all have various items to share. There might be a few duplicates, but the list is quite long of e-items, so you won't be disappointed.

Castle View Academy

Homemaking Organized

At Home

Counting Pinecones

Ladybug Daydreams

A Moment in Our World

Hopkins Homeschool

As I said, I will share more in future posts. All of these have their own codes to receive their freebies, so make sure you grab that on each page. These are all good through the month of April.

GIVEAWAY - Homeschool and Faith Building Items

I am having my first giveaway, and the best part is everyone gets these fun products.

The Old Schoolhouse has provided me with the opportunity to give these three items to you for free. Yep, no shipping, no entering contests hoping you win, nothing more than clicking a link and using my code. (I receive no compensation if you get these items, they are just a gift) The code is good for the month of April.

So, click each picture below, add the item(s) you want to your cart, and at check out use the code KRCREW16. It will only work on these three products below.

God made such incredible creations in the form of animals, bugs, and birds. God Made Them All Wonder Bundle gives you an opportunity to study them in your homeschool day.

Molly Green's Naturally Clean and Organized Planner is your home cleaning friend. It has cleaning checklist by the week and month, natural cleaning recipes, and more. 

For those of you who have it all together and life is a breeze, this isn't your bundle. But, for the rest of us who need God in our day more abundantly, we will want to check out the Spiritual Growth Bundle. 

Remember, use my code KRCREW16 at checkout to get these free.

If those aren't quite enough fun for you, you might want to check out Molly Green and The Old Schoolhouse magazines. They are in digital format so you can read when you want where you want and for the price you want (FREEEEEE!). If you have an iPad or tablet, the format is best, but you can read these on a computer, as well. 

Have fun. I am enjoying these resources and hope you will too. 

Schoolhouse Review Crew Resource

Hey all, I wanted to pop in and share some news.

First, did you know that the Schoolhouse Review Crew I write for has a Facebook page that has all sorts of resources and information on it? No? Well, you need to go check it out.

TOS Homeschool Crew

Second, did you also know that April doesn't just bring us May flowers, it also brings some giveaways on my blog? That's right. The best part is, everyone wins. If you want it, you get it. There is no hoping your name is drawn, hoping your number comes up. I can't wait to share what I have picked especially for you guys. So, make sure you check back often.

Ever Wonder How a Magazine is Printed?

The Old Schoolhouse is sharing a fun video with us as their yearly big book is printed. This is taken while it's actually being printed on the big machinery. You can even see the covers for the books. Take a minute to share it with your kids, they might think it's cool. There is nothing inappropriate on it at all.

SchoolHouseTeacher.com Yearly Membership Review

I was given the opportunity to check out the Yearly Membership at SchoolHouseTeachers.com . (this post contains affiliate links) First, let's start with what SchoolHouseTeachers.com says about their site. They are part of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. They have over 150 classes PK-12 and classes for parents, as well. Their classes have different levels of difficulty which allows them to fit for many ability ranges. They even help with advice on what a course will count when adding it to a transcript.
OK, sounds good to me. I was excited to check it out. First, a bit about why I wanted to look at this resource. Most of you don't know that we live in a very tiny town (we are talking 200 people here folks). We live at least 30 minutes from a town of any size, and that town doesn't have anything in the form of enrichment courses. For that opportunity we need to drive over and hour and spend a lot of money per semester to have limited choices for a few classes. Sounds appealing, right?

Add in that I drive a serious gas guzzler due to having to cart around a wheelchair and other medical supplies and it can get very expensive to do much in the way of classes.

Enter SchoolHouseTeachers.com Yearly Membership.

Here's what I found:

I found a website that is incredibly full of options. In fact, you might be intimidated by the thought of courses ranging from art, bible, and foreign languages to music, math, and language arts. But don't jump ship yet. It's the furthest thing from scary. In fact, it's very easy to navigate as you can look for a class by subject or by grade. This also enables you to have a very custom approach to teaching since you might have a child on various levels in their ability. You don't get pigeonholed into one grade level. Have an early reader, choose from the 3rd grade language section while staying in 1st for math where they are grade level.

Another awesome resource is the "Just For Parents or the Whole Family" section. I will be honest. I love teaching my children. As a child I had a chalkboard and lovingly taught my little brother forced my little brother to sit through hours and hours of lessons I wrote on the board. When he was busy running faster than I could catch him, I would teach my stuffed animals. I was born to teach. I love to see the light turn on in my kids minds and eyes. However, I am not a trained teacher and can admit (no matter how hard it is) that I don't know everything. This is where "Just for Parents or the Whole Family" helps.
I was able to, as a parent, go in and learn a lot. Some subjects are easy like helping your child choose college. But there are other classes about teaching styles, methodology, and even those bigger names most of us recognize in the homeschool world share knowledge they have gleaned over the years. Honestly, the membership is worth it to me just for this section. The fact that our entire family receives a stellar education is just a bonus. 
Let's move on to what you really want to know, is it good and did we use it? 
The short answer is, YES! (to both)
The long answer (because you all know I am long winded), is YES! OK, seriously, it's not just good but excellent. 
I didn't use this website as our main curriculum. I could have. Honestly, you could get the SchooHouseTeachers.com Yearly Membership for your family and be done with your curriculum shopping. 10 minute curriculum shopping? Is that even possible? Yes, with this website it is.  I used it for a bit of a different purpose. I used it to enrich our daily lessons. For example, I love art. I enjoy museums, public displays that many larger cities have, and enjoy drawing at home. However, as I mentioned above, we live in a tiny town. Getting to fine art examples is hard. And, even if I lived in a huge metropolitan area, I am still limited by the local museum. With SchoolHouseTeachers.com I was able to show my children the Sistine Chapel and discuss Michelangelo's methods and finer details of his works. Hello, SISTINE CHAPEL! They had a course on his work and we went through it. It even included a great activity of painting while on your back. I taped paper to the underside of chairs and had the kids try their hand at what he went through for that masterpiece. Their conclusion? He must have had biceps of steel and loved the feel of paint on his face. I liked that the course discussed his life details, (birth, major works, etc), gave examples of his work, and gave activities to try. We spent time learning about WHO Michelangelo was on a personal level before taking a look at his works. I think this gave us insight into why he painted and sculpted the way he did. It also lead, very naturally, into a great discussion of history. Michelangelo's work was so indicative of the period in which he lived, and the study we printed out and did really touched on that time so we could use it almost as art and history all in one. 
I was able to print the study, and could have skipped anything I thought wasn't something we would do (though it wasn't overwhelming so I printed it all). I showed the pieces to our sons, watched videos on SchoolHouseTeachers.com and I was set to go only having to add in paints (or a different medium if I had wanted) and paper. This specific study only took us a day to complete and I liked that I could pick and choose different artists for our art study instead of having a semester or even a week of the same person. Oh, we could have stretched it out for a week, we chose not to do so. 
My takeaways: 
I have looked through all of our options for classes and am excited about what we have on the horizon. I am able to schedule things immediately or as far out in our plan as I want/need. This flexibility is huge and one of the bigger sellers of the website. If we change our mind and want to skip something, add something, or change the order, poof, done in 2 seconds. 
Go slow. Please don't sign up and think within 2 minutes you will be using the full curriculum. I mean, I guess you could, theoretically. There is nothing to stop you from doing that. It is very user friendly. But, I think you would be doing yourself, your family, and the website a disservice by not diving into it a bit deeper to look around. 
Speaking of looking around. They have live chat to help you in that regard. I like live chat on a website. I don't have to call when my kids are in quiet time, I don't have to wait forever for an email to be returned, I get immediate answers. That's a big deal to me on this type of site.  Check out the resources area and the portion I mentioned above for parents. You will not be sorry you did. We all need encouragement, direction, new ideas, and great information. Use them! 
If that's not enough to get your mouth watering, check out this deal! Yep, 50% discount on SchoolHouseTeachers.com Yearly Membership for your family just because they are nice like that. 

I missed so much in my review. But, there is a big difference between long winded and shut up already. There are discounts for membership for those in the military, members of HSLDA, etc. There are over 10,000 videos to help your students grasp new concepts or take an idea deeper. There is a planner to help you stay organized and on track. And there is help even if this is the first time you ever uttered the words, "what about homeschooling". It's so much more than I thought. I figured it would be a few lap books, maybe a poorly put together video or two, and a few thoughts from other home educators. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's thorough, fun, exciting, and very much something you should check out for your family. 

*affiliate links within this review

Review: When I Grow Up, I Want to be ... a Missionary

I was given the opportunity to review a study from The Old Schoolhouse called, "When I Grow Up, I Want to be ... a Missionary".

My younger son is 7 years old and has, for a few years now, asked about being a missionary. He says he wants to live out the words in the Bible that tell us to go into all the world. We have tried to support him in this, talk to him about being a missionary at home until he's old enough to leave home. So, when the opportunity came to review a book about being a missionary popped up from The Schoolhouse Review Crew, I was quickly drawn to it.

When we hear the command in God's word to, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”  Matthew 28:19-20 we often think of disciples heading out to the churches of the New Testament. But this command was not just for Jesus' time, it's was for all time until the end of the age when He returns. We are all to share God's word with those we meet, but some are called to a life of doing this command. Missionaries are dedicating their lives to this task, this call.

When I Grow Up, I Want to be ... A Missionary" is a wonderful addition to the WannaBe series. It starts with real life stories of mission work from three different types of missionaries. We meet a family that lives with Indians in Mexico after feeling called to a completely different country. God had other plans. We are then introduced to a family who is in a closed country and learn what that means, what the specific challenges are with being in a nation where others can't know you are a missionary. Last we meet a young woman who is "teach(ing) all nations" right here on our own soil, in the United States.

What I wasn't expecting is that this is NOT just a book to read to your kids. It's so much more. After reading about the various missionaries they go into detail of how to become a missionary starting with just witnessing where you live right now all the way to going to other nations to spread the Gospel of Christ.

It ends with bringing everything you just learned, and things that would be important to missionaries (weather in certain areas, money for support and budgeting, etc), and uses those topics to teach the various areas of your school week. You have science, math, reading, art, vocabulary, and handwriting. It also includes work for all levels of student. There are coloring pages and tracing for your pre-K age children and print, cursive, word problems, and crosswords for older kids. The age range on this study is 4-10, and it's very appropriately executed.

Now, for my favorite part of a review, my take. When I first received this unit study I thought I was getting a book to read to my sons. I was excited about that and ready to dive into it. As I opened the file and saw it's size, I quickly realized I was wrong. This was an entire study that could last at least a week, if not more depending on how much of it you did each day.

I liked that each missionary family story had pictures. It's one thing to read to a child or have a child read to himself, but with this age range, pictures really help drive home the lesson. It's hard for a child living in middle class America to realize how poor people can be. Pictures help them grasp that concept. The pictures in this study showed that but in a very gentle and non-scary way. I appreciated that a lot.

The lessons after the reading portion were thorough. I feel like there was so much work done for me, as the parent, that I could just step into this study on day 1 and not need a lot of prep work. With unit studies, that's huge. Sure, you need to pull together some supplies for the craft or cooking exercises, but that's easy and can be done the morning of the activity.

I appreciated the real world application this study provided. Kids are taught about budgeting (a lesson often overlooked by parents), sign language, and about the work that a child needs to do in order to become a missionary. It's not just abstract ideas that puts a missionary up on that elusive pedestal we often think about when we see them come into our churches in their native dress with pictures of foreign lands. They give links to missionary boards and the steps you must take to go into the field on a foreign level. Practical advice is one of the most unique parts of this study, in my opinion.

I hope you will visit The Old Schoolhouse store and check out this unit study. It's well worth your time and, honestly, I learned a lot as a parent which makes this feel like a family activity instead of another school project.