Special Connection Homeschool

This last week Gess was asked to play the piano at our local Christian Women's Club. While they had Gess come and play the piano they also had a boy who has Down syndrome read a story and a boy who has autism do a comedy sketch. All three children did an amazing job and I was blessed to have been a part of it! I am so thankful that they wanted to spend their day celebrating our children's accomplishments. I thought I would share a piece that Gess played with you. It is the hymn As The Deer .

It was Gess' third year at piano and her recital was last weekend. She enjoys playing and does fairly well. Her biggest challenge is the rhythm of the song. She knows where the notes are but doesn't necessarily hold them the right amount. Her teacher works well with her and I am glad for the experience. Reading music is a great thing to learn! Here was one of her songs: Spaceship to Mars

Gess had her piano recital last month. She was ready and excited for the recital, more so than usual. That last week I heard her practice more than ever before. Then when she went to preform, she almost froze! It turns out she was bothered by one simple instruction the teacher gave her: to be careful about getting distracted while playing. This wasn't overly emphasized but something a student who isn't used to playing in front of an audience needs to think about. They need to play the piece, not watch Johnny on the front row, etc. We didn't think much about it until Gess ran up to preform and was incredibly nervous. She did this whole cracking her knuckles business that was just precious! I wish I had THAT on camera! She made a big production out of getting ready. Still, she paused and fidgeted and then leaned over and told her teacher she wasn't going to get distracted. Then she finally began to play the piano with more animation than I have ever seen! Her ...

We recently reviewed Maestro's Classics again and in our study on Handel we learned about pipe organs.  I mentioned how that after my son's graduation we would be able to see an actual pipe organ. Now that we have returned I wanted to share a bit of the tour with you.  Here are the images I shared of the organ in the  Maestro's Classics  post.  It really is an amazing instrument.  It is at the bottom and the pipes are up above on the wall. One of the neatest parts to me is the amount of air needed to play this organ.  Unlike our organ at church that is electric this works like a recorder in that air actually has to flow through the pipes. When they turned it on you could literally hear the air the moving in the other room. It was actually pretty loud.  Next Gess got to see, touch, and play the organ. Her brother is showing it how it is done. Here she is learning that the pedals can actually play music too. Then we got to actuall...

Children love music.  It's true.  I can't think of one child that just didn't like music.  There may be kinds of music they say they don't like, or they may shy away from singing the music, but there is something about music that everyone loves.  When children are young you can expand and grow their love for music, or you can narrow it.  For the life of me I don't know why we think young children need specialized music geared solely for them.  Kids songs are cute and have their place, but we can do better.   Maestro Classics certainly has.  They have found a way to bring classical music and symphony orchestras down to a level where children not only listen to it but learn to love it.  That is why I am excited to share my latest review of two  Maestro Classics  CDS.   My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music  and Casey at the Bat . Maestro Classics  recognizes that children today are not being exposed to classi...

I shared with you during my review of Captivated The Movie how we were concerned about the amount of media Gess was absorbing.  It truly was affecting her behavior.  After one outburst we put her on a 30 day media fast, inspired by the movie.  For 30 days Gess had no computer time, no video games, no television, and very limited exposure to music.  During that time we saw a tremendous improvement in both her behavior and habits.  She has learned once again to enjoy the thrills of reading and creativity, things she usually loves. Having a daughter with special needs it is really important to me to not only limit her media intake but find a way to help her learn how to self monitor those habits.  For now we have made a visual monitoring system.  It isn't the prettiest thing in the world but we went with materials we already had around the house.  We chose to use colored clothes pins clipped to a board which explains the value of each one. ...

My son Tim, the one that is studying music and theatre in college and who also went to public school, feels that every child should take recorder lessons in the 5th grade.  It is something he enjoyed and it is an instrument he believes that has true value. Anyway, when he came home from college for Christmas break he decided that he would give Gess some lessons on the recorder. To help him he found a really neat website Squeaky's Recorder Playhouse that teaches you all about the recorder and had some great fingering charts like the one below. Wikihow also had some good instructions on how to play and care for your recorder. I just love introducing Gess to new things.  What tickled me the most was when she was in her room reading her dictionary one day (yes, she sits and reads her dictionary) and noticed that the word recorder was in there!  She came out, got her recorder and was reading about it while exploring her own. While we haven't done much with...

We have the Seeds of Faith CD and it is really great. Its a fun way to learn and memorize Scripture as well as just enjoy to sing along with and praise the Lord. Gess really loves it! So when I saw they were giving away the Seeds of Praise for FREE between now and Thanksgiving, I just had to let you know now. I am not waiting until Friday!  Click the link below and download.  They make it super easy! Seeds Of Praise: Free Download Through Thanksgiving We want to get God’s Word to every family through music. One way we’re doing this is by offering the entire Seeds of Praise record as a free download. Not only do we want you to enjoy the music, but we encourage you to join our mission by being a Seed Planter.  Feel free to share the link with your family and as many friends as you would like to. It will be available through Thanksgiving.

My daughter loves listening to music and has a pretty large selection of Christian CDs.  A few years ago we got her an mp3 player so she could listen to her music on long car rides which is pretty often since we live about 2 hours from any major city.  It has been a huge blessing for her to be able to listen to her own music, especially since she hates listening to what I like to listen to, which is talk radio! As she has gotten older she has started to want to use her mp3 player outside as well as in the car. This has been awkward for her since she hates wearing jeans and doesn't have any pants with pockets to put the player in or hook it to while she is playing.  Her solution was to run around with it in her hand which has caused her to go through a few sets of headphones as she tugs the wires out while running and playing with it. So my husband came up with a solution.  He made a holder for the mp3 player that attaches to her wrist.  Now she can run and p...

Gess began taking piano lessons last fall and had her very first piano recital on Saturday.  I am so proud of how well she is doing.  What amazes her instructor is how well she reads the notes already.  Below are a few photos and the videos of her two songs. 

Gess has been learning piano through private lessons but because of her special needs I felt that she could use some assistance, especially with practice at home.  When I had the opportunity to review Adventus I thought it would be helpful for Gess.  What I did not realize is just how in depth this material would be. I had to so much to choose from to start with.  I was given a one year subscription to the MusIQ Homeschool curriclum which consists of the following products. We chose to begin with Children's Music Journey Volume 2 which is geared towards students 4-8.  While Gess is older  than that I did not feel she was quite ready for the Piano Suite Premier software due to her special needs. Children's Music Journey is an interactive computer program that not only teaches your child how play the piano but also teaches music history and exposes the children to great classical music during each lesson. They even learn to read and write their own mu...

Gesserine just loves music!  What kid doesn't, right?  Well, Gess has been learning to make music with Kinderbach , our latest Schoolhouse Review.  Kinderbach is an at home piano instruction program for kids Pre-K through early elementary grade levels.  While Gess is 10 (almost 11) and in the 4th grade I found it to be a good fit for her due to her special needs.  Gess actually has some sound sensitivity issues and doesn't care for most loud noises...except when it comes to music.  She can crank that very loud and loves to try to sing along.  She also loves to play her toy instruments as well.  She has drums, keyboards and guitars but because Gess has Down syndrome and has struggled with her fine motor skills I had not yet tried to teach her how to use them properly.  However her motor skills have improved greatly and when I was given the opportunity to review Kinderbach I was anxious to see her put them to use. Kinderbach supplies ...