2015 Advent Listening Loop

Last week, I posted about the Advent books we read in 2015. Today, I'd like to share our playlist for Advent.

I've written before about some of our listening loops. As we have time, during chores or busywork, we'll listen to a playlist, rotating through a loop of different lists including, among others, science songs, folk songs, and patriotic songs. You can read a bit about how the listening loop works in this post.

I had an idea in my head of the songs I wanted for Advent and then searched Spotify for versions I liked. I find it difficult to discern words in choral arrangements, so I preferred individual singers or smaller groups.

• The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came by The Galway Christmas Ensemble found on 50 Best of Christmas Choirs
• Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus by Carolyn Arends found on Christmas, An Irrational Season*
• Creator of the Stars of Night by Roger Wilcock and the London Fox Players found on Advent Promise
• The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns by Randall DeBruyn and John Brownlie found on Journeysongs Third Edition: Volume 8
• Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence by John Michael Talbot found on The Birth of Jesus: Celebration
• O Come, Divine Messiah by Passionist Sacred Music found on Every Knee Shall Bend
• Once in Royal David's City by the Deller Consort found on Complete Vanguard Classics: Music For The Christmas Season, Christmas Carols and Motets
• People Look East by Al Petteway and Amy White found on Winter Tidings: An Appalachian Christmas
• Savior of the Nations Come by David Tolk found on Christmas

If you want to purchase a single CD for Advent, I would recommend Advent At Ephesus. It's simply beautiful. We listened to this often as well, so I didn't include anything from it on our listening loop.

During the Christmas season proper, we listened to hours of beautiful and celebratory Christmas music. Our favorite CDs are Unbroken Song, When My Heart Finds Christmas, Joy: A Holiday Celebration, In the Bleak Midwinter, Peace on Earth, Veggie Tales: A Very Veggie Christmas and Bing Crosby. Our Spotify playlist contains almost 300 songs, so we listen to much more, but own these.

* I love this CD, but it drives Kansas Dad a little crazy. He insists (and I don't disagree) that there is absolutely nothing irrational about Mary's decision to acquiesce to her Lord.

The italic print: Links to Amazon are affiliate links. As an affiliate with Amazon, I receive a small commission if you follow one of my links, add something to your cart, and complete the purchase (in that order). I like to use the little I earn on the blog to purchase birthday and Christmas gifts (so they'll really be from me).

Links to Spotify are not affiliate links. I receive nothing from them, but I highly recommend the paid subscription to Spotify as some of the commercials are not family-friendly. 

Listening Loop: Kansas and Patriotic Songs on the Range

I wrote about our loop scheduling a few days ago. You can read that post here.

First Daughter is in third grade this year, which means she's studying her state (because I studied Georgia when I was in third grade and for no other reason). Originally, I had not intended to "teach" the state song, Home on the Range, but decided it was a good year to have a patriotic playlist for our listening loop.

• Way Out West in Kansas by Vernon Dalhart  from Puttin on the Style
• Sunflower by Frank Sinatra from The Columbia Years (1943-1952)
• Old Chisholm Trail by Mike Seeger from Early Southern Guitar Styles
• Home on the Range by Pete Seeger from American Favorite Ballads Vol. 1 - 5
• This Land Is Your Land by Elizabeth Mitchell from Little Seed: Songs for Children By Woody Guthrie
• America, My Country 'tis of Thee by United States Army Field Band from Folk Treasures of America
• Star Spangled Banner by Lee Greenwood from American Patriot 

Like the other playlists, this one lives on Spotify. For a few weeks there, my recommendations were filled with army bands and old country. I also discovered Old Chisholm Trail has a wide variety of verses, the majority of which seemed to be inappropriate for my five year old to learn. The version I finally selected includes drunkenness, but in a relatively instructive way.

I think it's likely we'll have new lists science songs and folk songs every year, but I may save this list for years in which one of the children is studying Kansas.

The italic print: Links to Amazon above are affiliate links. If you click on one, put something in your cart, and make a purchase (any purchase) within Amazon's time frame, I receive a small commission. My checking account thanks you!

Links to the Spotify are not affiliate links. I receive nothing from them, but I highly recommend the paid subscription to Spotify as some of the commercials are not family-friendly.

Listening Loop: Folk Songs of 2015-2016

imagine she's learning a folk song

You can read about our listening loop here. Today, I'm just going to write about our folk song list.

When I decided we needed to add folk songs to our school year, I turned to the wise members of the Mater Amabilis facebook group and asked for a book recommendation, something that would provide a good list of folk songs from which I could choose a handful to learn along with the children this year.

They recommended lots of wonderful books, many of which I was able to check out from our local library. The ones I found most helpful were:

• A Treasury of Children's Songs: Forty Favorites to Sing and Play
• Gonna Sing My Head Off!: American Folk Songs for Children
• American Folk Songs for Children (illustrated by Barbara Cooney!)

I knew I needed a playlist because I cannot sing, so therefore, I cannot teach my children to sing. I spent way too long on Spotify, searching for versions of the songs I wanted. Some of them were completely new to me, but I was pleasantly surprised at the number of "folk songs" that appeared on our Making Music Praying Twice CDs. Because we were continuing those CDs, I chose other songs for our folk songs list. I wanted a playlist twenty to thirty minutes long, a balance of male and female voices, and songs that would appeal to my boys and my girls.

So...here's our final list of folk songs for 2015-2016. We listen to them together at the appointed time and the children enjoy them. I've heard them singing some on their own, too, so I know they're learning at least some lyrics.

• All the Pretty Little Horses from Tumble Bee
• Bicycle from Mind of My Own
• The Cat Came Back from Ultimate Laurie Berkner Band Collection
• Simple Gifts from Angel: Sacred Anthems for Treble Voices
• Lavender's Blue from Last Rose
• Bought Me a Cat from American Folk Songs for Children
• If I Had a Hammer from Around the Campfire
• Shortnin Bread from Here I Am!
• Riding in a Buggy from Perfectly Purple From the Learning Groove
• Lula Gal from Come Along John!
• Summer Is Icumen In from Blue Clouds
• The Little Old Sod Shanty from Canada's Story in Song (Spotify has a recording of the song.)

The Cat Came Back is far and away their favorite song in this list. I think my favorite is All the Pretty Little Horses, mostly because it was my favorite song on the lullaby CD we played for First Son every night for something like three years (though that was on Bedtime Prayers: Lullabies and Peaceful Worship). Of all the artists above, I think Elizabeth Mitchell is my favorite (Blue Clouds).

Any favorite folk songs we should learn next year?


The italic print: Links to Amazon above are affiliate links. If you click on one, put something in your cart, and make a purchase (any purchase) within Amazon's time frame, I receive a small commission. My checking account thanks you!

Links to Spotify are not affiliate links. I receive nothing from them, but I highly recommend the paid subscription to Spotify as some of the commercials are not family-friendly.

Listening Loop: Science Songs of 2015-2016

unrelated to our science studies, but taken at a science museum

I wrote about our loop scheduling a few days ago. You can read that post here.

The Science Songs of our Listening Loop grew out of a regret. I purchased the book and CD for Lyrical Life Science Volume 1 (used on Cathswap) but we didn't listen to it for a full year. That sort of thing is typical in my experience. We might not do everything on my list, but I rarely remember resources that aren't in the lesson plans.

To rectify that omission, this year, I pulled together some science songs, songs that suited the science for First Son and First Daughter, and we play them at the appropriate time in our loop. Here's our science playlist for 2015-2016.

• from The Elements
• Bonding Song
• Chemical Compounds Song
• Periodic Table Jumping Song
• from Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants (I wrote about this CD many years ago.)
• Meet the Elements
• What Is a Shooting Star?
• How Many Planets?
• Why Does the Sun Shine?
• Why Does the Sun Really Shine?
• Solid Liquid Gas
• Put It to the Test
• Photosynthesis
• from Lyrical Life Science Volume 1
• Birds
• Algae, Fungi, and Nonvascular Plants
• Vascular Plants 
•  Scientific Method

I purchased The Elements (new, directly from the author) and Lyrical Life Science Volume 1 (used on Cathswap), copied them to my computer, and then imported them into Spotify where this playlist lives.

First Son (sixth grade) is following the Level 3 Year 1 plans at Mater Amabilis: astronomy and plants. First Daughter (third grade) is starting the year with The Elements and then moving on to other chemistry with a conglomeration of materials I cobbled together because I like them. Second Daughter's science (first grade) is Birds so she only had the one contribution. They are also all studying some form of geology this year, but I didn't look for any geological options. These were songs I had or knew already. If you have other suggestions, please share them!

The italic print: Links to Amazon above are affiliate links. If you click on one, put something in your cart, and make a purchase (any purchase) within Amazon's time frame, I receive a small commission. My checking account thanks you!

Links to the Basement Workshop Store and Spotify are not affiliate links. I receive nothing from them, but perhaps you'll find them useful. I highly recommend the paid subscription to Spotify as some of the commercials are not family-friendly.

Loops for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful on the Range

I'm trying something new this year: loop scheduling. I read about it first at Amongst Lovely Things and after some consideration decided it might be the perfect solution to our Friday-problem. Our problem was that there seemed to be a day or two of the week that was always being "missed." Fridays, for example, seem to be the day-of-choice for organized field trips. Mondays or Tuesdays seemed to be appointment days. Given a few of those weeks in a row and I'd find us woefully behind where we wanted to be in something like Shakespeare (scheduled for Fridays) but comfortably moving along in other subjects.

I've developed loop schedules for my preschool student (Second Son) and my first grade student (Second Daughter), both of whom need plenty of "you-and-me" time. (The independent work seems to get done even when we're running around like crazy, so no loops for that yet.)

I call our main loops the Cultural Loop and the Listening Loop. After reading this post over at Wildflowers and Marbles (a fantastic blog, but be prepared for serious food for thought!), I realized these loops include the Good, the True, and the Beautiful of our homeschool plans. Other than our read-alouds, these are the subjects around which we gather at the dining room table, often with food or handicrafts in front of us.

Second Son not memorizing Shakespeare

The Cultural Loop
Fairy Tales
Poetry
Picture Study
Shakespeare


Every day, we begin our lesson time with morning prayer and read a psalm. Then I see what's next on our cultural loop. We started the year with Fairy Tales. On the second day we read some Poetry. On the third day we did a picture study. On the fourth day we memorized some lines from a Shakespeare play. Then, we started all over again. If we have time for our cultural loop five days a week, we double up on one of the subjects. If we have a bunch of appointments or illness or craziness, we may only get through two or three of the subjects but no single subject is suffering from a lack of attention. Or, rather, we're not suffering from a lack of any one subject week after week.

The Listening Loop (2015-2016)
Composer Study
Science Songs (not during Advent)
Making Music Praying Twice
Folk Songs (not during Advent)
Patriotic Songs (not during Advent)
Songs of the Liturgical Year (Advent, Christmas, and Lent only)
[updated later to add links to the posts for each playlist]



Using my awesome speaker, I'm able to fill our home with beautiful and sometimes playful music from my laptop, but we don't always have time for listening. On days when we're all working on chores at the same time or are all at the table with busy hands but available ears, I'll check my list to see what's next and start a playlist. If we don't finish the playlist before it's time to move on to something else, I make a note of where we stopped and we pick it up again the next day we have time. The only one that doesn't always fit into the schedule as neatly is Composer Study. If the scheduled composer study for the week is listening to the composer's music on Spotify, we often do that during dinner instead of during the school day, so we might listen to a bit of it every night.

We're a few weeks into our second term of the year, and I love the loop schedules. If we're home and at the table, we always have a bit of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful to share together. If all goes as planned, I'll share our listening loop playlists over the next week or two.