Classical Music Appreciation

To increase my kids’ exposure to and appreciation for classical music, I signed us up for “Summer Sound Bites: Classical Meets Cartoons” through Erica Johns’s website,  Enrichment Studies.   We’ve been enjoying our daily dose of cartoons set to classical music, which have included many Looney Tunes shorts that I recognize from my own childhood.  This has led us down the wabbit hole into watching several of the Merrie Melodies cartoons, and I’ve been so impressed with how engaging and entertaining they are, as well as how cleverly they are designed to actually connect to the title of the piece so that kids can remember them.  For example, here’s the Merrie Melody short for Johann Strauss’s waltz “The Blue Danube.”

“Summer Sound Bites” also includes wonderful clips of musicians performing these pieces and has been great for helping my children recognize different instruments and sparking their interest in how music is made.  If you’re looking to add more fine arts to your home school curriculum, I recommend you visit Enrichment Studies and check out the great variety of resources available there.