Review: Experiencing History Through Music

My daughter and I are currently reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series books.  She loves them and so do I.  Something about the frontier days just draws me in and intrigues me.  The hard work - not so much.  The family closeness and bonding time - that's what I'm talking about.

In the series, Laura talks about Pa pulling out his fiddle and playing a song that they all dance and sing too. Again, those images of family and bonding come to mind.  Often times, I've thought it would be great if we could get the chance to hear what some of those songs sounded like.  Well, now there is a new homeschool curriculum that allows us to do just that.  No more wondering!

Diana Waring Presents has just launched a brand new history curriculum called Experiencing History Through Music.  Just as the title implies, the series takes you back into the pioneer days of America.  The series helps bring history to life and makes it feel so much more real.  Often times, history can seem distant and feel like just a story instead of our heritage and our life line.  This new series changes that!

Let your ears and mind take you back to the pioneer days as you listen to some good 'ole folk music.  The CD included with Musical Memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder contains 13 different songs including Wait For The Wagon, Buffalo Gals, and Pop Goes the Weasel.  Most of the songs are about 2 minutes long with a few over 4 minutes in length.  The book was written by William Anderson, noted Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer, and also includes beautiful photos by internationally known Little House photographer, Leslie A. Kelly.  Each song is written about in the book so you can gain a knowledge of when it was sung, why, and by whom. The photos also give the visual side of going back in time. The combination of visual and auditory learning ingrain these historical periods of time in your brain!

These books and Cd's can be easily incorporated with your current history curriculum and will give them an extra flair.  The song lessons are only a couple of pages to read so you could incorporate them daily or weekly.  We completed about 3 songs a week and that allowed time for trying to play a few on the piano too!

Our focus for this review as on Musical Memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder since it fit so perfectly with our literature.  We did listen to and glance through all the available books in the series though and will be pairing them up with our continued studies on American History for the summer and next fall.

There are 3 book sets available in the series and all can be purchased online here.

 America - Heart of a New Nation – $18.99 each

 Westward Ho! - Heart of the Old West – $18.99 each

 Musical Memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder – $18.99 each

For the month of July, you can purchase the entire set for the sale price of $50.

Each set comes with a CD and book.  The book tells you the history behind the songs and has images in drawings and photos of the time period.  It also contains sheet music and chord charts.  The CD contains fun folk music that transforms your mind back in time.

Here is a YouTube video that gives you a little glimpse into the music available.  Get ready for a fun knee-slapping time!  You can see just how much fun is having here and as you listen to the music on the Cd's it really comes through.




A Little About Diana Waring, author:

Author of Beyond Survival, Reaping the Harvest and Diana Waring's History Revealed world history curriculum, Diana discovered years ago that "the key to education is relationship." Beginning in the early '80s, Diana homeschooled her children through high-school—the real life opportunities to learn how kids learn. Mentored by educators whose focus was honoring Him who created all learners, and with an international background (born in Germany, university degree in French, lifelong student of world history), Diana cares about how people learn as well as what they learn. Audiences on four continents have enthusiastically received her energetic speaking style.

Also, don't forget to the enter this awesome giveaway still going on through July 4, 2014!  It has a value of over $700+!