Blogging Thoughts

Homeschooling is a HARD job. I have never before done anything that requires so much time, patience, preparation, and commitment. I'm not complaining (well, maybe a I've found, however, that it is taking away from other things in my life. I love to blog, but I should be spending much more time exercising, managing household activities, taking care of myself, studying the Bible, and enjoying my husband. I also work part time and need to devote my energy to that.

My approach to something new is always the same: jump in feet first and give it my all, to the bitter end. This is a hard way to approach life - yes, it gets a lot of things done, but as I get older it takes a lot of energy out of me. I did just this with homeschooling, and we are on a great path. I did just this with blogging, and I love my blog, but it has taken overn my life. You know you're obsessed when you ask your husband for a professional blog make-over for your birthday. What's up with that?

Oh, I will continue to post, but I want to scale things back and go back to why I really started the blog in the first place: to serve as an online journal for my family. I love to scrapbook, but don't have much time for it these days, so I'm hoping the blog serves as a kind of online scrapbook. I will still post the weekly SQUILT music lessons, because I am writing those out for my children as well, so why not share them? I hope a few people are using them, because I really believe in the value of music in your child's life.

Do you know when this really hit me? We were memorizing one of the lovely poems from First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind. It goes like this:

Work while you work,
Play while you play,
This is the way to be happy each day.
All that you do, do with your might,
Things done by halves are never done right.

I feel like some important things in my life are getting done by halves - and they aren't getting done right!

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SQUILT - Beethoven's Symphony #5, First Movement

Symphony #5, First Movement, by Ludwig van Beethoven

(click to hear the music)

This week's music is by Ludwig van Beethoven, a composer of the late classical, early romantic period. You can find out lots of information about him here. Note the similarity between the Beethoven music and Haydn's music. You may want to go back to that SQUILT lesson and listen to the Surprise Symphony again to compare the two.

In this first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (most symphonies have four movements, or sections, each one being different in character) you will hear a very famous theme repeated dozens of times. Ask the children which instruments they hear. This is an orchestra playing. What instruments can you hear in an orchestra? What emotions do you think Beethoven was feeling when he wrote the piece? Give your older students the SQUILT form to fill out.

There are SO MANY interesting thing to learn about Beethoven. I highly recommend a video entitled "Beethoven Lives Upstairs" for the elementary and even middle school aged child. I have seen it at our local library, and Netflix also has it available for rental.

Other Beethoven resources:

• Beethoven coloring sheet

• Homeschool lesson plans about Beethoven through Making Music Fun
• More Beethoven internet resources via Surfnet
  

I could literally go on for days about Beethoven, so you can do as much or as little as you want. Have fun with this lesson, and let me know if you found it helpful!

Here's a little funny for your kids: Why did Beethoven kill all of his chickens? They kept saying "Bach, Bach, Bach". ha ha ha

Enjoy!
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