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Discovering Music is now available on Homeschool Buyers' Co-op!


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Has anyone used this...who could give some pros/cons?

 

We've only been using it for a few weeks but I'll make a stab at responding:

 

Pros:

1. A complete program for a fine arts credit for high school. You don't have to run around trying to piece together something on your own.

2. Great for students interested in music as well as a "get it done" course for a student who needs the fine arts credit but isn't interested in music/art.

3. DD's assessment after the first few weeks: "Eh, it's ok." Trust me, this is high praise as she did nothing but gripe and complain about the whole idea of needing a fine arts credit. Also, she won't admit to liking it but gets a smile on her face as she shares with me things she's learning about it. Wow!

4. Good mix of media (DVD lectures, CD music selections, internet web references).

5. Good variety of suggested research and projects for the student to choose from in each unit.

6. Includes unit tests so you have a solid basis for assigning a grade.

7. Obvious passion of author/lecturer.

 

Cons:

1. Expensive. We paid full price.

2. It is not scheduled. It took me a bit of studying the program to develop a schedule that will work for us.

3. Since she offers lots of research suggestions and project ideas, you need to pick and choose what you want to do. This isn't really a CON unless you are tempted to try to do it all. That would be too much, IMHO.

 

Hope that helps and good luck with the program!

Pegasus

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Oooh, do share!

 

It's nothing fancy but here's the syllabus I gave DD. She does it 4 times a week so each unit is completed over 2 weeks.

 

Completion of this course will satisfy 1 credit of high school fine arts/performing arts. The program is titled “Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture†and consists of 17 units. The first unit is set up slightly differently as an introduction to listening to music. However, most of the other units have the following components:

 

• List of figures, places, vocabulary, and dates relevant to that unit

• Lecture from the program DVDs with viewing guide (lecture notes)

• Listening assignments from the program CDs

• Online resources

• Putting it All Together: Questions and Projects

• Unit quiz

 

We will spend 8 school days on each unit. The schedule for each unit follows:

 

• 2 days reviewing the figures, places, vocabulary, and dates in the textbook, listening to the unit lecture, and filling out the viewing guide. Be sure to review the textbook information and read over the viewing guide notes before viewing the videos. The videos vary in length from 25 minutes to an hour. You may watch the entire segment in one day or you may split it up between the 2 days.

 

• 2 days listening to the selections on the CD. Each selection should be listened to more than once and multiple times is best. The selections in bold are on the listening CDs. This should be an isolated activity so that you can focus on the music – no multi-tasking.

 

• 1 day reviewing the online resources of interest.

 

• 2 days on the questions and projects. Read through all of the choices and choose 2 to complete.

 

• Take the unit quiz. Be sure to know the vocabulary words and definitions before attempting the quiz.

 

Pegasus

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
I used this with my 13yo DS this last year, and we were, well, underwhelmed. Here's my review on the program. We wanted to like it. The hype was enormous. Hope that helps someone make a decision.

 

Thanks, it helped me. We've been using TC Understanding Great Music and I thought DM might be something to use in Jr High, but after reading your review we'll just stick with the Teaching Company. Thanks for putting the time into the review.

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  • 9 months later...
I used this with my 13yo DS this last year, and we were, well, underwhelmed. Here's my review on the program. We wanted to like it. The hype was enormous. Hope that helps someone make a decision.

 

I appreciate your opinion that swims against the tide of positive reviews. I'm always looking for more opinions when I'm considering a product for our homeschool.

 

Not sure what we will decide yet.

 

Thanks for taking the time to blog about it and to link to your blog here.

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