First Steps in Music Classes
for ages 4 to 8
Music for All Ages
…is dedicated to offering quality music education, information, resources, and courses.
HERE’S WHAT WE DO
Our current project focuses on music education for ages 4-8. We spent the pandemic year creating four seasonal courses of 8 lessons each, and delivering them via online video.
We are using the curriculum First Steps in Music developed by Dr. John Feierabend after decades of research on music learning in children.
HERE’S WHY WE’RE DOING IT
Preschool through primary grades children are those most jeopardized by social distancing, and who can least afford to miss out on quality music education for the formation of their hearts, minds, and souls. Music learning is best absorbed from birth to around age 9, with the kindergarten year being the most important for acquiring pitch competency, beat competency, and artistic understanding. These skills in turn affect both language and mathematical learning, since music experiences engage both hemispheres of the brain.
WANT TO SEE AN EXAMPLE?
Check out our sample lesson if you have not already done so.
HOW CAN YOU FIND OUT MORE?
On the sample class page, you will have the opportunity to leave your email address. Then you will be placed on our mailing list to receive weekly emails with ongoing valuable information and teaching tips. You will also be alerted when we are ready to release the next seasonal course.
WHY AREN’T THE COURSES AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES?
Each lesson focuses on experiences going on in nature during a particular season, to increase a child’s delight in what he has already seen and participated in (for example, snow in winter), and to enhance his observations through songs, poems, and stories. For this reason we choose to release the courses seasonally rather than having them all available all the time.
IS THIS REALLY RIGHT FOR MY FAMILY?
We believe our music courses address an important component in the formation of children which is lacking in modern public education. The ancient Greeks considered music one of the pillars of a basic education for any child. It was never regarded as either a “frill” or as something only for an elite of super-talented individuals.
Our Courses
Seasonal courses help a child to observe what is going on in nature throughout the year!
Each lesson takes the child on a journey of song and movement. The singing sequence includes vocal development, learning simple songs, and vocal improvisation. Some of the movement activities include experiencing musical form through simple choreography done to classical music, and games, poems or songs that help the child keep a steady beat. Every lesson ends with a story-song (songtale) sung by the teacher as a cooldown to end the class.
Summer Fun
Our summer course was recorded outdoors! The challenges of extraneous noises were sometimes daunting, but it was worth it to get up close and personal with nature. Songs and movement games reflect the themes of each lesson - picnics, field trip to a farm, family travel, summer camp, and more.
Autumn Colors
Autumn is full of harvest activities, finding native fruits, apple picking, a visit to a pumpkin farm, All Hallows Eve, and much more. The themed lessons are full of folk songs and traditional movement games that reflect this season, and ease us into colder days.
Winter Dreams
Beginning with Groundhog Day, the winter course celebrates the season with songs and poems about snow, Jack Frost and his icicles, and winter sports. The last few classes help make the transition to a new season with lessons about mud, birds in winter, and hibernating animals waking up!
Spring Frolic
This course begins with a lesson on the Resurrection, as new life returns to the earth in the icons of nature that the Lord has given to us. Other lessons touch on the birds returning from winter migration, baby animals, spring rain, and more, all the way up to the end of the school year.