TOS Review - Music Together

I love music and have been trying to instill that same love in my children. Sometimes though the more children you have the less you spend with the littlest ones singing fun little songs. I remember when George was little we would sit on the floor together and go through a Mommy and Me type book with rhymes and cute songs. I thought reviewing Music Together would help me to do that same thing with Seppy and whoever else wanted to sing along.

What Is Music Together?

Music Together: Bringing Harmony Home "is an award-winning music and movement approach to early childhood music development for infant, toddler, preschool, and kindergarten children and their parents, teachers, and other primary caregivers. This approach develops encourages actual experiencing of music rather than learning concepts or information about music. It is being taught nationwide and Music Together CDs, songbooks, and classroom techniques enjoy widespread use."

This curriculum provides children with a rich music experience that includes a variety of tones, meters, and musical styles. It encourages the child to participate and join in in any way they choose with the teacher being flexible. And the teacher doesn't sit and instruct but instead has fun by being playful and easygoing.

The Product I Reviewed

We enjoyed going through the Family Favorites Songbook for Teachers and accompanying CD. It is a very comprehensive spiral-bound book with nineteen songs, a brief background of each song, ideas of how to incorporate it for various age groups, and the music to follow along with. Now, I know sometimes adults do not enjoy listening to children's music (I still enjoy it) but I did find this to be quality music and it reminded me of a Children's Performer in our state we have gone to see with catchy rhythms and words.

Our Experience

I planned on using this more with Seppy (almost 5) and Missy (almost 7) but after putting in the CD found more children gathering around. The first song is called "Hello Song" a catchy tune that has you singing along in no time. It is very interactive and each child likes to put in their own name when it comes time.

They especially enjoyed the song called "Playin' in the Kitchen" as we took instruments from around the kitchen and marched around. Who doesn't enjoy that? Well, maybe the Mama who finds it quite loud! And our little Zippy (age 1) had fun bopping around to the beat. He is our little music man and this is quite enjoyable for him. While it is not geared for older children I don't see a reason they can't participate. To get my oldest (age 13) involved, I gave George the music and asked him to learn the chords for some of the songs. Or you could have your older ones interacting with the littlest ones in teaching the actions.

My Thoughts

I was encouraged to learn that because all children have a natural tendency to be musical that they can all learn to sing in tune and move with the correct rhythm. Once in awhile I feel like a couple of mine can't carry a tune but as they are more immersed in music that begins to change.

I like the layout of each lesson and how it gives ideas for all ages. And while I have a musical background, this is written in such a way that it is easy to follow and having the music on the CD is of great help. In continuing the course I would like to do a bit more with some of the songs. For example on "Playin in the Kitchen" there is a bass line and then the melody in which you can teach the children to sing parts. We attempted that but it will take a few more tries until they get it. But they did keep the beat quite well so I was happy about that.

Details

You can listen to samples of the songs from the Family Favorites CD HERE.  And if you are like me and prefer to have your music in digital format you have the option to purchase digital downloads of the album ($9.99) and songs (.99 ea).

If you order the Songbook and CD combo instead of buying them separately, you can save $5 with a price of $39.95. And as a special for blog readers, if you purchase the combo and enter the coupon code "Schoolhouse" at check-out on the Music Together online store you can save an additional $2.

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**Disclaimer: As a member of TOS Review Crew, I received a complimentary copy of Music Together's Family Favorites Teachers Songbook and CD to review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.