Classical music for children... it's fun! It's interesting. It's a bit spell binding and at times funny! These products that we reviewed for Maestro Classics made our running around so much more interesting to do. :) (even more interesting that playing on dad's tablet!). (Imagine that!!!)
Product Details
Received: MP3 Version of My Name is Handel:The Story of Water Music; and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Also received the activity books for each as PDF's.
Vendor: Maestro Classics
Price: $9.98 for download, $16.98 for CD.
Age Range: The ideal age range for this is 4 and up depending on the CD you are using. Just so you know though... EVERYONE in this household likes these. Ages range from 8 to 48.
Received: MP3 Version of My Name is Handel:The Story of Water Music; and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Also received the activity books for each as PDF's.
Vendor: Maestro Classics
Price: $9.98 for download, $16.98 for CD.
Age Range: The ideal age range for this is 4 and up depending on the CD you are using. Just so you know though... EVERYONE in this household likes these. Ages range from 8 to 48.
How we used these:
I downloaded them onto my phone. My sweet hubby figured out for me how to make them into a continuous playing file (WOOT WOOT) and my son was hooked. We listened to them a few times as we were toodling about from here to there. Dad thoroughly enjoyed them as well.... even managed to get them playing through the van sound system which was WAY better! :)
I have to be honest... we didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the activity books that came along with the downloads... until it was crunch time and I said OH!!! We gotta do the books too! So off I rushed to show them to the lad.
This became an excellent review time. It also filled in some of the gaps, questions the lad had about different things, and provided us opportunity to discover things we didn't know already. So glad we almost forgot them as they were such an excellent item to come back after all the listening we did. :)
I downloaded them onto my phone. My sweet hubby figured out for me how to make them into a continuous playing file (WOOT WOOT) and my son was hooked. We listened to them a few times as we were toodling about from here to there. Dad thoroughly enjoyed them as well.... even managed to get them playing through the van sound system which was WAY better! :)
I have to be honest... we didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the activity books that came along with the downloads... until it was crunch time and I said OH!!! We gotta do the books too! So off I rushed to show them to the lad.
This became an excellent review time. It also filled in some of the gaps, questions the lad had about different things, and provided us opportunity to discover things we didn't know already. So glad we almost forgot them as they were such an excellent item to come back after all the listening we did. :)
click image for source My Name is Handel: The story of water music. Handel's 24 page activity book was an easy read, it sparked my lad's interest so much that we looked up what Westminster Abbey looked like were Handel was buried. We continued reading and learned about Handel using a seat chair. My son was so intrigued by that, it surprised me. So we looked up what a seat chair was. How funny to call for a chair like we would call for a taxi nowadays. :)
"Mom? Why would he do that? Couldn't he walk as fast as the people could carry him? Why would he want to sit down and be carried?"
Recommended listening age is 5 and up.
There was so much interesting things to learn in the activity book and it was actually great that we forget it as coming to it after the fact showed me how good my son's recall was for the classical music for children download was. Sign of something well worth listening to as he paid good attention to the details. :)
"Mom? Why would he do that? Couldn't he walk as fast as the people could carry him? Why would he want to sit down and be carried?"
Recommended listening age is 5 and up.
There was so much interesting things to learn in the activity book and it was actually great that we forget it as coming to it after the fact showed me how good my son's recall was for the classical music for children download was. Sign of something well worth listening to as he paid good attention to the details. :)
Moving on to Mike Mulligan the oft repeated query was.. "Mom, did this really happen or is it just a nice story?" My response was I didn't know, but I thought it was just a nice story. BUT we later learned that Mike is a person and Mary Ann is a toy. "Okay, I like how they tell it mom, it's a good story".
Suggested age for Mike Mulligan and The Steam Shovel is 4 and up.
In the activity book that came with it there wasn't as much detail as with Handel, but they had a variety of activities children could fill out. My son wanted to do this one, and then we sounded it out on our keyboard. I would have loved to have seen more information on steam engines and to learn if it was even possible to turn one into a heater.
Suggested age for Mike Mulligan and The Steam Shovel is 4 and up.
In the activity book that came with it there wasn't as much detail as with Handel, but they had a variety of activities children could fill out. My son wanted to do this one, and then we sounded it out on our keyboard. I would have loved to have seen more information on steam engines and to learn if it was even possible to turn one into a heater.
In Mike Mulligan we were introduced to the Uillean pipes, we saw what they looked like and then listened to some music by them. NOTE: you will need to go to youtube to listen to it. :)
Maestro Classics has an educational area. You may wish to check it out. They don't have material on there for every CD they have published, but they do for most. While we were on it we were advised to check out the Budapest Xylophone so we did.
Here's the one we liked the best.
Here's the one we liked the best.
Our family opinion: very well done product, we'll be looking into getting more of them.
The four that the TOS crew reviewed are:
My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Casey at the Bat
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.
Please do click on the banner below to learn what the rest of the TOS Crew thought of these productions. They are quite good and my lad thoroughly enjoyed the two that we received. :)
The four that the TOS crew reviewed are:
My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Casey at the Bat
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.
Please do click on the banner below to learn what the rest of the TOS Crew thought of these productions. They are quite good and my lad thoroughly enjoyed the two that we received. :)
Maestro Classics can also be found on PInterest andFacebook. They have produced a good list of CD's for children such as:
Swan Lake
Peter and the Wolf
Carnival of the Animals
Sorcerer's Apprentice
Mike Mulligan
Casey at the Bat
Handel
Juanita the Spanish Lobster
Soldier's Tale
Tortoise and the Hare
Swan Lake
Peter and the Wolf
Carnival of the Animals
Sorcerer's Apprentice
Mike Mulligan
Casey at the Bat
Handel
Juanita the Spanish Lobster
Soldier's Tale
Tortoise and the Hare
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