With a background in music education I strongly believe in the power of music to aid memorization. I was skeptical about the ‘Sing the Word’ CD series prior to purchasing one out of concern for the quality of the music and recordings. I am happy to say that our family has been very pleased with this series! While not every song is pleasant to listen to repeatedly, the majority are well composed and many feature interesting musical details. (rich harmonies, unusual instrumentation etc.) Best of all the songs DO help children memorize their scripture. It has helped our eldest immensely with the added benefit that our middle child, not yet school aged, has learned most of the songs too. He often prompts his older sister when she becomes stuck on a verse. Our family intends to purchase all 6 ‘Sing the Word’ CD’s and to use them throughout our homeschooling years.

We bought this product (Piano Wizard) for our two girls ages 9 and 11. They love it! They play when it is practice time and ask to play it when they have free time. We are not a musical family but have been trying to introduce it. What a great economical way to help kids get exposed to the piano.

Music Ace Deluxe

I highly recommend Music Ace Deluxe. I purchased it for my 7-yr-old son. He enjoyed it and always did more ‘lessons’ than I asked him to do. I am a piano teacher. The students who must sit and wait for siblings, do Music Ace. They look forward to the ‘wait’ now. The software keeps records of the progress of multiple students. It makes music theory fun. I like that it teaches pitch, rhythm, tempo and more while demonstrating with classic music.

Software can really enhance your homeschool curriculum. Timberdoodle offers many homeschool software programs.

Piano for Life DVD

Piano for Life is the best music coarse we have ever found.  Within 1 year, our son was composing music and has begun to teach other students using this DVD as a base.  However, it seems to be best suited for teenage kids.  Adults don’t usually have the time to spend practicing and preteens don’t have the discipline to follow through on their own.  There maybe something to personal gifting regarding music, so don’t necessarily expect your student to progress abnormally fast. You can expect any student to come away from Piano for Life with an excellent understanding of theory and the ability to play an instrument for pleasure.

Mr Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation

My daughters (8 & 10) and I have really enjoyed this series of books.  The story and characters are engaging plus a solid overview of church history by following the hymns.  Do note, there is a bias toward traditional hymn music and away from modern American worship music.  I found that I agreed with most of the statements.  Even better, they provided discussion starters with my daughters to encourage them to think about the music we listen to and what truly is praise.

The lyrics and sheet music are included for a sampling of each hymn writer, but I really do wish they’d make a cd set to go along!  However, it’s very easy to find midis or mp3s of quite a few of the hymns if you don’t read music.

Definitely recommended.