Three New-to-Us Christmas Resources

Each year, we read our favorite Christmas books, watch our favorite Christmas movies, make a few Christmas gifts, and try to incorporate Christmas into our homeschool by memorizing Christmas poetry and singing Christmas carols. Beyond all that, we are always on the look out for new resources to read or watch. This year, we found three new-to-us resources.

The Star of Bethlehem & Mystery of the Three Kings is a DVD with a scientific slant. Apparently, The Star of Bethlehem has had fabulous reviews. With many recommending this video, we were excited to find our library had a copy. In the next few days we'll sit down and watch it as a family.

Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, by Ace Collins includes thirty-one well known Christmas songs. Each chapter presents the history and 'story behind' one song. I have only read a few chapters, including the ones on "Good King Wenceslas" and "Do You Hear What I Hear?" Over the next week, I plan to select a few chapters to read aloud with the children.

A Christmas Odyssey: Adventures in Odyssey sounds like a wonderful resource. I would love to tell you some specifics, but my children have taken the set and are listening to it nonstop during free time. The few portions I have overheard are typical Adventures in Odyssey, filled with wit and wisdom.

Teaching Hymns

As Christian parents, who strive to hide God's Word in our children's heart through memorization, we also employ another tool to transmit God's message of love.  That tool?  Singing hymns. 

Often times the words from various hymns are from the Bible or summarize a Biblical thought/message.  By singing and often times, memorizing, the words our children have another way to remember God's Word. 

Personally, I cannot sing on key or clap on beat.  Therefore, I rely on CDs, a hymnal, a musically gifted daughter, and these great books by Bobbie Wolgemuth and Joni Eareckson Tada:

• Hymns for a Kid's Heart, Volume One
• Hymns for a Kid's Heart, Volume Two
• Christmas Carols for a Kid's Heart

There is also another volume called Passion Hymns for a Kid's Heart, which we do not own, yet.


Related Post:
Teaching Christmas Carols

Patriotic Songs

This year for history, we are studying the beginning of the United States of America.  We wanted to include some patriotic music into our lessons.  I started with a few introductory books.  Three books, which I recently found at our local library, use the words of patriotic songs as the text and add beautiful illustrations or pictures to them.

The first, The Star Spangled Banner, pictured by Ingri & Edgar Parin D'Aulaire, accompanies all the verses of our national anthem with beautiful color and black and white illustrations.  Pictures include iconic American scenes like ideal picnics, fireworks, and parades, as well as historical figures like George Washington and Abe Lincoln.

A song that fits perfectly into our upcoming history studies is Yankee Doodle.  Steven Kellogg illustrated the words with colonial scenes in the book bearing the same title.  An informational section in the back of the book offers a history of the song as well as definitions of words like macaroni.  These definitions were particularly helpful to my children since they use the term macaroni for pasta, and that is definitely not how it was used in the song.

The final book we looked through was The Glorious American Song Book: A Classic Illustrated Edition, compiled by Cooper Edens.  This collection offers a variety of popular American songs like America the Beautiful, Buffalo Gals, and She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain.  All accompanying artwork is from the late 19th / early 20th centuries and features artwork by artists like N.C. Wyeth, Winslow Homer, and Norman Rockwell.  Though this book is a fabulous introduction to some American songs, I believe it is one we will definitely revisit next school year when we study the 1850's to the present time.

Christmas Carols in Books

Yesterday, we stopped by the library. I wanted to pick up two books. We left with twenty. Love that library! Some of our surprise finds were Christmas carols illustrated in a book format.

 

The first is a lavishly illustrated book entitled We Three Kings, illustrated by Gennady Spirin.  The carol was first written in 1857 by John H. Hopkins Jr.  The book depicts the lyrics with intricate illustrations that feel majestic and fit for royalty.  Spirin's style is reminiscent of long ago paintings with the heads of heavenly and religious figures encircled in gold.  In all, the words and illustrations combine to form a profound effect.

The Little Drummer Boy is a Christmas carol we adore.  The simple words and rhythm telling of a young poor boy wanting to give something, anything to baby Jesus touch our hearts.  We found the lyrics set to a series of illustrations by Ezra Jack Keats.  Each page depicts a few lines of the song.   As the mood of the little drummer boy changes from hope, to awe, to sorrow (for having no gift), and triumphant joy as he plays his heart out on his drum for baby Jesus, the colors in the illustrations change to reflect these moods.  The little boy's facial expressions and countenance depict the words wonderfully.

Tomie dePaola's simple line and color illustrations lend themselves well to The Friendly Beasts: An Old English Christmas Carol.  Although I am unsure of the origins of this Christmas carol, we did enjoy the perspective of the animals on that first Christmas night.  The donkey, cow, sheep, and dove each give something of themselves to baby Jesus.  The words coupled with dePaola's illustrations are endearing.

The final two finds both illustrate The Twelve Days of Christmas.  One book, illustrated by Emily Bolam offers young pre-readers the opportunity to read, sing, or count along with a full song rebus.  As the days in the song lengthen so does the rebus, allowing readers to fully appreciate the scope of the gifts.  The illustrations have a modern flair, with a touch of humor.  We did have a bit of a dispute on Bolam's final four days as we typically sing it in a different order.  The order we prefer is used in The 12 Days of Christmas: The Story Behind a Favorite Christmas Song, written by Helen Haidle and illustrated by Laura Knorr.  This book combines beautiful illustrations, song lyrics, background information, and Bible verses.  Each painting illustrates a day in a joyful style with a colorful holiday flair.

In all, our trip to the library proved to be more bountiful than I had expected. 

My friend, Annette, wrote about some other Christmas carols in her post today, too.  Check out the sweet little mice illustrations and book suggestions at Live, Learn, Love.
Related posts:
Teaching Christmas Carols
Good King Wenceslas

Teaching Christmas Carols

The month of December is filled with special music and programs especially for Christmas.  This year, our daughters will sing in a Christmas choir concert.  In years past, we've watched live nativities, plays, and ballets and participated in a few.  Not only are there these extra programs outside of the house, but we have special music in our home.  During the month of December, we listen to Christmas carols and music almost exclusively.

Our favorite resource for teaching our children about Christmas carols is Christmas Carols for a Kid's Heart, by Bobbie Wolgemuth and Joni Eareckson Tada. Combining historical information, lyrics, Bible verses, prayers, and personal testimonies, the authors present each of the twelve carols with enthusiasm and interest. An accompanying CD is included which helps those less musically talented (me!).

Bach and Handel Biographies

Over the past several weeks we have read aloud from Sebastian Bach: The Boy from Thuringia.  Covering a chapter or two a week, we followed Bach's travels and growing musical talent.  Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher create an interesting tale of Bach's life with a focus on his music.














Following the biography of Bach, we decided to read of Handel.  Personally, I am enjoying this one far more than Bach's biography.  Perhaps it is due to Handel's passion for music or his father's reluctance to allow him to pursue music as a career, but knowing what a great musician Handel became.









Both biographies have study guides and enhanced CDs available.  Study guides have comprehension questions for each chapter and a time line.  The CDs have musical examples of each composer's compositions along with coloring pages and sheet music that can be accessed and printed.  We used the CD to its fullest extent.  I print up the pages for the children and play the music when called for in the readings.

Although we have the study guides, we haven't been using them.  Instead, I use a few coloring pages for each chapter.  As I read the chapter or chapters aloud, the children color a picture of their choice.  After the reading we discuss what we've read and I write some of the names of people and places on the chalk board.  Then, each of the older children writes a summary of the chapter they just heard.  We file these pages into their history notebooks.



To find out about more read aloud selections, visit Amy at Hope Is the Word
for this week's Read-Aloud Thursday link up.