A Waltz!  A March! A Polka!  What is more fun than dancing and counting out such strong rhythms?

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: Elementary and middle school
• Prep: See YouTube videos below and listen to works

Kids do love to count, and everyone, young or old, enjoys the familiar beats of music that has moved humans since time immemorial. 

But does all music count out as regularly as 1-2-3 or 1-2-3-4?  Join Professor Carol for some new ways to count, and experience, music, including rhythms in “5’s” or in combinations of 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s. You might be surprised at how much fun it is to try, as well as how natural it all feels, once it gets going.

If you are able to hear even just the opening of the following pieces before our session, please do. But if not, don’t worry: do still join us to explore the endless possibilities of musical rhythm.

Take Five by Dave Brubeck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHdU5sHigYQ

Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm by Béla Bartók, No. 6 (here you can watch the musical score go by)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPrZkZNS7T4  

And for some real excitement, you might want to watch this prodigious little girl fly through the same piece!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrrP87iMyLQ

Wedding Chorus from A Life for the Tsar, Mikhail Glinka (a much quieter work—hard to hear even, but we’ll have fun with it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb1xuloUub8

Music evokes many moods including beauty, delicacy, reverence, nostalgia, and joy. 

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: High school and adult
• Prep: See YouTube videos below and listen to works

But music also portrays feelings that are difficult to absorb. This happens when composers express aspects of our human experience that are difficult, even life-shattering. Think, for example, how a composer might respond to the tragic events of September 11, 2001 (9/11). It certainly wouldn’t be with light melody and dancing rhythms. 

Today’s session will explore just this question: how do composers express that which is unthinkably difficult? The session is designed for high-schoolers and adults, and will feature two significant, aurally challenging works that have had enormous influence in the decades since they were composed.

Quartet for the End of Time (Quatour pour la fin du temps) was written in 1941 by the extraordinary French composer Oliver Messiaen while imprisoned in a concentration camp in Görlitz known as Stalag VIII-A

Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima by the master Polish Composer Krzysztof Penderecki reflects in an extraordinary way upon this shattering event at the end of World War II. Both of these pieces employ a modern, challenging musical vocabulary.  But they also deliver an important musical experience and teach us just how powerful music can be.

Participants are encouraged to listen to these works in advance if possible. But if you can not listen, still, do join us for the session! For the Messiaen I will address only the first three movements (c. 17 minutes): I. Liturgy of Crystal (c. [2:20] mins.), II. Vocalise (c. [6:45] mins.), and III. Abyss of the Birds (c [7:30] mins.).  

The Penderecki work I’ll consider in full.  You’ll find two performances below: one showing an orchestra playing it (fascinating to watch), and another giving you a look at the musical score to show how such non-traditional sounds can be notated (written down).  Please know that the opening of both pieces, but particularly the Penderecki, this piece challenge the ears! But stick with it, remembering, as you react, the subject matter and tiles of both. 

The following links will take you to good performances or you may choose to find your own. 

Quartet for the End of Time: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYpBHc8px_U&list=RDzYpBHc8px_U&start_radio=1&t=2093

Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu371CDZ0ws&feature=youtu.be

Musical Score

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HilGthRhwP8

Morning Time doesn’t have to be complicated.

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: Parent session
• Prep: None

In fact, it should help you breathe life into your homeschool. One way to bring more life into your school day is to incorporate Nature Study.

Nature Study in Morning Time can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes and will reap fruits that will bring you coming back for more!

In this practical session Joy will look at the reasons why Nature Study is a beneficial practice, plus focus on easy ways to get it done.

Memorizing poetry is fun.

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: About grade four and up
• Prep: None

Join Pam to memorize the poem “Fall, Leaves, Fall” by Emily Bronte using the ancient and fun memory palace technique.

Using zany images and a virtual walk through her memory palace living room, you will have a poem learned by heart that you can share with dad at the dinner table tonight!

Fall, Leaves, Fall

Emily Brontë

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

Incorporating memory work in your Morning Time doesn’t have to be boring

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: Parent session
• Prep: None

You can choose beautiful ideas over lists of facts! It also doesn’t have to be complicated.

Learn tips for choosing memory work and enjoying it with a wide range of ages.

How should Christians read mythology?

• Click here to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: Middle school to adult
• Prep: Read the short myth linked below.

In this fascinating session for ages middle school and up, Angelina will use the myth Orpheus and Eurydice to demonstrate how myths should be ready and also how Christians should approach the reading of myths.

Join us and be amazed at what myths have to offer the modern Christian when read well.

Please read the myth Orpheus and Eurydice prior to class for the best experience.

Link to myth here.

Good manners confer a powerful advantage in life.

• Click to watch the replay here.
• Best ages guideline: All ages
• Prep: None

Maryrose Wood (author of the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place books and founder of The Swanburne Academy, a new online membership for families) will lead a lesson in the proper writing of thank-you notes, Swanburne style.

Expect howling to ensue, and a readaloud, too!

You don’t have to study Shakespeare…

you can simply experience, alongside your kids, Shakespeare for what he is: a master storyteller.

• Click to watch the replay here.
• Best ages guideline: Parent session
• Prep: None

Join Mystie Winckler for a practical, non-intimidating approach to the Bard for your Morning Time.

Make a treasure for your fall decor

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: Ages three and up
• Prep: See supply list below

Join Meghann for this lovely handicraft for ages three and up.

Pin

• yarn in a variety of colors and weights
• scissors
• 12 inch wooden dowel or stick from the backyard

Pin

Pin

Have you ever taken the time to look a little bit more closely at a pumpkin before carving it into a Jack-O-Lantern or eating it in a pie?

• Click here to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: All ages (with help)
• Prep: See supply list below. Pumpkin artwork can be printed for tracing or reference.

In this Morning Time session, we will be studying the pumpkin – a favorite Fall fruit.

We will do an object lesson with a real pumpkin by asking a ton of questions to help us engage all of our five senses. We will also talk about some nature lore inspired by pumpkins and read a poem about Autumn.

There will be some fun interaction time, so get ready to answer some questions! We look forward to seeing you in the chat box!

Supplies:

• Paper or nature journal
• Pencil
• Colored pencils or crayons (optional)

Downloads:

• Pumpkin artwork
• Booklist about pumpkins and autumn
• Autumn nature poems

We all agree that poetry is an essential part of any education…

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: Parent session
• Prep: None

(including self-education!), but it can also be intimidating to implement into our daily practices. But that doesn’t have to be the case. This session will offer some tips for making poetry a daily habit to luxuriate in with your family, not simply a mysterious, frustrating but “must-do” part of the English curricula.

Nothing beats a good story time

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: Preschool and elementary
• Prep: None

Join Sarah Mackenzie from Read Aloud Revival for a rollicking good story time perfect for ages preschool through elementary school.

Make the most of your morning time and cultivate great conversations with your kids.

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: Parent session
• Prep: None

From discussions of current events to answering everyday questions, learn how to spark family conversations.

Mary Wilson will share resources and ideas that have helped her create space for great conversations with her own family and tips so you can implement a few ideas with your own.

Outnumbered & wondering what to do?

Create a Morning Time You Will Love

• Click to watch the replay.
• Best ages guideline: Parent session
• Prep: None

Planning a Morning Time should bring you joy, not anxiety.

Join Pam as she walks you through how to use the 4Rs — reading, ritual, recitation, and relationship to plan a Morning Time perfect for your family.