Music Appreciation for the Middle Grades by Zeezok Publishing ~~ A New TOS Review!!

I was super excited when I found out that we'd be part of a new review of a homeschool music program which would allow us to cover 7 composers including Frederick Chopin, Brahams, and Tchaikovsky (one of my favorites!) Zeezok Publishing is the creator of Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades and their goal is to offer quality materials that cover a range of educational needs including music, penmanship, literature, and even film studies that they call Z-guides.

One of the first things I noticed in our set was that the book is the collection both meets and exceeds the national standards required for music appreciation for the middle school grades (5th - 8th). That is exciting to me! I am a music lover ... so is my husband ... but it's so hard to find good quality music theory and appreciation wrapped into one. But the Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades does just that - you get to learn about some of the most influential and well-known composers, listen to their music, learn music theory (about notes, rests, rhythym, time signatures, and much more), and even read music.

In the set we received a Student Workbook and nine biographical readers (both Chopin and Thaikovsky have 2 books to cover their lives). We were also asked to download a QR Reader app that would allow us to scan the QR codes to listen to the music of these composers. There were also additional QR codes to be scanned in the Student Workbook for links to other websites with additional information - like history of Poland or an interactive quiz. While you go through the Student Workbook your child is encouraged to write down some of the activities in what they call a Journal Notebook.

Journal Entry from student workbook

They also mention a Lapbook. which is sold separately. This would be great for those students who are really crafty or like to work with their hands. There is also a Coloring Book that could be purchased separately for your more artsy students or younger ones that focus on scenes from the books. My middle daughter, the main reviewer of this program, asked if she could color the pictures in the book and we told her SURE! She hasn't completed one yet, but she plans to work on the books after we finish reading them so she's started on Chopin: the Early Years  since we have completed the book.

In the Table of Contents you see that each book has been alloted 4 weeks. Within those 4 weeks the activities have been divided among those weeks. They mark all the activites that are required to meet national standards with an asterik [*] so they are easy to spot. You can do all of them, some of them, or even give different students different activities based on their age, since this is easily adapted to multiple ages being taught at the same time.

We began this program with only one student (8th/9th) really interested, but my son (who's in 5th) kept hanging around while we were doing the readings. He also liked listening to the songs. I didn't have him work on any of the activities in the student book, but I think he could certainly do that, he would just need a little more help since his handwriting isn't the best and writing sometimes takes him a bit longer. My daughter and I had an agreement that the longer answers I'd transcribe for her since she has trouble sometimes fitting in her answers on the provided lines. We also found a notebook to make into her Journal and she wrote all of those activities in her notebook.

Working on comprehension questions

using the book to write down the answers

As I said earlier each reader is scheduled for 4 weeks - the first book Frederick Chopin: Early Years, has 5 weeks. The other composers are Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, Stephen Foster, Johannes Brahams, Peter Tchiakovsky, and Edward MacDowell, and are written by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher. They are fantastic biographical stories about the lives of these composers that also include black and white drawings scattered throughout the story along with musical pieces written by the composers. The size and font is also easy to read for younger eyes or those who aren't a fan of reading as much. The stories are true, engagin, and cover many interesting facts and tidbits of each composers life story. Each book is about 150 pages in length. In our set we recevied 7 as paperback and one hardback and one as an e-book.

A song in another book with the QR code right next to it makes it
super easy ]to scan and listen during the reading.

The Student Workbook is 3 hole punched which would make it easy to add into a binder as well as being preforated.  At the beginning of each book study there's a glance of what you will cover in the 4 (5) weeks. Each lesson will cover a few of the same things - reading the chapter, answering comprehension questions, discovering character qualities of the composer, tidbits of interest from the reading, but they go into more detail; and then learning some musical information (note types, rest types, musical vocabulary, info about the orchestra, pitch, posture and breathing, composing, learning how to listen to music and much, much more!).

Student Workbook

Tidbits of Interest

Matching activity and a journal entry

Then in each of the chapters there are other interesting pieces of informations from maps, geography, culture, recipes and food, mazes, timelines and loads of other fun activities spanning the spectrum of learning.

While reading the Chopin book we learned that a traditional Polish Christmas dinner was 12 courses! My daughter has decided we should do that especially since I am a little bit Polish! LOL!

First story we read.

Christmas in Poland is 12 courses and no meat!

We also decided we were going to make the poppy seed cake, but we didn't have all the ingredients on hand, especially since we were moving to our new house and half of our items are at the old house still. But that's the plan for desert this weekend (last weekend we would have done it but it was my eldest's 16th birthday and my younger daughter didn't want to intettupt her celebration). There's a spice cookie recipe when we get to MacDowell and a recipe to make Russian Sausage when we learn about Tchaikovsky! She loves cooking so these are what she's most looking forward to doing while we continue the studies.

This I think will be a family favorite!

I love that the lessons engage the child and are done in such a way that they are interesting, true, and really teach the subject of music as a whole, the way we all should learn it.

Music in the story

I love the inclusion of the QR codes. While we were reading in Chopin when we came across the music we'd grab the student book and scan the code and pause to listen to the piece that we just learned about. My daughter was enamored how young Chopin was when he first started playing piano, especially since she's only been playing herself for a little while and she's about double his age! She also was excited that Go Tell Aunt Rhody was in the book because that's one of the songs she's learning to play!

screenshot from my phone of a scanned QR code

See that QR code in the middle of the page!!

There were/are other QR codes that lead to websites with additional information about the composer, his geographical location or a place that was connected to them or just general information about the time period. They really help make the books and information come alive.  All the QR codes for the music are listed in the front of the book for easy use and you can listen to them anytime, not just during the reading. You do not HAVE to have the app to listen to the music because there's a link to all the tracks on the website, but I think it makes it much easier.

QR codes at the front of the Student Workbook

You can find a sample of the Chopin lessons and see all of what I discussed for yourself. Just click the link at the bottom of the description - it's in tiny print. You can also find Zeezok Publishing on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. I personally have really enjoyed these books and the program as a whole. I hope to be able to go back and purchase Music Appreciation Book 1 to go along with Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades and have the complete set. I also think we're going to go through the Z-guides and see if there are any that complement my high schooler's history or Enlgish for this year.

As always I'm only one of MANY other reviewers so be sure to check out the other reviews of the Homeschool Review Crew by clicking the link below!