Music and Dance Appreciation - Slavonic Dance no. 7

I am trying a different approach for our home education this semester. We are doing Math, Copywork, dictation and English, which depending on the age is Phonics, Grammar or Spelling, on Monday to Wednesday. We do Devotions and Bible everyday. On Thursday we are doing Music Appreciation and Friday we will be doing Games.


We began with this week's show found on Classics for Kids website.  I downloaded the Activity Sheet that covered Slavonic Dance no. 7 .  While the children (ages 8 to 18 months old) did some of the activities on the sheets, we heard the show. Then we discussed nationalism, Revolutionary War, Europe's old map, countries of Europe, freedom and dominion of one country over another. Once we heard Slavonic Dance no.7 I did I search on YouTube and we found different versions for the children's entertainment, like this one:


Guitar Quartet


Then we talked about Russian Dance and the children danced while we heard the music again. This time, my DD8 recorded the ups and down of the piece and we decided to watch Russian dancers dancing to it. We watched these videos:

Russian soldiers 1
Russian soldiers 2 - a more complete video.

Then we played the second video again MUTED and opened another tab and played the video with the Slavonic Dance no.7. The children were amazed how the dancers actually danced to the rhythm of the song.

The children enjoyed this time very much. Then because my DS6 is obsessed with computers at the moment, he talked about a game he is playing on PBS kids about Asthma and I explained to him what it really is and how one gets it. He was concerned that he might get it. So we watched this video about it and what happens to your lungs. Then I explained about allergies and the reason why we don't have cats: I am allergic to cats.

This is not the first time that we begin with one theme and end up with a completely different one. Home education is really an adventure. :)

Are you doing anything different this semester for your homeschooling journey? Please share.

Blessings,
Tereza