If you’ve wanted to share the beauty of classical music with your kids but worry they’ll find it stuffy, old-fashioned, or boring… then you need to check out Maestro Classics! We partnered with Maestro Classics the past few months and learned classical music the fun way with Maestro Classics set of 12 CDs.
Learn Classical Music Through Stories
Maestro Classics offers a series of twelve listening CDs featuring performances by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. I’ve never seen anything quite like this series, and it’s truly become a special treasury of music in our home.
The twelve CD series covers a range of famous and popular composers, songs, and narrations adults and children will enjoy. The titles include:
- Peter and the Wolf
- The Nutcracker
- The Story of Swan Lake
- Carnival of the Animals
- My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music
- Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
- The Soldier’s Tale
- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
- Merry Pranks of Master Till
- Casey at the Bat
- Juanita the Spanish Lobster
- The Tortoise and the Hare
Multi-sensory approach to classical music
The classical music performances are top-notch, performed by the highly acclaimed London Philharmonic. Beyond static listening, Maestro Classics takes it up several notches by blending music with a narrated story, poem, or other tale. As my kids listened, the pieces of music began to hold more meaning for them. They learned when something dramatic, scary, mysterious, or sad was about to happen by connecting the music to the story events.
Each CD contains several additional tracks. These tracks either tell the history of the music or life and times of the composer. There may be a track that shares additional music from the composer, or the same piece of music in another musical genre like jazz, folk, etc. Sometimes the conductor shares an inside scoop on what children should listen for. Finally, children are invited to listen to the original piece again with their “new ears” – ears now well-educated on this particular score.
In addition, each CD comes with an activity booklet which might include a game, a story to read, or details about musical instruments. Each activity book extends the learning and the colorful pages are fun to flip through while they listen.
PLUS Maestro Classics has loads of free content online! Like curriculum guides for several subjects to go with each CD – a treasure trove I’ll use all next school year! There are home projects like recipes and crafts, and a puzzles and games page with fun mazes and dot-to-dots.
Children learn to love classical music in under an hour!
Your children will be hooked after just one Maestro Classics CD with zero effort or cajoling!! My boys listen to Maestro Classics on loop half a dozen times a day.
- They hop out of bed and hit play on Peter and the Wolf while they get dressed and brush their teeth.
- They brought our CD player to the breakfast table to listen to Casey at the Bat about twenty times at the start of baseball season.
- The Nutcracker played repeatedly on our road trip to Washington DC. The Mouse King and Nutcracker featured prominently in the boys’ drawings for weeks.
- After listening to the Carnival of the Animals, my boys recognize “musical onomatopoeia” (music that sounds like the animal the piece is about).
Using Maestro Classics CD’s is a fun and special way to weave music, history, and literature into my boy’s lives at just the touch of a finger: Play.
Use Maestro Classics in your Home or Homeschooling
I love how Maestro Classics is adaptable to any family. You don’t have to be a homeschool family to reap huge benefits with these CDs.
- Put them on in the car while you’re out and about with the kids.
- Play them at bedtime or lunch.
- Give as a gift to a new parent or for a birthday present.
If you are homeschooling, these CDs the perfect resource to create a music education program with little fuss and a lot of fun. I’ll use the CDs extensively next year in our curriculum. I want to feature a “composer of the month” to dive into each CD more. Also, I plan to use the My Name is Handel CD along with our Classical Conversations program because he’s one of the composers we study. The Maestro Classics CD plus online free resources will make a great in-depth home study.
Get Maestro Classics CDs for your family!
Maestro Classics makes enjoying classical music exciting and easy with their high-quality CDs, and I’d encourage any family to get a set for their family.
- I recommend the 12 CD set, which has a 25% discount over buying CDs individually, and sets your family up for a lifetime of fun listening!
- For greater savings, purchase the 12-set MP3 Collection for 50% off individual CDs!
- Individual CDs or MP3’s are available if you have a favorite piece, or want to give as a gift (a great idea!). Listen to snippets of each CD before deciding.
Giving children the gift of music is one of the most meaningful and long-lasting gifts you could ever give. I’m grateful to have found the Maestro Classics collection to share with my children for years to come. (Psst! It’s been so fun for me to learn more about classical music as well!).
Which CD would be your child’s favorite?
Thanks to Maestro Classics for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own. Affiliate links have been used which provides a means to earn fees through purchases made via these links.
