Now we're homeschooling via YouTube!

You may already know that we use a curriculum called Five in a Row, where you read the same book together five days in a row, and each day do something different related to the book.

One of the books in FIAR is called Babar: To Duet or Not to Duet.



Being a musician, I thought it sounded fun, but my library didn't have it and couldn't get it (which is unusual). It is out of print, and used copies on Amazon went for over thirty dollars.

But!

I found out that the book is actually based on a Babar TV series ... and the full episode of To Duet or Not to Duet was on YouTube!

So a couple weeks ago we "rowed" Babar by watching it! How cool is that?

We didn't go into depth as much as we usually do. We didn't do the art or Language Arts at all. Interestingly, the girls enjoyed the show, but did not want to watch it more than twice, and I even had to coax them into doing that.

We did a Babar maze and coloring sheets, and then found recitals of people playing Haydn's Surprise Symphony on YouTube! Very cool. Rachael learned to play it by ear.

I dug out some of my Music Mind Games I used in the public schools and in my private studio, and we did some rhythm and melodic dictation. It was fun. Unfortunately, we don't do that kind of stuff as often as we should.


This stuff is called "Blue Jello" because you say "blue" for a quarter note and "jel-lo" for eighth notes. As you can see, it's good for writing rhythms.



Here's Rebecca in front of her rhythms.

She would make up a rhythm, then I would clap it, but I would do part of it wrong. (A la Steve in "Blue's Clues.") They liked that, and caught me right away each time.


A better view of the rhythm itself.

Rachael went and brushed her hair, then came back so I could take another picture!

If you look closely, you can see the white braces on Rachael's legs. (Some of you may remember she had surgery and casts on both legs.) She has to wear the braces for about 7-8 more months.