Goss Homeschool Academy

I absolutely love our Nashville Symphony and the repertoire they expose our children to at the Young People's Concerts! This year, our first concert will highlight women composers! Often in classical music, the genius composition techniques of women were overlooked because of how society viewed women. The fact that these amazing women composers have stood the test of time speaks volumes to their talent and vision! The symphony has a lesson packet to accompany the music. I also love to share my thoughts on how to introduce the music to your children before you attend the concert. First of all, if you plan to just go and enjoy the music that is perfectly acceptable! The music teacher in me would plead with you though to listen before attending and become familiar with the music to make your visit even richer!  I love this article printed from one of the Parent Review publications by the Charlotte Mason schools.  In it she does encourage to wait until students are old...

When I began reading through the Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature I fell in love with all the music suggestions and examples given within the guide.  Music is my second nature!  I implemented a song right away for our gathering ritual and it's been so much fun singing together at our events. Here is our gathering song : I came across this Emerson poem when looking for inspiration of a "Thanksgiving" poem or song to use at the close of our nature gatherings.  Here's the melody I felt inspired to use with the beautiful text. Here is our song of thanks : If you lead a group please feel free to use these with your people!  If you are local to me, I hope to see you at our next adventure! -RaeAnna

Community dancing is such a wonderful activity for all ages!  I have seen the question pop up in many homeschool groups about suggestions for resources to teach folk dances so I want to share some of my favorites from teaching music and dance to elementary students in public school and our homeschool groups!  If you have the opportunity to find a group already in place to attend and learn dances and observe how they teach you will have a better understanding of how to approach this in a group setting!  You may feel like at the beginning like you are herding a bunch of cats but that's ok!!!  Practice and consistency will improve the process! Cited Material First, I want to just say how blessed I am that I have been fortunate to have training under the most talented folk dance and movement specialists.  I feel like my education and experience has been in the "golden" age through first hand workshops by the following professionals.   New ...