Classical Kids

Long ago I was a schoolteacher. A multigrade classroom in a Christian school was my work environment for five years. I worked at a teacher supply store for a couple years during that time and spent just about all of my salary on teacher supplies.

One thing I bought back then was Classical Kids audio cassettes. Hopefully you've heard of these, but if you haven't, I do highly recommend them. Fascinating stories featuring music by famous composers familiarize the listeners with either lives of the composers or, as in the case of Mozart's Magic Flute, the plot of the opera.

The four cassettes I have are:
Mr. Bach Comes to Call: The great composer tells his story to a little girl
Mozart's Magic Fantasy: A journey through The Magic Flute
Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery: A tale of Venice and violins
Beethoven Lives Upstairs: A tale of genius and childhood


I dug these out and introduced them to my children last week, and these cassettes have been the only thing we have listened to in the car since! They particularly like the Vivaldi and Mozart selections. The stories are professionally recorded and the acting is beautifully done. Excerpts from the composer's most famous works are included, sometimes as background to the story and sometimes as short snippets just for listening pleasure, but always integrated with the plot.

There are several more Classical Kids selections that I do not yet own, but they are on my wish list! These are the titles I am hoping to get eventually:
Classical Kids Christmas: A telling of the Christmas story children's choirs singing your favorite carols
Hallelujah Handel!: Angels in the opera house
Mozart's Magnificent Voyage: A symphony of stories for all ages
Song of the Unicorn: A Classical Kids story with medieval music
Tchaikovsky Discovers America: A tale of courage and adventure
Daydreams and Lullabies: a celebration of poetry, song and classical music.

One note of caution. If yours is a family that avoids any mention of magic or spookiness, you will probably want to skip Mozart's Magic Fantasy and Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery. There is a lot of magic in the Mozart story and some slight spookiness in the Vivaldi story. I don't think it would offend most people, but amongst Christian homeschoolers, I do believe there are some who would find it unacceptable. I didn't use those two in my Christian school classroom because I felt that some parents could possibly have objections. However, I think that many families will find these stories both enchanting and enriching. You likely would have no objection to the stories about Bach and Beethoven. We personally have learned a lot and had our hearts touched by all of these stories.

As Beethoven believed (and we learned in the Beethoven Lives Upstairs story), "Music can change the world."