Homeschool Choir

This past summer I met with a group of homeschooling moms that were interested in starting a choir program.  We all thought it would be a lot of fun and a good opportunity for the kids to get together to share music, but trying to figure out the logistics of it all was the biggest obstacle.  These families are from all over Western Kansas and even stretch out into Colorado, so having regular practices is kind of complicated.  We decided to try to coordinate our practices with already-scheduled homeschool get-togethers that meet pretty much on a monthly basis.  To be honest, I wasn’t sure how well this would work, but I told them that I would be a part of it and would do my best to make it a worthwhile experience.

We split the kids into three “choirs”:  one for preschool through 2nd grade, one for grades 3 through 6, and then the last would be for students in grades 7-12.  Because my kids are all older, I agreed to take the oldest group.  I made rehearsal cd’s for the kids to use to learn parts on their own between rehearsals, but I really did not know what to expect.

Our first program was our Christmas concert.  Each choir did 2-3 songs, and we combined grades 3-12 for a fun final song.  I can’t tell you how much fun this all was!  The kids absolutely put forth their best efforts, and I was more than pleased with how they learned the parts using the cd’s.  That allowed us to work on things like cut offs, consonants, dynamics, and energy during the few rehearsals that we had together.  I am pretty sure the kids all enjoyed it; I had one teenage boy who only joined the choir because his mom said he had to, but by the end he came up to me and said that he really had fun singing with the group.  That made me pretty happy!

It also makes me happy that my own kids are excited for the second semester meetings of the homeschool choir.  We will start meeting again in January to learn some songs for a program in April.  These are great kids to work with, and I am looking forward to seeing how the spring semester goes!

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Singing at Heartland Christian School

This semester the Prairie Family kids have been enjoying singing.  It’s fun to put songs together with parts–and, I must admit, hearing the kids singing acapella in four parts when we are driving around town puts a pretty big smile on my face!  🙂

I’ve also enjoyed having a high school student from Heartland Christian School come over to join us from time to time.  Since she had been practicing with us, we decided to go to her school to perform a song that we had been working on for chapel.  That was a neat experience for everyone.  Hopefully we’ll be able to get some more songs ready to do this again in the near future.

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