Learn About Christmas Carols - the SQUILT Way!
Teaching your children about beautiful Christmas carols is a gift you can easily give this year.
Yes, it's wonderful to have carols playing in your home and to sing them with your children - but learning about the history of the carols, their meaningful lyrics, musical intricacies, and interesting arrangements - will turn the experience of learning about Christmas carols into a wonderful memory for your entire family.
This year we've added a third volume of Christmas carols to our collection, and we'd like to share with you what makes the SQUILT WAY of learning about carols different from what you may have done in the past.
SQUILT Christmas Carols
SQUILT - short for Super Quiet UnInterrupted Listening Time - is a method that builds the habit of attention and also the knowledge of the elements of music in your children.
SQUILT is all about LISTENING and responding thoughtfully.
The more a child listens to great music (and is prompted to listen for specific elements of music) the better they become at listening. You would be amazed at the observations children are capable of when given a musical masterpiece!
Let's talk about how this works with Silent Night - one of the most popular Christmas carols.
1. Listen (and watch!)
The first step in any SQUILT lesson is to listen to a quality performance. For Silent Night, we've chosen a classical guitar performance because Silent Night was originally written for the guitar.
(Bet you didn't know that!)
2. Guided Response
After listening and watching, students are guided through listening again (with a scripted lesson for parents with no musical knowledge!) through listening for the essential elements of music in the performance. They are also given the history of the carol, because this often the most rich and interesting part of a carol!
The SQUILT 4 box sheet is filled out - or for younger listeners a Draw What You Hear sheet can be completed.
3. Dig Deeper/Supplemental Activity
A supplemental activity can be completed during another lesson. Each supplemental activity focuses on a musical concept like melody, instrumentation, arrangement, major/minor keys, choral singing, etc...
With Silent Night, the students are presented with four different ARRANGEMENTS of the carol (each of them very different!) are asked to decide which they like best and why.
The lessons may also include lyric sheets, printable music, coloring sheets, and more. This gives you plenty of options in the lessons, as well as the ability to keep your littlest ones engaged!
"We have loved SQUILT's Christmas Carol bundle and incorporate one each week into our homeschool schedule. We love hearing different versions of the same carol and talking about who likes each the best. Highly recommend!"
~ Keri
Try a SQUILT Carol Lesson
We'd love for you to try this complimentary lesson and see for yourself what makes the SQUILT way meaningful and simple.
To see the SQUILT's full holiday offerings, just click here.
And, our three volume bundle is currently discounted!
