Maestro Classics Review

For our latest review were were asked to listen to My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Maestro Classics.

Maestro Classics CD’s combine well known children’s stories with classical music played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It is designed to allow children ages 6-12 enjoy classical music. On their site, they also have a list of educational materials to help you incorporate these classical music cd’s into your homeschooling journey.

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

There are 7 tracks on the CD:

1. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel – The Story
2. All about the Author, Virginia Lee Burton
3. The Mike Mulligan Song
4. All about the Music
5. Listen to the Story again, now that you know more
6. Get ready to perform
7. The Mike Milligan Song Sing Along

The Total Duration is 51:14 Minutes

My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music

There are 6 tracks on the CD:

1. My Name is Handel – The Story
2. About Handel and the Story
3. My Name is Handel Song
4. About the Music
5. Prepare to Perform
6. My Name is Handel Sing a Long

The Total Duration is 48:45 Minutes

The First cd we listened to was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. This classic children’s book, written by Virginia Lee Burton, is tale about friendship and loyalty: Mike Mulligan refuses to give up his agin steam shovel that he has loving named Mary Anne.

We then completed the 24 page activity book that is included with the cds. (If you purchase the mp3 download you will receive a pdf file of this activity book). The boys loved reading the short biographies about the author and the other main people involved. They also really loved completing the word search, crossword and other activities in the book. We also found a dvd at the library that included Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel which we also enjoyed watching.

Then we went on to listen to My Name is Handel. This story is about Handel needing to get back into the king’s good graces. To do this, he decided to compose a suite of dances and headed down the River Thams with his 50 musicians on a hired boat to surprise King George 1. This music then became known as “Water Music,” one of Handel’s best compositions.

We also completed the 24 page activity book that came with this cd and many of the Homeschool Music Curriculum activities as well. Learning about the history of the harpsichord and the organ and Handel really fascinated our boys. This is one of the composers that I was looking forward to teaching our boys about.

On the Maestro Classics website are some Homeschool Music Curriculum Guides that offer many ideas on activities you can complete that go with each cd. We completed many of these awesome activities which helped increase the boys knowledge and made them even more excited to listen to the cd over and over again.

Overall we have found these cd’s to be great for introducing and teaching our boys about classical music. We have all enjoyed listening to the music and the stories. Maestro Classics have done a great job of adding the classical music to make these stories engaging and enjoyable.

You can preview tracks from all of the Maestro Classic cd’s on their website. Other titles include: Swan Lake, Peter Wolf, The Soldier’s Tale, The Tortoise and the Hare, Casey at the Bat, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Juanita the Spanish Lobster.

Details At a Glance!!

Name: Maestro Classics
Website: Maestro Classics
Products: My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Price: Cd’s are $16.98 each and MP3 downloads are $9.98 each
Ages: For ages 6 – 12