Book Review – The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book
Found in: Reviews
Simply Music lessons with a teacher or online are a wonderful way to begin a lifelong relationship with music, but it doesn’t mean you have to stop there.
Rachel Geans has discovered “The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book”, a delightful, multi-sensory experience you can use as a parent to open up your child’s mind to the enriching world of classical music (and quite possibly learn a little yourself).
Would you jump at a chance for improved memory, mood, focus, creativity and critical thinking? The “Mozart Effect” is a study that claims that students can benefit in all of those areas and more through being exposed to classical music, whether by learning to play classical pieces on an instrument, or just regularly listening to it. “The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book” offers an easy way to hear a terrific variety of lovely sounding pieces associated with many different eras and styles of music, by scanning QR codes right in the book and listening with a smart phone or tablet. It also includes an array of interesting fun facts about the role classical music has played in societies and governments throughout time. 
Learning the history, influence & famous names of classical music isn’t always included in the typical education of children these days and is mostly overlooked, even if a child hears the music on a regular basis. Simply playing recordings of the music for our children has always been the easy part, but with “The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book”, gaining knowledge to share with them is now easy too, and fun! The stickers and QR codes provide a multi-sensory learning experience for children and adults alike & really encourage further exploration.
This multi-sensory approach allows children (and adults) to better retain information they are learning. To me, “The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book” fits well with the ‘See, Say, Hear, Do, Teach’ ideal-ology that I have heard Neil Moore talk about in my Simply Music training. Also, the ideal of having parents highly involved in their child’s journey with Simply Music’s method of learning to play the piano is obviously of benefit to a child’s learning of anything else, and “The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book” opens up another perfect opportunity for child and parent to learn together. I see so much bonding taking place with my students and their parents when they work together in Simply Music lessons. They are both learning and love it! The time spent together is so special too and will make terrific memories for them to look back on in the future. The same goes for parents and children having reading time together, whether it be educational books or books just for fun. The non-hurried, snuggled up times when reading together are the same kind of moments that children and parents look forward to and will always have as good memories. It’s nice to take the time out of our days to create wonderful moments with our children and get a relaxing break from hectic schedules.
After reading through “The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book”, along with the interaction of putting the stickers into place & scanning the QR codes as you go, there are further activities that can expand upon the interesting information. The book is arranged thematically, which lends itself nicely to finding various subjects to work with. In one topic, ‘The Orchestra’, there is mention of the sections of an orchestra along with the families of instruments included. An activity for children related to this topic could be to create their own instruments with materials found around their home or classroom. Another topic, ‘Music for Ballet’, can be expanded upon by showing children the various forms of ballet, or even dance in general, and how people can express themselves differently with many different types of movement. Children can be encouraged to start out by swaying, marching, stomping, shaking, jumping, leaping, etc, and will expand on those as they get more and more comfortable moving to the music. A good number of famous historical names in music, including composers, musicians, dancers, storytellers, painters and more, are included in “The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book” too. All of these names can be looked up and more of their work discovered.
The pictures of well-known paintings, of musical instruments from long ago, of historical people and scenes, of orchestras and ballets and more, can lead nicely into learning about many areas of history, music related or otherwise. In the topic ‘Music and Painting’, the paintings inspired by music, or that may have been the inspiration for a piece of music, might themselves inspire little artists to start painting while listening to some beautiful pieces by famous composers. With the composers, you could focus on one each month, listening as well as singing or humming along to them, enhancing development of language, voice, tone, pitch, etc. Biographical information could be found too, perhaps by following the timeline included at the end of the book, and hearing about these inspirational people just might be encouragement to children to want to do great things in their own lives. Just an understanding of the broad influence classical music has had throughout history alone will serve them well in their futures.
So jump right into the fun of learning with your child, seeing them enjoy the interaction and together reaping the benefits of having classical music in your life. For a total-immersion experience, try out Simply Music Piano Lessons with a teacher or online and read “The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book” as well! All make fantastic gifts for the Holidays!
You can purchase your copy of “The Usborne Classical Music Sticker Book” here.
