Book Highlight: Meet Mozart and His Musical Starling

Introducing: Star & the Maestro: How a Musical Bird Made Melodies with Mozart

(Written by Thor Hanson; Illustrated by Matt Schu)

Imagine sitting on the couch with your child and opening the pages of a beautiful picture book. Before you know it you and your child are transported to 18th century Vienna, immersed in the sights and sounds of the city and taking pity on a poor, unattractive starling whom no one wants. Imagine your joy when the musical maestro Mozart hears his very own piano concerto coming from the beak of the musical bird and brings him home. With rollicking rhymes and inspiring illustrations, you and your child will find yourselves cheering for Star, the musical starling, and for Mozart's music!

Star & the Maestro: How a Musical Bird Made Melodies with Mozart, the book highlighted above, is used in our Primary A (K-2nd) curriculum. In addition to the beautiful illustrations and lively text, it contains informative notes about the time period, the composer, and more details about the true story of the musical starling who inspired Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This book, just released on September 24, 2024, is only one example of the many beautiful and enlightening books that make up the core of Music Comes Alive.

Wondering how to acquire the books for Music Comes Alive? Many of these books can be found through your local library system or through second-hand book stores/websites. For your convenience, we also sell the books for our curricula on our website. You can purchase them individually or as a course bundle.

Check out Primary A: Medieval Melodies to Musical Theater or Shop Primary A (Grades K-2)

Check out Elementary A: Medieval to Modern or Shop Elementary A (Grades 3-5)

Bring music to life at home with Music Comes Alive. Our easy-to-use, literature-based curriculum empowers YOU, the parent, to teach music in your homeschool!

Learn More about Music Comes Alive

Our literature-based curriculum features a comprehensive curriculum, which follows the same basic format for both Primary and Elementary levels. Featuring one lesson a week, our curriculum follows a four-week cycle each month: READ-FUNDAMENTALS-INSTRUMENT-ACTIVITY.

1. READ a picture book about the musician of the month

2. Learn a FUNDAMENTALS concept

3. Learn about an INSTRUMENT

4. Finish with an engaging ACTIVITY!

Each week's lesson also includes a listening assignment featuring music by the musician of the month. With open-and-go lessons, this learning cycle provides an easy, comprehensive guide to learning music in your homeschool! Our Get Started page has more general information about the Music Comes Alive course structure, Curriculum Guides, and Activity Packs.

In addition, two NEW pages have just been added to our website for both our Primary A Course and our Elementary A Course. Each course page provides a course description, Booklist, Scope & Sequence, and descriptions & examples of the Curriculum Guide and Activity Pack content.

Learn more about our Primary A Course for K-2nd grade!

Learn more about our Elementary A Course for 3rd-5th grade!

Let us help you bring the joy of music to your homeschool!