Music was not a big part of my family growing up, and as my husband I were married, it still didn’t really manifest. But now, with four children, three of which are taking piano lessons and one of whom is really demonstrating a great propensity toward this instrument and music in general, I am always looking at ways to incorporate music into our homeschooling curriculum.

I was therefore very excited to receive the “Musical Mathematics Set” from Education Dynamix. This particular curriculum is for grades K-5. This package included the following items:

• Musical Mathematics CD ($15)
• Instructional Guide for Educators ($25)
• Instructional Guide for Parents ($15)
• Student Activity Book (each $15)
  • Grades K-2
  • Grades 1-3
  • Grades 2-5
• Resource Packages, including Lesson Plans ($40)
  • Grades K-2
  • Grades 1-3
  • Grades 2-5
  • (Or you can buy all three)

The idea behind this program is one that all parents are looking for. How can we make learning multiplication tables fun? Younger children learn skip counting while older students can have the concepts reinforced. These ideas are put to the music and singing of Liz Robinson. She throws in music from a variety of different genres, and then she encourages children to learn to skip count, which will ultimately lead to them learning their multiplication facts.

In addition to the CD and parental guides, there is a Student Activity Book for each grade which provides a wide variety of activities for engaging students and providing work across different content areas. Topics like: numeration, geometry, measurement, algebra, data analysis, and probability are illustrated, taught, and reinforced.

I really encourage you to listen to samples of the songs yourself first. You can do so at the following link: http://www.eddynamix.org/cd.html. I appreciated that they were trying to introduce the children to different musical genres, however, my family’s opinion was that the genres still sounded very similar. They had the same vocalist and hearing the difference in the genres was not as obvious as I hoped it would be. In addition, we had some difficulty understanding the singing and counting. However, again, I really encourage you to listen to the samples which will allow you to judge for yourself whether this works for you. There is a sample provided for nine of the songs which provides ample opportunity to see how it may fit.

If you are a homeschooling parent who likes to glean and grab and take what you like, this program will work very well for you. However, I am the type of parent who likes to have my child sit down and know exactly what is next. I found ascertaining that a bit challenging with four different books. There was a ton of information covered in the guides. However, with four books, I felt a little “overwhelmed” with what I was supposed to do and how to form a lesson properly. Again, I believe this is simply a style issue.

I think this was a well thought out and thorough program. I definitely think the content is there to get the job done. Families need to check out the samples to see if this will fit your family well.

-Product review by Wendi Kitsteiner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, November, 2017