Teaching your child to become proficient at playing a  musical instrument passes a great gift onto them as well  as a lifetime skill that they will always possess.

That’s all well and good but when you start to see how  much the cost of a guitar lesson is, it can be off  putting. If you have more than one child who wants to  learn, it becomes scary how much you will end up  spending on kids guitar lessons.

Have you ever considered online guitar lessons or video  guitar lessons?  We don’t mean the free youtube lessons  either.  We are talking about getting a quality program that really will teach your child how to learn to play guitar.

There are many how to play guitar for beginners courses  available that you can access online or on DVD.   Imagine, you need just the one set of beginners guitar  lessons DVDs and you will be able to provide all your  children with guitar lessons for no extra cost.

Of course, you will need to get one of the high-quality  how to play guitar beginner courses that can take your  child from a complete novice to being able to strum a  decent tune.  Gibsons’ Learn and Master Guitar with Steve Krenz is a well-known  and highly recommended guitar course.  If you want to get serious about learning the guitar this is the program that will teach you.Gibson’s offer their Home School Guitar Lessons package because they know that homeschooling is very popular all over  the country as more and more parents make the decision to  teach their children at home.

Whilst homeschooling parents have to be knowledgeable  about a variety of topics, and the home schooling  curriculum can help, there might still be certain things  that you, as a homeschooling parent, might find hard to  teach your children.

Take music lessons for one thing.

How do you teach a child to  play the guitar or piano, or any other musical instrument  if you don’t know how to play it yourself?

Teaching your child to become proficient at playing a  musical instrument passes a great gift onto them as well  as a lifetime skill that they will always possess.

Short of finding a qualified music teacher who can teach  your child (and even this won’t likely be an easy task as  you will have to vet all your applicants and make sure you  find someone who resonates with your child), finding a  learn to play guitar guide is the next best thing.

Luckily, a system has been developed especially for  homeschooled students who want to learn how to play the  guitar.  Gibson’s  Home School Guitar Lessons is the ideal course for homeschoolers. In fact, whilst there are lots of courses on offer, there is a specific system that has been created especially for homeschooled students: Gibson’s Learn and Master Guitar Home School  Edition is a complete 2-Year Guitar Curriculum that has  been designed specifically for home school families.

Even if you have no previous experience of playing any  musical instrument and have no musical skill at all, you  will still be able to learn to play the guitar by learning  from the exceptional Gibson’s Learn & Master Guitar guide.

This is not a “learn to play the guitar in 7 days” guide.

This is a comprehensive, step-by-step video lessons guide  to learning to play the guitar.   These lessons will take  you from being an absolute novice through to the advanced  skills training that is undertaken by professional guitar  players.

Why Gibson’s Learn & Master Guitar Home School Edition is A Great Learning Tool

As a home schooled family with no musical parents to pass  on their skills to their children, the only choices you  have are to learn from books, hire a music teacher or find  another learning aid.

Books by themselves are not the ideal way to pass on the  skills needed when learning to play a musical instrument.  You cannot learn to play a musical instrument from books  alone.
Even if you have a computer-based system to teach your  children, you wil find this to be difficult to use as your  child (or you) will need to play their instrument, whilst  trying to use the computer to move through the learning  experience.

Benefits of Gibson’s Learn & Master Guitar Home School  Edition

Home school students might find that one of the most  appealing things about the Gibson’s Learn & Master Guitar  lessons system is that they are able to fit the lessons  into their daily schedule at a time which suits them best.

You will also find that you can:

* Save money! No need to pay for musical tuition. The  Gibson’s Home School Edition has a 2 year curriculum,  which would easily cost you in the region of $3000+ if you  were to opt for private lessons

* Only buy one edition and use it for all your children

* Course aimed at all levels, from beginner/intermediate  to advanced

* Suitable for adults and children

* Develop ear-training skills which enable you to listen  to a tune and immediately play it

* Exercises help build your muscle-memory so that your  fingers will do what you want without you even looking at  the guitar

* Learn the Major and Minor scales

* Master the entire guitar fret board so that you will be  able to solo in any key anywhere on the guitar neck
What’s In the Box when You Buy this Home School Learn to  Play Guitar Edition?

When you buy this system you will get high quality videos  and clear and simple easy-to-follow instructions that will  take you from the basic fundamentals through to advanced  guitar playing. You will get:

* 20 DVD Guitar sessions
* 100+ page lesson book
* 68 page teacher guide
* 2-DVD teacher resource set
* 20 Video Demonstrations
* 40 Workshop Videos
* Reproducible Weekly Practice Logs
* Fret board memory exercises
* Progress Chart
* Speed Sequences
* Finger Workouts
* Essential chords
* Free Jam-Along CD Tracks
* Free Student Support Forum
* Free Email Support

Order with Confidence
You also get a 60-Day no questions asked money bak  guarantee in case you buy this and are not happy for what  ever reason. Simply return the course within 60 days and  you will get a FULL REFUND – NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

Don’t Have a Guitar?

No problem. Gibson’s Homeschool Edition has two Exclusive  Start Up Bundles that can help budding homeschool music  students who don’t have a guitar.

You can get the:

* Epiphone DR-90S Player Pack
OR
* Epiphone Special II Player Pack

to help you get started.

These contain:
- a high quality Epiphone guitar
- an Epiphone amplifier (Special II Pack only)
- a gig bag
- Strap
- picks and accessories
- and of course, the Gibson’s Learn & Master Guitar  Homeschool Edition

For homeschool students who are looking to learn to play  the guitar, the Gibson’s Learn & Master Guitar Homeschool  Edition is the perfect homeschool system for you.

The Learn & Master Guitar Student Edition.
Designed for Homeschoolers!
We Make Learning Fun!
Order Yours Now!

Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review

It all depends how comfortably your child can hold the  guitar. He or she will also need to have strong fingers  so that they can hold down the guitar strings.

The number one rule when it comes to getting your  children to learn to play the guitar is that they  enthusiasm to learn the guitar must come from your child  and not you, the parent.  Never force your child to  learn a musical instrument if they don’t want to.

Another pre-requisite is that you find a guitar teacher  who is good with kids, especially if you are getting  your 5 year old to learn.  Children tend to have short  attention spans and want to give up easily, often being  distracted by lots of different things.

A teacher who is experienced with children will know the  right level to set the class at so that your child finds  the lesson fun and exciting and wants to learn.

Learning to play guitar is a different best to  learning to ride a bicycle, for example.
You carry on practicing how to ride a bike until you  reach that moment where you no longer fall off the bike.

When learning to play the guitar, you’ll soon get to a  stage where you can strum a few chords but you’re not at  the stage where you can play the more popular guitar  songs, blues or riffs. But, you can strum a few chords,  so – if you’re happy with just that, you could stop  there.  But, as with any musical instrument, the more  you practice, the better you will be.

As well as being able to play easy guitar songs, with  more practice you’ll be able to make use of more  technical elements such as pull-offs and hammer-ons.  Maybe later you’ll be able to play the more popular,  mainstream guitar riffs and songs with ease.

Its not just about the chords or learning to read guitar  music, you’ll have to learn a bit of guitar theory too,  if you really want to become an expert at playing the  guitar. This will take time, possible two years or more.

If you enjoy it, it becomes a passion and not a chore  and you won’t be asking yourself how much longer do you  have to keep learning. You will learn more by playing  the guitar more but when starting out make sure you get a good-quality guitar course to teach you.

You might have ended up being very overwhelmed and confused because the internet is rife with lots of courses claiming to teach you how to play the guitar in a number of days, if not hours.

If something sounds too good to be true, then chances are, that it probably is too good to be true and you should avoid rushing in to purchase a course that you believe won’t stand up to its claims.

Gibson’s Learn and Master Guitar lessons programs are the real deal.

You know this because the program is backed by a 60 day guarantee and has a student forum where you can interact with other students and get their thoughts on the course.

There are many reviews on the Gibson Guitar website – Click here to find out more, especially if you want to
get serious about learning the guitar.

Here are some typical reviews:

“I must thank you Steve. You have changed my life. If it weren’t for L&M Guitar and now the Blues Spotlight Series, I would never played guitar. I started last Mar 13th and followed the program religiously. Then in November, bought the spotlight series for Blues guitar. I love to play. In my wildest dreams I never believed I could play, much less get up in front of someone. Now I can and I am having a great deal of fun with life again. Thanks for caring so much for people and sharing the gift of music God has bestowed on you with people like me.”
Joe King, Fayetteville, North Carolina

“I bought the Learn and Master Guitar Course in 2009. I especially enjoy playing over one of the backing tracks in the course that is called “Suspended Smooth” which is on CD 3, track 21. I decided to record and upload to You Tube as an example of what one can learn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7WWys87bG4

Thank you Steve for putting out such a wonderful course. It is really helpful. I did not begin playing guitar until 2001 at 32 years old and your course has contributed a great deal to my development.”
Troy Newbegin, Johnson City, Tennessee

Different Levels of Learning to Play the Guitar

There are many different levels for beginners and whether you are a total beginner or an intermediate guitar player, the level of training is pitched just right for you.

There isn’t an individual that we can say was  responsible for creating the guitar.  And in fact the  guitar really has its roots back in many different  ancient civilizations.

The classical guitar was more a progression of early  string instruments such as the sitar and tantar that originate from India.

A carving in central Asia back in the first century CE,  is the earliest image we have of an instrument that  resembles something akin to the guitar, with its  hourglass shaped body.
This guitar like shape was only seen again in the 11th  century in Byzantium and increasingly in Europe from  this time onwards.

It is believed that the first six string guitars were  made in Italy back in 1779.

Who Invented the Electric Guitar?

The electric guitar was introduced in the 1930s and the  first real all electric guitars, made from aluminium and  played across the knees with a slide, were made by the  Electric String Company back in 1931.   The first  electrified acoustic guitar was called the Gibson EL150  and was made around 1936.

The electric guitars that we know today, with the solid  body and made from one piece of wood and with no sound  holes, were made by Les Paul in the 1940s.

Leo Fender led the way in the 1950s and start mass  producing electric guitars with the Telecaster being the  first in his product line. This was quickly followed by  the Gibson Les Paul.

What Type of Guitar Should You Learn To Play?

If you want to learn to play guitar but don’t know whether you should learn to play an acoustic guitar or a classical guitar (the one with nylon string) – I’d say it would down to you and your budget.

The classical guitars are the cheapest to buy but not the easiest to learn.
The acoustic guitars are easier to play but not as cheap.

It depends on your budget and your preference and its really down to a personal choice.

How long should you take guitar lessons for? That also depends on how well you want to play this instrument. If you are looking to amaze your friends and family, you’ll need to get really good at it than just learning to strum a few beginners chords.

When there is an opportunity for your children to learn  a musical instrument at school, you should encourage  them especially if they show an interest.

Don’t force your children to play a musical instrument  if they don’t want to. Similarly, don’t force them to  play the piano if they want to learn the guitar or vice  versa. You’ll be surprised to hear how many parents can  be pushy in forcing their child to play a particular  instrument because they (the parent) deem it to be a  more superior instrument or good for spatial awareness  or some other thing.

Let your child learn to play whatever instrument he is  interested in – even if it is the bassoon!

Learning to play a musical instrument will help your child  in many areas, such as being focused, being able to concentrate for longer periods of time,  enhancing their listening skills as well as teaching  them that the art of continual practice leads to  betterment.

These days a lot of children like to learn to play  guitar. Whether this is because there are a lot of music  artists that play the guitar, from Pink, to Prince to  Bon Jovi.

For many kids, learning to play guitar is seen as more  “hip” than playing the more classical musical  instruments such as the piano, for example.

Guitar playing will require that you are able to read  guitar tablature and read chord blocks (as well as  reading music) and doing finger exercises to build up  the dexterity in your hands.  After all, you’re child will need their hands to be strong and flexible so that they can  strum the guitar strings properly.

If your child is interested in learning to play the guitar you should do all you can to encourage them providing they are the right age to learn the guitar. You can also find good quality kids guitar lessons as well.

Perhaps you have taken too much on.

It’s OK though, this is what moms do.

We all think we are superhuman. Not from choice, but   because  we have to be. Otherwise, who else is going  to  take over your workload?

Actually, there is a way and its not as expensive as   you might think.

Find Nannies Near You! Save Over $25 on a Subscription

Hiring a nanny or an au pair can be a great way of  getting extra help with childcare or general  housekeeping duties around the house. Although many of  us do not give this more than a fleeting thought.

We tend to think that hiring a nanny or getting a  live-in aupair is going to cost a lot of money.  It’s  not as expensive as you might think and when you weigh  up the advantages of hiring extra help, you’ll find you  have more time and energy than you have had in a long  time.

So, the long and short of it is: YOU don’t need to take  on all of your household tasks AS WELL AS the childcare  AS WELL AS working from home too which many women are  now doing.

You can take a moment or two to yourself – after all,   you deserve a break too.

GreatAuPair is the leading choice for parents who seek  safe, quality care for their children.

What is An Au Pair?

An au pair is usually a young woman from outside the US  who is in the US working as a childcare provider for a  family.

Au pairs live as a part of the family and therefore will  be allocated a room for their own use in your house.   They will be responsible for looking after your children  and doing some household duties, typically these  involving feeding the children or ironing their clothes.
They do this in exchange for staying in your home and  therefore not having to pay for accomodation elsewhere  and will also get a monetary allowance too.

A lot of au pairs work part-time because they are  usually in the US as part of a study course although  many do work full-time.

The term “au pair” is French and means “a part of” or  “equal to” which in this context gives relevance to the  concept that the au pair is someone who is part of your  family albeit for a short about of time.

Au pairs are NOT domestic servants or cleaning maids.

Finding a Nanny or Expert Au Pair

The terms “nanny” and “au-pair” tend to be used together  to mean the same thing, which is, having a childcare  provider helping out in your home (as opposed to you  dropping your child off at the local daycare center).

A nanny can be live-in (in which case she will have her  own room and be a part of the family, which is what an  au pair’s role is).  Or, a nanny can be someone who  comes to your house daily but then leaves at the end of  the day (or the session, which can range from a few  hours to a whole day).

Most people would like to have in home child care but  don’t know how to go about it. The most off-putting  aspect of hiring a nanny is the trust factor. Let’s face  it, you will be leaving your most precious of all  things, your children, with a total stranger. That’s a  frightening thought.  And most people never get beyond  this stage and hence never get help with child care.

But stop. You see women hiring a babysitter, finding a  nanny online, hiring au pairs all around you. These  women, you might notice, are a lot more calmer, happier  and less busy than you.  That’s because, they have found  the right babysitter, or hired the perfect nanny or  found the expert au pair who will do a GREAT job of  looking after their child. Which leaves them free to go  back to work, or start that part-time business from  home, or get some errands done, or visit some friends  for lunch, or have a nice time out with their husband.   You get the point.  These women have trusted a complete  stranger to look after their children.

How did they do it?

They found a nanny agency to help them.

How To Hire A Nanny

The best way of hiring a nanny or getting an expert au  pair or even a good babysitter is to go through an  agency that can do the job for you.

Au pair agencies or nanny agencies, call them what you  will, will carry out all the necessary background checks  for nannies or au pairs for you.

This means they sift out the people they do not like,  based on certain criteria and they present you with  reliable, honest, trustworthy childcare providers.

Its then up to you to interview these candidates  yourself until you find the right childcare provider for  your children. You’ll want to be prepared with a list of  questions to ask a nanny, including any references from  families she has worked with in the past.

There are many nanny agencies around and you might want  to check out  GreatAupair.com which is a leading  international online job matching service used by many  families to find affordable and trustworthy childcare.

Parents who are looking for safe, quality care for their  children, use GreatAuPair to help them find the right  childcare provider for them.

With GreatAuPair, you can logon to a safe and secure  website to find help that you might need in the day to  day running of your family home.  You have access to  free  background checks, secure email and the most  advanced  search tools and security systems to ensure  ease and  safety when finding caregivers with  experience.

This is how you go about hiring smart and ensuring you  get quality care at a price you can afford.

If You Need A Nanny & Wanted Trusted People – Check Out GreatAuPair.com

Get Quality Help In Any Area of Your Family Life

GreatAuPair provide more than just help with childcare. In fact, over 1,000,000 families and caregivers have benefited  from the premier range of services that cover the life  cycle of a family, from:

• child care (au pairs, nannies,  babysitters)
• tutoring
• housekeeping
• to special  needs care
• personal assistants,
• senior care
• pet  sitting

Babysitters In My Area

If you have just moved to a new town and need help   whilst trying to settle down and get your house in  order, you might want to consider using the services of  an agency such as GreatAupair.com.

You will have enough on  your hands with getting the  children settled into  school not to mention getting  settled yourself  (helping your husband)  into their  jobs as well as  trying to unpack and get into a  familiar and comfortable routine.

At times like this you’ll find that hiring a nanny, a  babysitter or  an au pair,  will make your transition  easier and more seamless. This is important if you want  to have minimum disruption at a time of great upheaval.

GreatAuPair has 1000s of happy parents whom they have  helped provide childcare for over the years.

With a match  success rate of 90% over the past 10  years, its no wonder so many parents are extremely happy  with their service.

With GreatAuPair.com you can get peace of mind and:

Get someone to look after your children.

Get someone to cook for you.

Get some home help to help clean your house.

Maybe you need special needs care?

What about a personal assistant?

You can find ALL of these professional helpers in one  place.

Whether you are are looking for child care Houston,  child care assistance in Florida or a nanny agency Lost  Angeles, ONE WEBSITE can do it all.

One website, can help you to locate the help you need   in YOUR town.

Quickly and easily.

Why spend hours and days surfing on the internet trying   to find help when you can get the staff at   GreatAuPAir.com to find the right people for your job?

As a mom, you already have your hands full. Why not give GreatAupair.com a look?
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Or do you send them off to school holiday clubs and trust that the teachers there can keep your youngs one busy.

Planning how you are going to spend the school break, whether it is the short christmas or easter breaks or the long summer vacation is best done if you can plan out beforehand. Then you can timetable in how you are going to spend the days and you will be saner and better off for it.

Try to put some days aside for doing outdoors activities, say going to a museum or a park on one or two days of the week. Then having one day set aside for doing craft activities at home (and then you have only the one day where your home get get dirty, let them do their play-doh and sticky glue and water paints activities on this day). Set a day aside for a play date either by having someone come to your home or sending your child over to their friend’s house for the day or a few hours.

Children respond best to a routine and also if they know how they are going to spend the day. If you don’t plan anything, in advance and just see how it goes, chances are they will bicker, get bored and make a lot of noise and start fighting with one another and you will become overwhelmed and fed up.

So, planning ahead of time how you are going to spend your holiday period is the best way to go.

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Moms are always busy and therefore having a back to school checklist is one way of keeping organized (and sane) when trying to get the right back to school supplies for your kids. The following are back to school supplies list for the different stages of school. These lists are by no means definitive but should serve a guides for the main school supplies your child would likely need at any stage.
Ideally, you should have a list of supplies via a letter from  school. If not, you can always phone the school and get an updated school  supplies list or check the school website:

School Uniform Checklist:

• check school uniform and shoes/sneakers still fit

• buy school uniform and gym kit if needed

• buy school shoes if needed

• buy school backpack for daily use

Preschool Supplies List:

• Lunch box (or bag) with name label

• Plastic drink container with name label

• Freezer packs for lunch boxes/bags

• Apron or art smock

• Change of clothes in case of toilet accidents or spillage

• Healthy packaged snacks

Elementary School Supplies List:

• Apron or art smock

• Lunch box

• Drinks container

• Packaged snacks

• Freezer packs for lunch boxes

• Files/folders

• Pens/Pencils

• School backpack that can hold a lunch box, files/folders  and pens/pencils supplies

• Crayons

• Washable markers

• Glue stick(s)

• Eraser

• Pencil sharpener

Middle School Supplies List:

• School backpack/ book bag

• Binders for each subject

• Binder dividers

• Folders for each subject (for handouts)

• Highlighters

• Pencils

• Pens

• Markers

• Ruler

• Compass

• Spiral notebook

• Mini stapler

• Protractor

• Loose leaf paper

• Dictionary

• Thesaurus

• Planner/Organizerto keep track of homework assignments

• USB or Zip drive to save work done on home and school  computers

High School Supplies Checklist:

• School backpack/ book bag

• Binders for each subject

• Binder dividers

• Folders for each subject (for handouts)

• Highlighters

• Pencils

• Pens

• Markers

• Ruler

• Compass

• Spiral notebook

• Mini stapler

• Protractor

• Dictionary

• Thesaurus

• Loose leaf paper

• Planner/ Organizer to keep track of homework assignments

• Calculator

• USB or Zip drive to save work done on home and school  computers

This is why I need to get my seven year old daughter caught up with 2nd grade spelling words. Why would I get her into these you may ask? Because it’s great to get a head start on these things before school actually begins. You can get your child sent to the head of the class if you take the initiative to teach them a little at home.

Got any decent 2nd grade spelling words written down to quiz your child? This is an exercise my husband and I like to do with our daughter. We did it last year before she entered the first grade, and we are doing it this year before she enters the second.

The only difference is that now we’re using 2nd grade spelling words. Things are a tad more difficult and complex. This is completely fine because she has already learned so much in the first grade. How can we drill her with legitimate, up-to-date 2nd grade spelling words you might ask? That’s an easy one, especially if you have a home computer.
Look for “2nd grade spelling words.” online and you’ll get lists up lists of resources and useful websites giving you 2nd grade words.

Make a list or print it out. Then you can proceed in drilling your child with 2nd grade spelling words. Teach them how to pronounce them correctly, but also their meanings and spellings. In no time at all your child will be set and anxious for the new school year.  He/she will be ahead of schedule.

Are you still quizzing your child with terms they already know? Don’t waste your time.  If they’re heading into 2nd grade this year, then you need 2nd grade spelling words.

Work with them regularly and help them get a good head start. Bright minds certainly lead to bright futures.

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