TOS Homeschool Crew Review - Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class

Do you or your children like music? We are a very musical family. We sing together, 4 part harmony, A Capella. We sing special music a few times a year at our church and we have sung at a few nursing homes in our area. We have, however, not had too much success with learning to play musical instruments. We started with the traditional rhythm instruments when the kids were little. We tried learning to play the recorders, we have a few, we never really got good enough to play anything. We have had a number of piano programs and we did well with that for a time, then our keyboard broke. We have plans to get a new one but other expenses keep coming up that we have to spend money on. I also can play my auto harp a little, I have not played it for a long while but like to play it.

The boys wanted to learn the guitar so we asked my sister if she had an old guitar from when my nephew learned to play. She was willing to loan us one indefinitely as long as we protected it and gave it back to her if we did not want it anymore. We also bought a small guitar for our younger son. So, we bought some videos, not these but other ones. The boys started out excited and it soon ended with the guitars and videos sitting around, for years! They sat around for so long that the small guitar we bought does not even fit our youngest son now. They lost interest so fast. These DVD's are different.

We received Volume One Book and DVD set for Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class. In the introduction you learn to tune your guitar. Tuning your guitar is a must if you want the songs to sound correct. She does a great job taking you step by step and you can even tune the guitar to the DVD. In the first lesson you learn to play "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." They teach you a strumming technique, also. The thing my kids like about these DVD's is that you learn to play songs so quickly and these are familiar worship songs. Songs like 'Lord I Lift Your Name on High', and 'I Love You Lord'. The very first day of practicing the guitar and they learned two chords and played a song. You learn to play 7 worship songs, you learn a dozen chords while learning these songs, and you learn 6 different strumming and finger picking patterns. In each lesson there is a practice session where you can play along with Jean and make sure you are doing everything correctly.

What, exactly, sets these DVD's apart from the other we have tried? I am not sure but I think one of the important parts is that they are worship songs and not folk songs. Also, the ease with which Jean teaches and the quickness of success of being able to play a song with the very first lesson. For some that may even come the very first day like it did with my kids. That is exciting and makes you want to continue on.

Each DVD comes with a little booklet with the lyrics and the chords written down. There is also a diagram of the new chords on the page. The DVD's and the booklets are in both English and Spanish, also.

The larger books, that you can purchase, contain the parts of the guitar, directions for tuning the guitar, and more specifics for each lesson. It has the songs written out just like piano music with the chords written above that and it has details from the lessons and verses to go with the song/lessons.

One of the things I like about the program is that in the book she writes a letter to the students and encourages them to pray before they play their guitar. She also encourages them to make practicing their guitar part of their daily devotional and worship time with the Lord. This is a great idea!

I have to be honest. We received this DVD just before our Christmas break and the boys have only done lesson one. I have not been able to get them to practice much over our break. My older daughter, Jessica, age 20, is also doing the lessons. Jessica is on lesson 3 and enjoying the lessons a lot! She has been practicing almost every day! She is looking forward to getting the other DVD's. She said she would even ask for them for her birthday in April, if she needed to. It has been great to hear Jessica playing the songs all over the house. I plan to put guitar practice in the boys workboxes at least 3 times a week, once we start school up again next Monday. I want them to continue learning and practicing.

You may access an audio of all lessons, download the music, and watch the first lesson for free here. Be sure and sign up for the free newsletter when visiting the site. There are many free articles and free videos at the site as well. Join the over 100,000 who have learned to play and worship with these lessons!

PRICES:

• $24.95 each DVD
• DVD + Book - $29.95
  
• $99.80 for the set of four DVD's. ($40 Bonus eBooks free with set)
• 4 Pack Offer + Books for Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4 - $119.80
• Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class for Kids $29.97 (some other TOS Crew members reviewed this product) 

There are a lot more things available on the Worship Guitar Class  site, including:

Piano Programs

Drum and Percussion DVDs

Guitars

Voice Products

Accessories

Violin

Electric Guitars

Worship Music CDs

Check out the other reviews of the Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class - Volume One at the Homeschool Crew Blog.

***Jean Welles provided me with the Worship Guitar Class Volume One DVD and Book so that I could do my review. Though I received this product for free I have given an honest review of them here in this post.

Debbie

2010 Goals and a review of last years progress

Can anyone believe 2009 is done and over? Seems like just a couple weeks ago I was writing my 2009 Goals on my blog. With every new year I try to make a list of goals and tasks I would like to accomplish for that year.

Here is a link to last year's goals I had listed: 2009 Goals - Homeschool Memoirs #19 Making a List. I am sorry to say that I have not achieved all I had hoped and so some of the goals for 2010 will be the same as from 2009. In some areas I did make progress and I am going to concentrate on that and on what I want to accomplish in 2010 and not dwell to long on my failures.

Dawn at http://dawnspice.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-years-goals.html has a great way to make goals and achieve them. I hope to follow in her footsteps and make smaller goals that will help me meet my big goals. This year's goals are the black bullets and under them my first step toward achieving that goal with a white bullet point.

Personal Goals
Spiritual

• Continue being consistent with my devotions. I joined a yahoo group Bible study. 
• We read two Psalms/Proverbs, read three entries in Stepping Heavenward, sing or listen to Godly music, pray, and write in a journal. I want to keep this up even after we finish reading Stepping Heavenward, we are about half way through with a 90 day study. I will pick a new book and read other scripture and keep up with the other elements of the study. I am really enjoying it and find I am growing and being consistent with my devotions.
  

Health and Fitness

• Exercise more, more often and consistently
• start by walking 10-15 minutes a day on the Elliptical Walker
  
• Eat better and loose weight
• start by drinking more water and making sure to eat more fruit throughout the day and veggies at lunch
  

Educational

• Read some books on homeschooling and other educational topics
• start by reading Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell (a TOS Homeschool Review book)
  
• Work on my own writing projects
• work a little each week on the History Unit study projects I was working on or the E-book on Homeschool Organizing I was writing.
  

Personal/Leisure.

• Spend some time scrapbooking
• spend one afternoon at least every other week doing scrapbooking
  
• Read some books for pleasure 
• Read Kingdom's Dawn by Chuck Black
  
• Continue blogging and remember it is supposed to be for fun and for the records for my family.
• write more consistently on my blog at least 3 posts a week
  

Homeschool Goals:

• Keep doing the Workboxes
• make a schedule up for next weeks school and get the boxes prepped for Monday
  
• Get the boys back on our daily "schedule" after our Christmas unit and Christmas break
• Be more consistent on recording daily in our school log. I have been doing better than last year but I need to be even more consistent.
• Daily writing in the school log before I forget the details
  
• Be consistent with reviewing the boys daily assigned work and making sure they complete everything assigned to them and then put the stuff away in the folders/notebooks where it belongs.
• We are starting this goal by putting away the stuff leftover from before Christmas so we can start fresh on Monday
  
• Complete the TOS Homeschool Crew Review Year.
• first write the review items for January: Worship Guitar due tomorrow
  

Family/Relationship Goals:

• Healthier Eating 
• more fruits and vegetables
  
• Exercise at home on both our Bowflex (for muscle strengthening) and our Elliptical Walker and then also outside at Winterthur Estate and Gardens 
• Make exercise a priority for the boys
  
• More singing as a family
• work on new song for special music on the 31st of January
  
• Regular Personal Devotions for each family member and regular Family Devotions in the evening.
• encourage the boys to do their devotions before school each day
  
• Family evening read-aloud time more consistently.
• pick a book to read next
  
• Get back to evening read aloud time with the boys - I have not been doing that, so we are still on Little House in the Big Woods.
• read at least two nights this week
  
• Get back to meal planning because meals are more varied and we will have the ingredients shopped for ahead of time.
• get the meals planned by Friday for the next two weeks so we can shop for the groceries on the weekend
  
• Spend more time with my dear husband
• date night at home this Friday
• Spend time once a week with one of my kids, just mom and one of the kids having lunch in my bedroom alone and then doing whatever the child wants to do. Usually a combo of eating, talking and playing board games and/or computer games.
• Find out who's turn is next and plan the day to do their day with me. Put it on the calendar so I can keep track of who is next for their turn.

I will keep this list and update the secondary bullet points periodically to put new short term goals in place
Debbie