Slow and Steady with Maestro Classics!

Posted by Lorren on December 15, 2009

We all know the story of the Tortoise and the Hare… a hare bragged about how fast he was, and decided to race a slow tortoise. Of course, the hare dawdles and then falls asleep in the middle of the race, and the tortoise ends up finishing he race first. Maestro Classics has remade the story of The Tortoise and the Hare to music. Maestro Classics makes quite a few of these CD versions of classic stories to music. Me and my daughter were sent a copy to review.

The story of the Tortoise and the Hare is about 21 minutes long. The CD also comes with additional information about the story and about the music, and encourages you to learn a little bit more about the music that plays in the background. After you listen to the information about the story, you are encouraged to listen to the story again.

While my daughter enjoyed listening to the story the first time, she didn’t really care for listening to it a second time. I think that she would enjoy the story more if she had listened to it for a second time on a different day. Being seven, my daughter sometimes has a low attention span.

These stories could have several applications. They could be used in a music appreciation class, or they would make good stories for preschoolers to listen to during quiet time, at home or in a day care setting. The stories are good for pre-readers that like to listen to books on tape as well.

Each book on tape comes with a little booklet with activities, like dot-to-dots and word scrambles. My daughter loves doing those.

I like how this story has a good moral to it, that it discourages pride, and encourages going on, even when it’s difficult. There are many stories out today that don’t offer these good values.