Music is all around us. It’s in the song of the birds, the wind chimes on the porch, in the church pew when we sing. It is part of every culture of the world. Thus, teaching and exploring music in homeschool is important. Here are five specific reasons why music is an important subject to teach in your homeschool.
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Even if you don’t have a deep understanding of music yourself, you can teach music in homeschool. This Ultimate How to Teach Music in Homeschool Guide can help you to know where to start and what’s important for music learning.
1- Music Appreciation Helps to Bring Calm to the School Day
It’s well known that music can create feelings of calmness. So a savvy homeschool mom can utilize music throughout the day to help students focus, bring to attention, or change the mood of the class.
There are several ways you can go about doing this. You can simply play your favorite songs while students are working on science, reading, or math. Or, you can use music as a brain break and allow students to simply listen and document what they are hearing. SQUILT Music Appreciation is perfect for doing just that.
Another way to use music to bring calm to your homeschooling is to thoughtfully incorporate music appreciation studies as part of your regular homeschool routine. Think carefully about which lessons create tension in your home. Maybe you have a child that struggles with math. Or a son who has difficulty with creative writing.
You can schedule your routine to include music appreciation either just before those difficult lessons or just after. When your student knows that they will be able to relax with music following the unpleasant lesson they may begin to look forward to the lesson knowing there will be a simple, calming reward at the end.
Wondering where to find a top-quality music appreciation curriculum? You’ll find these Top 10 Music Appreciation Curricula for Homeschoolers to be the perfect guide for you to get started.
2- Music Helps to Provide a Well-rounded Education
We want to be sure that we are providing a well-rounded education for our kids. Of course, that means writing, English, and math. But, you also want to give them a good basis in the visual and musical arts. Music studies can serve as perfect companion studies to literature, history, and culture because it can help the students put into context various eras of history and understand the cultural aspects of the people who lived during those times.
For example, studying westward expansion while also doing a music study of ragtime music can help students to understand the cultural feeling of the wild west.
Learn how you can utilize Music Unit Studies to complement other areas of learning.
Learning Haydn, Schubert, and Mendelssohn’s compositions are excellent studies to coincide with a study of Shakespeare. They each composed music for his plays. Thus, listening to those compositions can help students to understand the moods which resonate with the characters they are reading about.
3- Learning to Play an Instrument Improves Math Skills
Did you know that music is a language? It’s a language whose root is found in math. Music is all about rhythm and melody and decibels. Those three components of music are dependent upon the beat and cadence and scale of composition.
Teach guitar in homeschool with Gentle Guitar.
Music students learn counting skills, fraction skills, and timing skills. They learn that a quarter note is a single beat, a half note is two beats, an eighth note is half a beat, and so on. They learn to play a rhythm that involves counting beats and maintaining that rhythm throughout a song. Thus, they have to process half beats, quarter beats, and more.
You can teach piano in homeschool using any of these 10 piano lesson apps.
Music language is universal. A C note is a C note in America, China, or Germany. Music keys are consistent throughout the world. Thus, when a child learns to play an instrument they are learning a universal language that is based in math.
You can teach musical instruments in homeschool with these 10 resources.
4- Studying Music in Homeschool Can Get You Out of the House
Music appreciation shouldn’t just be book learning. In fact, it’s best if music studies involve actually listening to music. While iPods and CDs are great for listening, it’s even better for children to experience music being performed live.
Unless your family is musically inclined and everyone plays an instrument, chances are you’ll need to get out of the house to explore live music performances. There isn’t anything that can teach music quite like the feeling of seeing and hearing music being performed live. Even if your family does play music instruments you’ll still want to experience live performances because seeing others play helps students to perfect their own skills.
Musical field trips are great for getting out of the house, altering your routine, and giving your kids a break from book learning. There are so many great options for learning music with field trips! You can enjoy music in the park at your local community center, or visit a nearby city to explore their symphony. You can often discover small chamber orchestras even in small towns. Or, perhaps the community college offers student recitals that are open to the public.
5 – Music in Homeschool Can be a Hands-on Learning Experience
Who says music is boring? O.k., maybe some music can be boring. But, it doesn’t have to be. Music is really rhythmic and melodic. So, it can be a fun way for your children to expend some pent up energy.
You can use music as a background for physical education. Or, it can serve as a hands-on craft when you allow your students to build and play their own instruments.
Discover 5 unexpected ways to teach music in your homeschool.
You also can allow your kids an opportunity to explore composing music. This can help them to have a foundation in that universal language I mentioned above. It can be as simple as playing a simple tune on a toy keyboard or beating out a rock tune on a drum.
The goal should be creativity and discovery of a hands-on, body moving experience.
These five reasons are why music in homeschool is important. There are other reasons as well. If your family is religious then you know that music plays a vital role in worship, thus, helping them to understand the basics of music can help them as they develop their faith.
Music appreciation and music lessons look good on transcripts for college admission.
And, music is generally a part of our society, from picnics in the park to family holidays music serves as a uniting backdrop to our everyday experience in life.
