Music is very important to me.
I want my kids to understand and enjoy all kinds of music.
Music is such an important part of our lives. We use music to celebrate, worship God, hum to comfort ourselves, and to express sorrow. Nature creates wondrous music with insects, birds, and babbling brooks.
“Without music, life would be a mistake.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche, from Twilight of the Idols
How We Do Music
Music History
We learn about concepts and themes and innovations in music as we study our chronological history.
I like to learn about music history. I love teaching my kids various musical genres that go along with our history studies. We listen and discuss and find new likes!
This is an important music topic that must be addressed and discussed thoroughly and delicately. We can’t just sing folk songs without knowing where they came from and how they are offensive. They are not just cute little kids songs. These songs have a history that cannot be ignored.
Music Appreciation
We listen to all kinds of music. I don’t like censorship. Music is a form of performance art that should be heard and I want to expose my kids to it all and we discuss it as a family.
We’ve attended operas, ballet, symphonies, musicals, and concerts as a family. I think it’s important to attend live musical events as often as possible, as early as kids can sit still quietly throughout the performance, perhaps about age 5 or 6. We love matinees.
Many venues offer freebies or discounts to military families, homeschoolers, during dress rehearsals, or other special field trip events. Our city has free weekend concerts at parks in the summer.
I feel it’s important to expose my kids to world music, and all the genres of American music. Music is so emotional, and plays a huge part in culture and history.
We love almost all kinds of music.
Music, of course, helps with math.
Favorite Books about Music
We love getting biographies from the library about musicians and composers.
- The Gift of Music by Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson
- The Vintage Guide to Classical Music by Jan Swafford
- Great Musicians Series
- Iza Trapani books
- Do Re Mi: If You Can Read Music, Thank Guido D’Arezzo
- Story of the Orchestra
- Welcome to the Symphony
- Poppy books by Magali Le Huche
- Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?
- Blue Moo! and others from Sandra Boynton
- The Real Mother Goose
- Peter and the Wolf
- The Story Orchestra: Four Seasons in One Day
- The Carnival of the Animals
- Moonlight on the Magic Flute
- Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
- 88 Instruments
- The School of Music
- Can You Hear It?
- The Jazz Fly
- Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!: A Sonic Adventure
- Mozart: The Wonder Child: A Puppet Play in Three Acts
- I, Vivaldi
- Becoming Bach
- The Music in George’s Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue
- Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay
- Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo
- I Know a Shy Fellow Who Swallowed a Cello
- M is for Melody: A Music Alphabet
- Tito Puente, Mambo King/Tito Puente, Rey del Mambo: Bilingual
- When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop
Notebooking and Unit Studies
Writing about music and composers helps us to understand their importance to history and societal influences. Notebooking a great way to synthesize information we learn.
Music Appreciation Lessons
Listening
We stream lots of music as we do our studies.
We create Spotify playlists. My middle daughter would win at Name That Tune!
We often listen to classical or instrumental music during cleaning, meal time, or quiet work.
- Maestro Classics
- Classical Kids: Collection 1 and 2 overviews
- Classical Kids – composers
- Beethoven’s Wig: Sing Along Symphonies – 5 volumes
- Wee Sing!
- Putumayo Kids
Playing
My husband can play piano and trumpet.
I never learned an instrument and I regret it.
When my kids were babies and toddlers, we did KinderMusik and Music Together. I think it’s super important to expose young kids to music and allow them to make their own and explore sounds.
Two of my girls have taken piano lessons for years though we’re on hiatus with that right now.
My middle daughter took guitar lessons for a year.
My teen daughter is teaching herself electric guitar.
I can barely play the radio.
How do you teach music in your home or homeschool?
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