Tips to Get Music into Your Homeschool

Getting music into your homeschool day when you are not comfortable with it can be daunting. Lucky for you, I have five tips for you to easily get music into your homeschool day without you having to sweat over it.

1. Take lessons on an instrument

The easiest and most hands off for the parent is to get your child to take music lessons on an instrument. Not only is this rewarding, but there have been countless studies that show music lessons affect students and have shown higher intelligence, more focused concentration, better test taking skills, and more all because of music lessons! The downside is that it can be expensive to take lessons after you calculate the cost of the instrument, upkeep, lessons, music, and more. This is a great option and I highly recommend all kids learn an instrument, but I also know it isn't the only way to get music into your day, and it might not work for your family.

2. Composer Study

A composer study could be purchased as a curriculum or you could easily make it yourself.  Pick a composer, like Mozart. Listen to his music, like his Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. I recommend listening to multiple pieces of different types like an opera, a violin sonata, a symphony, etc. Visit your library and read a biography about the composer. You can pick any composer you like, but I suggest starting with the big guys: Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.

3. Musical Period Study

Like the composer study, the musical period study requires to choose a time period and go from there. Some of the musical time periods include: Early Music, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic. There are other time periods, but after the romantic time period it gets dicey because of modernism, nationalism, and lots of splinters in thought. You would then listen to multiple composers and songs from that period including both sacred (church music) and secular music. This is a fun study to line up with history class. If you are studying the Civil War, you can see what music was being composed during that time and expand your lessons with music!

4. Geography

Just like tying music to history class, you can also tie it into your geography class. Whatever country or continent you are studying, add in music from that area!  Listen to the National Anthem of the country, folk music, and composers that were born and/or lived there.

5. Type Study

Another way to study music is to pick a *type* of music to study. Perhaps you want to listen to opera arias. Pick some from many composers and time periods and listen to the differences.  It could be orchestral music, pop music, sacred music, or any other type of music.  This is also a great way to hear the evolution of music.

Lastly, if you have a preschooler, then just listen to any fun music and DANCE to it! I would suggest the Sabre Dance, Hoedown, or the Trepak to start!

Check out more tips for homeschool parents with some of these blogs on the Blog Hop:
 Annette @ A Net In Time
Brandy @ Kingdom Academy Homeschool
Brenda @ Counting Pinecones
Carol @ Home Sweet Life
Cassandra @ A Glimpse of Normal
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses
Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm
Crystal @ Crystal Starr
DaLynn @ Biblical Womanhood
Danielle @ Sensible Whimsy