• About
    • Me
    • Sponsorships
    • Co-Op and School Pricing for Online Book Clubs
    • Disclosures
    • Privacy Policy
  • Literary Adventures for KidsLanguage Arts Curriculum
    • Online Book Clubs
    • Literary Adventurers Clubhouse for Elementary and Middle School
    • The Society of Literary Adventurers for High School
    • Poetry and a Movie: A Poetry Study for High School
    • Study of Japan for Teens
  • Homeschool
    • The Chocolate Closet – Free Resources for Members
    • Current Deals & Freebies
    • Book Club Ideas to Inspire Your Kids to Read
    • Poetry Teatimes Ideas
    • Nature Book Clubs to Teach Kids About the World Around Us
    • Low-Stress Planning & Scheduling
    • Journaling
    • How to Homeschool in the Midst of the Hard Things Series
    • Unit Studies
      • Ancient Greece Unit Study Resources
      • American History
      • How To Teach Ancient Egyptian History In A Way Your Kids Will Love Series
      • How to Homeschool Through the Holidays Without Losing Your Mind
    • Homeschool Travel Journal
    • Parenting

Hide The Chocolate

How to Homeschool Through the Holidays with Music

in Homeschool

Homeschooling through the holidays with music is not only easy, but it gives me the excuse to dance around the kitchen belting out Christmas carols. Not only can my children do nothing but stare at me in embarrassment, but we get to count it as school!

How to Homeschool Through the Holidays With Music

My kids made me start listening to the "Holly Channel" on the radio the day after Halloween, so I'm pretty sure I'll be sick of Christmas carols by Thanksgiving. But, it did make me realize we could take our love of all things Christmas music and turn it into an educational rabbit trail.

There are so many ways to study music during the holidays that I couldn't possibly list them all. Here are some of my favorites.

Homeschooling through the Holidays with The Nutcracker

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words Christmas Music Unit Study is The Nutcracker. It is the quintessential holiday performance. Each year we attend the Nutcracker. This year our youngest won a part in the Nutcracker. So every weekend for the foreseeable future is booked with ballet rehearsal, but at the end we will get to see a performance featuring our own little Sugar Plum.

Some Nutcracker Study Resources are:

Nutcracker Tea Party

Nutcracker Tea Party

The Nutcracker Ballet, Free Ornament Download

The Nutcracker Ballet, Free Ornament Download

The Nutcracker Printable Learning Pack

The Nutcracker Printable Learning Pack

The Nutcracker on Storynory

The Nutcracker on Storynory

Nutcracker Toilet Paper Roll Craft

Nutcracker Toilet Paper Roll Craft

Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker

Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker

Homeschooling Through the Holidays with Christmas Carols

Since we sing Christmas carols for at least six weeks straight, we should probably take a little time to learn more about them. I recently discovered the music program, SQUILT.

SQUILT is an acronym for Super Quiet Uninterrupted Learning Time. This music appreciation course is "Open and Go." It requires virtually no planning on the part of Mom, just print out a few sheets for the kids to use while you open up your laptop and follow the instructions.

We opened up our SQUILT Christmas Carols unit study and started with a favorite Christmas carol, Carol of the Bells.

Step 1: Listen to the carol performance. Eyes must be closed and there are to be no interruptions. Just listen to the performance. 

How to Homeschool Through the Holidays With Music - Listening to music
How to Homeschool Through the Holidays With Music - Watching videos
How to Homeschool Through the Holidays With Music - Dynamics

Step 2: Listen to the performance again, but this time note the different instruments, tempos, rhythms, and dynamics.

This time we also watched the video of the performance so we could see the musicians and their instruments.

Step 3: Listen to different renditions of the same piece of music and determine which performance we liked the best. The girls came up with a star rating system.

How to Homeschool Through the Holidays With Music - Stars

Rabbit Trail Step: So, this part wasn't on the worksheets, but it's what we do here in our homeschool. As we were listening to different renditions of Carol of the Bells, we were directed to listen to an impressive performance of Pirates of the Caribbean and Phantom of the Opera performed solely with handbells. We were very impressed and I noticed the next YouTube video was of Bohemian Rhapsody. This led to the realization that my girls had never heard this masterpiece in musical history. So, of course, we had to watch the Queen version and I had to field all sorts of questions about the clothes, makeup, and hair of Freddy Mercury. And, then I had to relate my one and only experience of driving the streets of LA blaring Bohemian Rhapsody from the rental car windows as a teenager. Once again, one of the most memorable moments of my young adult years was lost on my children. Now, I guess we'll have to watch Wayne's World. I can only imagine the questions and rabbit trails that are to come.

Some other fun Christmas Carol resources:

Name That Tune: Christmas Edition

Name That Tune: Christmas Edition

Stories behind Christmas Carols

Stories behind Christmas Carols

The Story of "Jingle Bells"

The Story of "Jingle Bells"

Jingle Bell Craft

Jingle Bell Craft

How to Homeschool Through the Holidays Without Losing Your Mind

Don't miss out on all the other days in the How to Homeschool Through the Holidays without Losing your Mind series!

Dachelle
Dachelle

Hi, I’m Dachelle. I’m a homeschooling mom of 3 in the South. I love chocolate and have been known to hide it from my children. I can often be found reading a good book (or even sometimes just an okay book) and enjoying a jar of Nutella — don’t judge. I blog, here, at HideTheChocolate.com when I’m not creating book clubs and making lists…lots and lots of lists (it’s an addiction). Learn more…

www.hidethechocolate.com

Related

Add a Comment

« How to Homeschool Through the Holidays With Creative Art Projects
How to Homeschool Through the Holidays at the White House »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Are you wanting to inspire your kids to read? Check out some of our literature studies!

Literary Adventures for Kids Category Header
Nature Online Book Club Category Header
Poetry Studies Category (1)

Search this site

Archives

iHomeschool Network Member
DMCA.com Protection Status

Copyright © 2023 · glam theme by Restored 316

© 2023 Hide the Chocolate

  • Affiliate
  • Term and Conditions
  • Sponsorships
  • Disclosures
How to Homeschool Through the Holidays With Music
How to Homeschool Through the Holidays With Music - Watching videos