Homeschooling your children does not come without challenges. If you are new to it, you can find that including all of the relevant subjects are difficult enough. If you are not a musically-inclined parent, it can be difficult to incorporate music education within your child’s regime.
Music education should be part of your homeschooling education, though, as it does offer various benefits. These range from an increase in self-esteem when mastering a new skill, to higher academic scores, stress relief, and even improved brain functions like memory and coordination.
Including music within your homeschooling does not have to be difficult. Here are five simple and fun ways that you can include music education in the home.
Add Music Education Through Community Theater/Chorus
While not exactly done in the home, if you have a talented singer or actor in the family, community involvement is a great extracurricular. This is wonderful as a parent if you really want to keep a more hands-off approach to music education and let your children engage in music in a different way.
Joining a chorus group or even a local theater organization can give your child an opportunity to explore musical talent and provide interaction with others in your local community. This is especially useful during the holidays when many groups put on extra performances that require more voices.
Hire a Voice Coach to Teach Music Education
Voice lessons are great for aspiring singers, especially children who want to sing and perform on stage, but they also make a great fit for shy children who need to build their confidence. There are even ways that you can hire a vocal coach that will come directly to your home, keeping your child focused and comfortable in their place of learning. This also helps you avoid the hassle of driving them to and from lessons.
Music lessons will give your children a sense of responsibility, as well as engage them in executing their own self-discipline in time management and scheduling to find time to practice each day.
Learn about Music with Movies and Books
You can incorporate music into multiple other subjects without making it an entirely separate lesson. For instance, if your children study history, take them to the local library and look up the history of jazz or classical music, or even books on a certain musician in history, like Beethoven.
You can include that as part of a lesson, or have them write a biography or present a report on a specific music genre or musician. You can also find many movies that cover subject areas to include music as well, such as watching classic musicals or viewing movies about famous musicians throughout history.
Play Something Musical Together
You don’t have to try and start a band, but an easy way to include music is to just play something, even if you’re not that talented. It could be simple with very young children to find and utilize household items like pots and pans to play in the kitchen. You can be more advanced with older children by playing simple chords on the piano while they work on guitar picking or lead keyboard melodies.
The important thing is that you encourage an appreciation for music, and specifically encourage musically-talented children. Maybe there is a song that has a lot of meaning to you and your children. You can dissect it, study it and learn how to play it together. It’s a great way to educate about music in more ways than one.
Create an Atmosphere with Background Music
This is one of the easiest ways that you can include music education within your homeschool learning. Have background music playing that can complement different subjects, such as classical music while doing a history lesson, or meditative music when it’s time for homework. It is highly recommended for physical activities, like yoga or dancing, to have some sort of music in the background. Just listening to music has some wonderful benefits for children as well, so it doesn’t have to be difficult to incorporate.
Use Music Education Resources
There are so many useful ways to keep music within your homeschool curriculum, so don’t fret if you are a new parent to homeschooling. Some other simple suggestions you can try in homeschooling include just finding some self-paced lessons on the internet, downloading apps that can assist in teaching music, finding lists for learning easy songs to sing, or possibly even bartering with a musically talented friend to teach your child music and you can teach their children something in your realm of expertise.
Many possibilities are out there, but it is possible to start including music in your lessons today.
Donna has had a love for music since elementary school when she took her first piano lesson. Having tried her hand at numerous instruments, she now spends her time writing about music and music education, in addition to teaching lessons in NYC. Donna is a contributor on multiple parenting and music blogs and loves sharing helpful information on music education for parents and for her fellow musicians.
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