Four Easy Ways to Add Music to Your Homeschool.

I’m not a music person, ya’ll. I can listen to music, but that’s about it. I took music appreciation in college and remember very little except that my now husband, then boyfriend took it with me. (Is that bad for a homeschool mom to admit?!)

I want my kids to know more. I want them to love and appreciate music. I want them to know some basic things about composers and instruments, and maybe even some music theory. And so I’ve looked for easy ways to add music to our homeschool. I’ve discovered some simple ways to do this over the years, and I’m sharing four of them here.

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Play great music as a background for working.

Some kids find it difficult to concentrate with background noise, but soft music - especially instrumental music - can sometimes help kids focus better. Try it out. Play classical music while the kids do independent work. It’s easy to find free classical music online. This playlist  has a good selection of music from classical composers. And The Piano Guys play some of my all-time favorite instrumental music.

I love the classical music CDs from Maestro Classics. They are classical works accompanied by stories. Each CD or download also has an activity book that goes along with the music. We’ve reviewed several of these and liked them.

Use free resources online.

As well as finding free music for listening, you can find lots of other great musical resources online. Classics for Kids is a site we’ve used frequently. It has short listening segments that focus on different composers or types of music. There are also resources to help kids learn about the orchestra, music composition, and more. 8Notes.com is another great site with free music and music theory lessons. 

Study the lives of composers.

Reading the biographies of composers is another great way to introduce some music appreciation to your kids. As you read, you’ll be able to discuss various music periods, as well as listen to the music written by the composer. Practical Pages has some excellent free notebooking pages to use when you’re studying composers.

If you’re looking for in-depth composer studies, we love Music in Our Homeschool. We’ve been working our way through Music Appreciation of the Romantic Era. The class is an online course that kids could use independently. It looks at Romantic music through learning about a new composer for each class. I’m using it with my two middle school girls, but if kids do everything in each lesson, the class can be enough to count for high school credit.

Take instrument lessons.

One of the best ways to give your children some exposure to music is to let them take lessons for an instrument. I gave all my kids a brief introduction to the piano - because it was the instrument I knew. And my son took guitar lessons from his uncle for some time. None of my children have turned into great musicians yet. But I do have one who has continued to pursue piano on her own, and they all appreciate music and the time and commitment it takes to learn to play an instrument.