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As a homeschool teacher for your child, you are required to wear many hats. You are a Science Teacher, English Teacher, History Teacher, and Gym Teacher. One of the “hats” that you might not see as beneficial for your child, but should be part of his/her curriculum is playing the role of a Music Teacher.
You’re not a music teacher? That is alright. There are many ways that you can sneak music education into your child’s curriculum. Music is a part of almost any subject and can be incorporated into each one.
Providing music lessons can also greatly improve other areas of your child’s learning, so it is something you should be putting a larger emphasis on, even if you aren’t a music teacher by nature. Music has been proven to help with children’s self-esteem, social interactions, and even advanced academic abilities.
How To Incorporate Music Lessons Into Your Child’s Homeschooling Curriculum – Even If You Don’t Teach Music
MUSIC AND HISTORY
Children who study music learn the advantage of expression, and how to express themselves freely. When learning something like history as your child grows to more middle school age, you can plug in songs related to certain events in history, because there are so many of them to choose from. Here is a laundry list of some easy examples of songs that talk about specific historical events:
- Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 talks about the fateful event in 1916 in Ireland when 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators are shot dead by British Army paratroopers.
- Pride (In The Name Of Love) another song by U2 is a message about Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech about equality.
- Redemption Song by Bob Marley tells the story of the slave experience. He also has other songs related to history like Buffalo Soldier and Get Up, Stand Up that address Black History.
- An American Trilogy by Elvis Prestley is related to the American Civil War, rolling 3 songs into one.
- Revolution by The Beatles directly correlates to Chairman Mao and policies for China.
- We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel is a GREAT tool to use because it covers United States History from 1949 to 1989.
…..and the list goes on! There are thousands of songs out there that can be directly related to specific events throughout history and can be used as a great tool to emphasize these important moments in history for your child. It also helps to add that putting history to music can really make things fun (if you find history boring as some do).
MUSIC AND MATHEMATICS
Music and mathematics do not seem like two subjects that bode well together. However, there are many instances where you can incorporate them, and you might be surprised at just how easily you can add music to a math lesson.
Counting songs are very popular, like the song This Old Man – as we all know the song continues with “he played 1” and so on. It includes many basic math skills, including addition and sequencing. There are also a lot of arts and crafts ideas to get your little one using numbers that you can include the songs with too! Think of other fun songs like Bingo, where you can teach letters and spelling, or The Ants Go Marching, another counting song.
Printable Animal Puppets & Nursery Rhymes for Toddlers
With music, children use language, perceptual and auditory skills to match sounds, beats, pitches and speed or tempo, a lot of the time without even realizing that they are doing so. Matching sounds, beats, and patterns can directly correlate to having mathematical structure, and teaching children the essential “why” and “how” of things, rather than just preaching numbers for memorization. When learning beats, you find that each note or number has a specific count and rhythm. You can even add in fractions when looking at some music theory like time signatures to see what notes get what number of counts per measure.
Music activity – Paper Cup Noisemaker Craft
MUSIC AND SCIENCE
Science can actually explain why we’re drawn to music. Something like Physics, which also relies heavily on math, is a great tool for incorporating music into the curriculum. Music provides our brains with a higher level of thinking, sparking creativity, and there is an established connection between music and improved mental skills.
There was a music study done in Toronto where they had 19 people listen to music and advise on which song(s) they would be more likely to purchase. The study indicated that certain music patterns were more pleasing to the ear than others and that you could actually determine what songs people would be more apt to buy. By studying why we’re drawn to music, you can introduce studies of how the brain works.
At home, it would be easy to conduct your own science experiment utilizing music and come to conclusions regarding the impact of music on our emotions and brain chemistry. This creates a lesson that incorporates both subjects together.
MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
Movement and exercise are important for overall health, and there is a very simple way to put music within this subject if you include physical education within your curriculum. It is as easy as playing some music while doing your movement or exercises and even addressing how the song makes you feel while working out.
For instance, if you practice yoga, put on some music that can have calming effects on the brain to help promote proper breathing and a relaxed state of mind. Or put on something with a cheerful and energetic beat if you’re doing a more aggressive or intense movement, and recognize the difference between the two types of music and how they make us feel when moving our bodies. These are easy ways to include music in your movement classes.
KEEP MUSIC EDUCATION ALIVE
With these important subjects being covered in your child’s curriculum, adding music into your teaching can be a bit of a challenge. Hopefully, these suggestions and important benefits that music has in education can encourage a more musical lesson plan.
Taking things one step further, if you are not a music teacher yourself but you’d like to directly incorporate music lessons into your curriculum, your child can learn music with online coaching right from the comfort of your home. Online music teachers utilize video lessons and they will include various exercises, warmups, and lessons that you can reinforce outside of these lessons.
We all want the best for our children’s education. Music has often been pushed aside and ignored when creating a well-rounded curriculum, but given all of the advantages that can stem from studying music, it is hard to find a good reason not to incorporate music within your child’s at-home education!
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