Music Education for Homeschoolers?

Music is helpful for children which is why it has been part of education for many  years.

Scientific research has found when music is played with others it helps children's social skills brain development. Taking part in music also helps their brain development.

When your child moves to music or plays an instrument they build their co-ordination and ability to listen. Playing a musical instrument also helps them to develop self-discipline and math skills like fractions. Most importantly though music makes life fun for kids. 

You can buy simple percussion instruments to play at home. This helps children feel musical rhythm, find out how to listen and have fun with the music. Percussion instruments also let children to discover new things about sound. 

Children can play percussion instruments while listening to a CD or singing. Using a CD gives children the feeling they are creating a bigger and more exciting sound. It is important children play the percussion instruments so it’s part of the CD music not drowning it out. So children need to listen and decide how loud they should play? When they should play? As well as what rhythm to play? There are no set rules to this as long as the added percussion feels part of the whole musical experience rather than having it fighting for attention over the CD soundtrack. 

Singing while playing a percussion instrument is great music education. It’s fun too.

You can also enrol your child in music lessons. Singing is the cheapest choice because you don't need to buy an instrument. Piano, guitar, flute and violin are popular. You can also choose another instrument that interests your child.

Not all instruments appeal to every child. This means each child will enjoy learning certain instruments more than others so you will need to match your child to their instrument.

Having been a music teacher I have seen many music lessons go horribly wrong because brothers and sisters had to learn the same instrument. That meant children who wanted to play a different instrument hated learning music. It also meant siblings became competitive. Sometimes this was helpful to learning but it was often a big problem. 

Listening to music is a wonderful educational experience and it benefits kids most if different types of music is played - jazz, popular, classical, rock and even world music. The more types of music included in your homeschool program the richer a child's musical education will be. 

You can also play listening games with kids as part of their musical education or just listen to the sounds around you and talk about them. Go out into the garden and listen. What can you hear? How would you describe the sounds? All listening is good. 

Don't forget that music is not just for sitting in a chair and listening to - or even playing. It's also important that children get to move to music. To feel rhythm in their body movements rather than just through playing an instrument. Dancing or moving to music is also an excellent change of pace for the homeschool day. It can be used as a physical education activity. It is also just wonderful fun. As with listening to music it is also a good idea to provide different types and styles of music for movement and dance. Slow, fast, loud, soft, classical, modern - everything.