6 Essential Tips to Include Music in Your Homeschooling Curriculum

As a homeschooling mom, I know well how important is to include as many areas as possible in the homeschooling curriculum for your kids. Music education has plenty of advantages for developmental skills, as kids learning music are able to understand how sounds work and how music is played. Here are some great tips I discovered for including music in your homeschooling curriculum.

1. Starting with intervals

I always wanted my kids to start studying the piano. However, it is not easy to start learning about music on your own, let alone teaching. I discovered that the best course of action is to begin by getting familiar with intervals. This is essential; a music teacher once told me that without having the basic knowledge of what intervals are, no musical instrument and not even singing can be learned.

2. The Mozart Effect

When I first heard of the Mozart Effect, I was enthralled to learn about the other benefits of listening to music, besides the obvious entertaining factor. Who does not want their kids to get smarter? According to the theory regarding the Mozart Effect, the spatial-temporal function of the brain is better developed, which leads to better understanding of math and science. I notice some improvements in my kids' grades ever since I started teaching them music at home, so I guess it must be working!

3. The advantage of online teaching of music

I did not know much about music when I decided to help my kids learning about music. However, doing my research on the Internet, I discovered that there are plenty of websites where information on how to start teaching music at home was readily provided. One thing that I also learned during this process is that native talent is not that important, as anyone can be trained into learning how to play an instrument - the piano, in my kids' case - and to play it well.

4. Taking kids to concerts

Another great advantage of teaching my kids music at home is that now they do not mind so much when I want to take them with me to concerts. I am telling them to consider that these are field trips they can enjoy, while learning something new. I stimulate them to recognize the music composers and to remember what I taught them at home. You may think that formal music education is not something kids would grow to love, but the thing is that you cannot love music unless you start listening to it. This also gave me the opportunity to teach them a bit of audience etiquette.

5. 'How to' programs

Computer software is of great use when teaching kids about music, and I can testify to that. There are plenty of programs and applications out there that help children understand how certain instruments work and how to play them. I rely quite a lot on video tutorials, as well, since they are a great way to teach kids by telling and showing in the same time. For this reason, I never regret taking up on homeschooling my kids. There are simply great opportunities to teach your kids something new and exciting, without having to spend money on an expensive teacher charging outrageous tuition fees.

6. Hosting a homeschooling group session

As I have a good acoustic piano, which I bought for my children, I came up with an idea to make things more interesting for my kids. I am hosting, from time to time, homeschooling group session, and I invite my kids' friends to play at our piano, as well. I discovered that it can be very beneficial for children to learn together and even compare between themselves, in order to track down their own progress.

Susan is a full-time freelance writer. She is an avid traveler and reader and enjoys writing on health & fitness, travel, parenting, relationships and personal development.