Fill your home with music!

Music lessons are fairly easily found. Check the phone book, friend recommendations, and your church’s music minister. If you have a college in town, you might even contact their music department and see if they can suggest an available student to give lessons.

Even if you are not able to give your child music lessons, they do not have to grow up in a vacuum. There are lots of CDs out there that are compilations of great masterpieces and/or music genres. Research the music of the historical era you are studying and play that music in the background. Listen to it a bit more purposefully during lunch or during the child’s playtime. Mention the composer and connect the dots historically. (For example, Beethoven was 6 years old in 1776; Mozart was 20 that same year.) Play one particular composer one week, discussing his life and work over lunch or dinner time, changing to another the next week.

Work your way from medieval chant to baroque to classical to jazz. Bring in Broadway and the musicals. Notice what popular songs were played during wartime. From the Trojan War came the epic poem (originally a song perhaps?) The Iliad. America’s Civil War produced its share of popular compositions, (The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Oh I’m a Good Old Rebel, When This Cruel War Is Over).  World War I saw Over There, Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning, Long Boy (Good Bye, Pa! Good Bye, Ma! Good Bye, Mule!).  World War II songs included I’ll Be Seeing You, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer. Swing music and big band were the sound of the day with Glenn Miller among others. Bing Crosby crooned White Christmas. (Other WWII music) Music during the Vietnam War years ranged from love ballads to patriotic themes. http://www.ichiban1.org/html/music.htm (Ballad of the Green Berets hit #1 on the charts in 1966; Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night was #3.) 

A great site to read and compare history with music of the times is Classical Score. Even though the name sounds like it only covers one section of history, it has a historical timeline covering the history of the era (Ancient, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Twentieth Century). Then there are links to the different musical styles of those eras. Then it has a listing of the master composers of each of those periods. It will really help you and your family connect to both the music and what was going on in the world at the same time. Another site that gives you plenty of websites to peruse in search of the different music styles of the ages is one at Sound Piper. It has an online music and art history course along with other music history sites, but beyond that has links that encompass musical, ethnic, and early instruments.

Find different radio stations to play on trips out and about. I think the biggest help can be to expose your child to as much varying styles of music that has been created. A couple of great books to use in conjunction with listening to the various eras of music are The Gift Of Music by Jane Stuart Smith & Betty Carlson, 101 Hymn Stories and 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth Osbeck. For some composers, their life was not very glorifying to God, but even this is a lesson for children. We are made in His image. Humans, those living for God and those who are not, can make beautiful music. The music itself can mirror their soul however, reflecting back if there was joy or despair. This is in itself a life lesson for your child.

Try to be open-minded in some of the music you share. For me, I’m not a big country & western fan, but there are some great songs out there. (Check out Roy Rogers, the Sons of the Pioneers, the Light Crust Dough Boys, etc. for the older country music.) You will most likely want to check the lyrics prior to listening to any kind of song to make sure it is acceptable for your family’s values. I wouldn’t play anything that included inappropriate lyrics. The music might not be your cup of tea but might show your child the way a certain period of time viewed the world, but the lyrics (whether you can understand them or not while the song is playing) are extremely important.

Bring music into your homeschool--into your life!

Donna Conner lives in Fort Worth, TX with her husband, Glenn, their son, Mike, Donna's mother, Charlotte, and their dog, Lucia. Donna and Glenn have been homeschooling their son since the beginning of his education. Mike completed his homeschooling in the fall of 2008. Donna is an artist and has always enjoyed writing. She wrote Homeschooling Only One in 2003, after discovering that there were many other families homeschooling only one child. Her website is devoted to those with only one student in their homeschool, with listings of online resources. You can find these free resources, including a message board for those who HOO, on her website at  http://donnac.com and read her blog at: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DonnaC

copyright © 2009 Donna Conner ~~ All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of author, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles where the title and author are listed.

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