Homeschool Diva

So is your music study a little dusty? Maybe you are wondering how in the heck do I teach my children music at home if a) I am not a musician and b) we have no instruments and c) I don’t know where the heck to start.

Well, my friends have no fear. Most Parents can get their kids through the first 2 years of general music instruction on their own with a few good resources and then, if they see that their child is leaning in a given direction, save their pennies for private lessons…cuz Lord knows they are CRAZY expensive. I called the other day for a violin lesson quote and I almost choked over the phone with the dear woman.

Now, I studied violin and piano growing up. I was one of those kids who kept asking and asking to learn, not every kid is like that. Later in life, I taught myself guitar. Once you have the basics of one instrument you can kind of figure things out on any instrument if you want to. I have always sung and eventually started leading worship in college, owned a music and movement business for 8 or so years and taught hundreds of kids and their parents basic music and then stopped because I got burned out and wanted to be with my own kids not everyone else’s and well, the rest is history. Music is a huge part of our families life. I would not say we are musicians per say, we are worshipers who can get around on a guitar and use it to facilitate worship. Even if your child is not drawn to it, it would still be valuable to require them to learn basic knowledge of a given instrument. It is kind of like new foods. How do you know if you are going to like them if you don’t try them.

Why am I writing all of this? Because I have been letting music study slide in our little homeschool. I taught music for so many years with other peoples kids, I just kind of wanted to not go there right now. Shame, shame on me. This is how it works at our house, tons of varied music on all the time, kids seeing Mommy and Daddy lead worship with a guitar, piano at home that kids are getting comfortable with. Oldest - could care less (or so I thought), our middle (interested but not as interested as she is in sports) and our youngest ( sang before he could talk, asks routinely for lessons, works with a drum or the glockenspiel daily and lays his body flat on anything vibrating so, as he says “he can hear the rhythm”.) So I have the whole spectrum.

Here is my game plane, and you can join me if you wish. Maybe we can keep each other accountable:-)
A Piano resource I am going to use is - Pianimals. Hey if you don’t have a piano, check Craig’s List we got a used one super cheap, but a keyboard could do in a pinch. If you can’t even do that, you could ask around and see if a friend or neighbor has one that you could use once a week. We use the classical composer study available for free through Ambleside Online to make sure we are listening to new and different things.

This last week a friend gave our oldest a recorder. Well, Hallelujah, he is finally interested in all things music. So I am going to use Young Beginner Recoder book for our introduction to recorder. Another homeschool blog I read recommended it, so I thought, why reinvent the wheel, I will use that. I mean it is a recorder people, not the harp. I just want to start something.

Pre step - before step 1 - Pray that God would bless your simple heart to infuse the sound of music and worship into your little crews life. He will surely bless it. You never know, you may have a Handel on your hands.

Step 1 - Turn off the TV and turn on the music. Come on you can do it , we won’t die:-)

Step 2 - Leave some “musicky junk” around the house. Recorder,small hand drum, glockenspiel, rhythm sticks. Hey take a field trip to a music store and wet their appetites. Give a kid a pair of rhythm eggs and they will be set for hours.

Step 3 - SCHEDULE IT! Really people, I am talking to myself, I need to plan that sucker in, or as history proves, it wont happen.

Step 4 - Download some good classical stuff to mix into all your current contemporary stuff. Get a good spectrum except for heavens sake country, don’t expose the kids to that junk. (I am kidding, if you all like that sound go ahead, I wont penalize you. I wont understand you, but I wont penalize you:-))

Step 4 - Relax, have fun, don’t stress about it.

Okay, Ready, set…GO!

There are my pithy tips for today. I know mind bending right.

Keepin’ it real peeps - Blessings to you and your crew today!