Tuesday, July 28, 2015

3 Easy Ways To Incorporate Classical Music In Your Homeschool


From a very young age my sister and I were exposed to Classical Music.  My dad had a really neat collection of classical records.  Each record was of a different composer with many examples of their work, along with a biography inside the record cover.  It was a beautiful collection.  I have no doubt that this early introduction had much to do with my appreciation for it today.




George Winston, a modern composer, became a name that was used frequently in our home.  His album December became a CD that was listened to and bought many times in our home...a few copies might have disappeared to college dorms.  Ahem...

Fast forward a decade or two and my family and I still listen to December around Christmas time, and really all winter.  Learning about composers and their music have become a staple in our home educating journey.

There are times when our learning has been formal and structured, but oftentimes it is just listening in the van while running errands.  Classical music is everywhere...commercials, old cartoons, movies and all over the radio and Internet.

Today I want to share with you 3 easy ways to incorporate classical music into your homeschool...both new and old.

If you haven't listened to Beethoven's Wig, you are in for a treat.  They are not only fun to listen to, they reinforce the composer and name of the piece being played.   Here is quote from their website:

"Some years ago, Richard Perlmutter toyed with the idea of writing lyrics to masterpieces of classical music.  While humming Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, the words “Beethoven’s Wig is very big” popped into his head. With that spark of inspiration, Beethoven’s Wig was born."

To view their website click here and learn more about the musicians and their other products.  One of the things I like best about the Cd's is that it introduces the piece along with it's silly, catchy words the first time through.  But, then it also presents the music with out the words so you and your child can appreciate the music by itself.  You will be amazed at how much you remember.

Here is a clip of their first song.


Another way we learn about good music is by listening to the Piano Guys.  Oh how we love their music!  There isn't a person in our home that doesn't enjoy listening to and being drawn in by their music.  One of my favorite aspects of their music is combining the new with the old.  This is the first video we watched.



Finally, I want to talk about Squilt.  Mary from Homegrown Learners has steadily been adding to her wonderful music curriculum.  Last Christmas we used her Nutcracker Unit Study.  It was a lot of fun, and we learned about about the musical, the composer behind the music as well as history of the period in which it was written.  

This year we are going to start by using the Classical Era.  To learn more about her curriculum you 
can watch her video below.  To order for yourself you can click here.


So there you have it.  An easy way to introduce old and new classical music to your children.  I think that sometimes the Fine Arts can have the reputation of being "stuffy," but that doesn't have to be the case. 

Because I am a proud mama I will leave you with the video of my son playing a Piano Guys song, John Schmidt to be precise.  He has been an inspiration to Andrew and his musical journey.


Enjoy the journey!


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10 comments:

  1. These are great! I'm sure my children would love Beethoven's Wig. :)

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    1. Be careful Beth, you will find yourself singing them in your head all day :)

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  2. I used to play a lot of classical music when my kids were little. Now that they are teens and pre-teens, it's harder to fit it into our day!

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    1. My teens are the same way. They are always here and there, going to work or the basketball court.... But, when they are in the van they are a captive audience :)

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  3. I've been using our SmartKidz Media subscription for this! I have their classical music running in a background tab while I'm online. We also listen to Maestro Classics story CDs with history and music together.

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    1. Great resources Shecki! I will be checking them out. Thank you for stopping by :)

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  4. We LOVE Beethoven's Wig & I even wrote a post about it myself last year! Pinning for your other ideas!

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  5. Fabulous post! My kids LOVE Beethoven's Wig and now I am a huge Piano Guys fan. Thanks for sharing.

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