4 Ways Music Lessons Can Enhance Your Homeschool Curriculum

As every parent of a homeschooled child knows, bringing the educational experience home and teaching kids on your own can be a rewarding but challenging experience. With parents focusing on everything from keeping their kids on task to ensuring they’re being challenged enough in their studies, strengthening and diversifying an at-home curriculum is important for keeping kids engaged. No matter what your goals are for your child’s homeschool education, music lessons can help. Music might not be at the top of your list when it comes to activities that can enhance a student’s education, but it’s proven to deliver a host of profound, lifelong benefits for kids. Here are four ways music lessons can enhance your homeschool curriculum.

Provides a creative outlet that kids find in traditional educational settings

In conventional education settings like public schools, kids typically take music, arts, and gym classes. Music classes allow kids to explore their creativity, express themselves, and have fun in ways that subjects like math, social studies, and history don’t offer. Creative expression is a crucial part of intelligence, and introducing kids to music through private lessons is a wonderful way to foster it. Whereas most of the material kids learn in homeschool is dictated by their parents, music lessons allow kids to shape what they learn through improvisational exercises and by choosing the material they cover when they’re advanced enough. 

Boosts confidence and social skills 

For a child, nothing compares to the thrill of mastering a chord on the guitar or playing through a song for the first time on the violin. Musical skills developed in lessons boost a child’s confidence even further when they’re able to show what they’ve learned on stage in a performance context. Music lessons give kids the double benefit of improved confidence and an outlet to develop social skills by playing with other musicians and getting out in the world to perform in front of audiences. These benefits strengthen homeschool curriculum by giving children crucial life experiences, ways to learn from and socialize with others, and the tools they need to overcome challenges. 

Improves academic performance in non-musical subjects

One of the most important reasons music lessons are worth investing in because music education is proven to boost cognitive functioning and academic performance in non-musical subjects. According to PBS, “A study published in 2007 by Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, revealed that students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic disparities among the schools or school districts.” The article goes on to say that music education is linked with improved language skills, higher IQs, and larger growth in neural activity in children who study music compared to those who don’t. 

Delivers encouragement, discipline, and accountability from another adult 

Learning from an adult that’s not a parent can be a powerful motivator for a child. The familiar patterns kids and their parent teachers often fall into in homeschool settings don’t apply when a new adult enters the mix. Music teachers provide outside elements of encouragement, discipline, and accountability that parents aren’t able to give their homeschooled kids. The result is not only good for music, but is also hugely beneficial for helping to round out a homeschooled child’s education. The positive experiences your child has by learning music from another adult can get them better prepared for their time learning with you. 

MUSIC LESSONS AT MUSIC & ARTS

Our passionate team of music teachers are committed to helping students reach their goals no matter they’re age, skill-level, or musical interests. Whether you want to give your child the magic of music or are interested in taking some music lessons yourself, we’ve got you covered. As the nation’s leading provider of private music lessons, we’re proud to share music with communities across America. Learn more about private music lessons at Music & Arts today!