Morning Time Music in Your Homeschool

Morning Time Music in Your Homeschool

Music appreciation is a wonderful addition to your homeschool’s morning time. Music can soothe a cranky baby, get a restless student keeping the beat, and create a peaceful environment. Who doesn’t need that? Music in your morning time creates memories and can even change hearts. Substitute Christian music for Bible memory occasionally and your kids may remember even more Scripture. Music appreciation in your morning time also provides regular inspiration for your children’s music lessons and practice. You’re all reminded of the beauty that can be created when we stay focused on our music instruction. Morning time music is also a great adjunct to your history studies. We can picture the time period more readily with the appropriate music playing.

[Read why music education matters]

Including music appreciation in your morning time can be hard.

If you want to include historical music in your morning time, you will need to research which are the most important pieces to play. You will want to share some information about the piece and its artist, but you don’t have time to share a lot. So you’ll need to select the most important points and talk about them in a child-friendly way. Once you know which pieces you want to include, you’ll need to look for them at the library. You won’t know for sure how many you’ll get through, so chances are good you will have to keep renewing the pieces. Or you’ll look for the music online, having to spend time watching YouTube ads only to discover that the video wasn’t quite what you were looking for. If you want to take the learning deeper, you’ll need to look for or create some notebooking pages to go along with your studies. Are you tired yet? I am.

I am a fan of anything that makes my job as a homeschooling mom easier. Music appreciation courses do that. The material has already been prescreened by a Christian mother and the notebooking pages are done for me. The music appreciation courses from Music in Our Homeschool have been so enjoyable and enriching to our history studies. But if I’m being honest, something was missing from them. I didn’t notice it until the solution was right in front of me.

Morning time always includes holidays.

One of the things we do with our morning time is talk about current events and holidays. I read seasonal books, do seasonal devotions, and complete holiday unit studies. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought about including holiday music appreciation in our morning time before. When I heard that Music in Our Homeschool was launching this course, I asked myself this question:

“What would holidays be like without music?”

Music makes holidays special. I can’t imagine Easter or Christmas or the 4th of July without the signature songs that inspire faith, joy, or patriotism. Yet I wasn’t including holiday music appreciation in our morning time. May I get real here? I teach music appreciation for me. I love it. I am passionate about music and hearing the stories behind the songs we all love. Music appreciation makes me happy. When I teach it in the morning, I am in a good mood all day. And when mama’s happy, everybody’s happy.

How a Holiday Music Appreciation Course Saves Your Sanity

This course is hosted on Teachable, which is a beautiful, user-friendly platform. You’ll see at a glance which lessons you’ve done, so you don’t repeat even when the kids are yelling, “We’ve already done that one!” Maybe that only happens to me. You have unlimited access to the course, so you can pick up where you left off and just teach the holidays you want to teach. But you’re going to want to add the lessons to your Organized Homeschool Life planner, so you remember to do them all. I can’t wait for the Star Wars day lesson!

Holiday Music Appreciation Course

 

I love that the videos are embedded within the course. It’s a safe platform for your kids to work on your own. Assign one child to be in charge of making sure you do your holiday music appreciation in the mornings.

Printable copywork (so helpful in building good writing skills) and activity sheets are included with the lessons. Have your kids answer the short quiz at the end too. My kids love working together on these.

I did a short screen share video so you can see what the course looks like inside.

Launch pricing is a gift.

Save 40% with code HOLIDAY through 3/28 on this holiday music appreciation course.

Which songs make the holidays for you? Let me know in the comments.

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6 Powerful Ways to Teach Children the True Meaning of Easter

6 Powerful Ways to Teach Children the True Meaning of Easter

Most young kids may answer, “Jesus!” enthusiastically when you ask what Easter is about. But the truth is, it seems to be all about the candy and toys. As homeschoolers, we have the time to counteract the cultural message to share our faith with our children at Easter. Here are six powerful ways to do that.

6 Powerful Ways to Teach Children the Real Meaning of Easter

#1 Attend a passion play.

Most of you have children who aren’t ready to view the Passion of the Christ. Truthfully, I don’t think I was ready to see it! I was unable to eat or sleep after viewing the violent depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion. But many churches and some theaters present the true story of Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross in a way that children can appreciate. My dear homeschooling friend became a  Christian after seeing a church’s passion play. Don’t underestimate the power of these presentations. This year my daughter is participating in our church’s play. I’m hopeful it will give her an even deeper appreciation of Easter.

#2 Study the Scriptures.

No matter what Bible curriculum you’re using or where you are in Scripture, it’s a good idea to spend some extra time in the Gospels in preparation for Easter. Or use a Lenten devotional as a family in the evenings. My church has a mid-week service during Lent that has us studying the events that led up to Good Friday. No matter how many times your children have heard them, God can give them a fresh perspective on Jesus’ love.

#3 Use resurrection eggs.

Whether you make your own set or buy one, resurrection eggs are a tangible way of teaching the important truths about Easter. Each egg contains a symbol and Scripture. You can open a new one every day or hide them all and review them to tell the whole story.

#4 Watch Christ in the Passover.

Read Exodus 12 to review the Passover instituted for the Israelites, then watch this video to see the amazing parallels between Jesus and this sacred meal.


Teens may enjoy 24 Hours That Changed the World by Adam Hamilton which presents fascinating details about Jesus’ last day.

#5 Wash one another’s feet.

Even though our feet aren’t dirty like the disciples’ were, kids still cringe over doing this task. We did this for co-op and I don’t think any of us will forget this lesson in Christ’s humility and His example for us all.

Washing one another's feet#6 Make Resurrection cookies.

You’ll have one last chance to tell the story and to get kids involved in the telling of it with this delicious recipe. Eating these cookies on Easter morning can become a wonderful tradition and celebration.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!


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