How to Have Fun Teaching Music to Your Children

Are you looking for some fun musical activity to do with your children? Do you home school and want to add something to your musical curriculum or unit study approach? Or maybe you are looking for a way to fill up those Christmas break days with a fun craft for the kids. I have an idea for you that will meet all of the above.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• pencil
• paper
• empty cd case
• software (optional)
• Notebooking pages (optional)
• Music paper
• Musical Instrument (optional)

1. Have the child decide what music they are going to be doing. Example: Christian, Country, Classical...etc.

2. Have the child make up the title of the cd. Have them look at a few different CDs that you have at home to give you some ideas.

3. Have the child decide how many songs are going to be on their CD. Have the child look at the back of a music CD so they can see the average amount of songs that a musician usually puts on their CDs.

4. 

   Have the child the names of their songs on a piece of paper. Have the child look at the back of a music CD that you have at home to see examples of this.

5. 

   Have the child write the lyrics to each one of their songs. A great resource for the music paper is in the resource section below.

6. 

   Put the CD into a notebook. Use the covers found at the resource site below.

7. 

   If your child is musical, get some music paper, see resource below, and have them actually write some music! After they write the music, have them play it on their instrument to see how it sounds. You could even go an extra step here and record it and listen to it.

8. 

   If your child is not so musical, there are software programs out there that you can purchase where you can make and write music and put it to a CD. You can also use this for the ones that are gifted musically. You can actually record their own music. See resources below, I have tried to find software that is free too.

9. 

   Design a cover for your CD. There are also programs out there for this. See resources below.

10. 

    Have a New Release Party. Invite all of your family and friends and have them listen to the new CD. If it is in your family budget, you could even take some pictures of your child and they could autograph them and hand them out at their Release Party. Have extra copies available in case any friends or family members want to purchase a copy.

Tips & Warnings

• This project could be spread over a long period of time. It incorporates a lot of different subjects including language arts, spelling, art, computer, speech, and of course music.
• If you have younger children who are not starting school yet, get them involved by having them dance to the music the older children have written or have them pose for the cover of the CD
• Your child could get the entrepreneur bug in him and take off.
• Only purchase the software if it is in your family budget. There are plenty of free software out there so make sure to check out my resources before purchasing anything. I am all about saving money especially in today's economy.

Resources

• Place to get free music sheets
• Place to obtain free software for any of the above steps.
• Just a great site for parents
• Music Software to Purchase
• Compose music online for free
• Blank Sheet Music for free

[MarlaineMarie]

on 4/24/2009 Nice article and good tips!

[CCrock]

on 3/23/2009 Great article! My daughter is just barely getting old enough to start singing along a little bit, chiming in a few of the words here and there....I can't wait to teach her more about music as she grows!

[sonni57]

on 3/20/2009 It's fun to teach music to kids thanks for the good article.

[FrazzledNanny]

on 3/19/2009 Great article. Music is so important for children. The earlier they are introduced to music the better. 5*

[cwengre]

on 3/17/2009 Great article. Children love music.