Why Teach the Arts in Your Homeschool Curriculum

One of the best benefits of being able to homeschool your children is the ability to help your children discover their passions. Though you want to be sure and cover the basic subjects like math, science, and history, there is one subject that gets frequently looked over in the mix, and that is the arts. 

It’s easy as parents to not realize all the amazing benefits having the arts in your curriculum has, even starting at an early age. In addition to all the other advantages, creativity is an incredible benefit. Many of the awesome benefits that stem from taking classes within the arts are extremely helpful in many other areas of your children’s lives. It can be difficult to know how to start when it comes to teaching the arts, so not only will we look at the reasons for teaching them, but also ways in which to incorporate them within your homeschool curriculum.

The Arts Promote Confidence

Confidence is a great quality to teach your children, especially if they struggle with self-esteem. Incorporating the arts into your lessons will not only help your children to gain confidence but to be willing to take more risks. Risk-taking is a quality found in many leaders. 

If you live in the New York City area, your child can take Music To Your Home’s singing lessons as part of their art learning from the comfort of your home. Singing requires students to stand and perform in front of people, and the lessons help train them to overcome their fears and learn from mistakes so they can take pride in their work and demonstrate their abilities without being afraid.

The Arts Promote Creativity

Having a creative outlet is a positive way to help children learn to deal with stresses and anxieties, and the arts can do just that. In the arts, expression is welcomed in a way that allows children to present feelings and emotions without judgment. 

Being self-expressive in an art class is beneficial for children since there are no “right” or “wrong” answers in that type of setting. The same goes for music. Interpretations can vary if you teach music, and you can encourage your children to get creative and compose their own unique pieces of music to share.

The Arts Promote Self Discipline 

Learning the arts is a fantastic way to help your children learn self-discipline skills. Whether working on drawing or painting, taking singing lessons, or learning an instrument, all of these require practice outside of the regularly scheduled class time. 

Your children will have to learn to utilize time management and create daily routines that involve continued practice to master their craft(s). Learning how to appropriately schedule a time to practice is a great advantage of learning how to discipline themselves to make time for important things throughout their lives. 

The Arts Promote Improved Social Abilities

Social skills are important to your children’s growth and development. Learning how to interact and work alongside others is something that the arts can also provide. You’re taught not to just focus on your own self, but the contributions of others. 

This is apparent more particularly in lessons such as music and performing arts, where you have to rely on other instruments, singers, or performers to make sure the entire show works out. All parts have to be working closely together, which promotes focus and strong teamwork. Knowing how to converse and relate to others has a great impact on future job positions that require cross-functional communications.

How To Incorporate The Arts

So now knowing the rewards that stem from these subjects, there is no doubt you’ll want to incorporate them in your homeschool curriculum. But, how do you go about doing so? This can be very difficult as a parent, especially if you are not musically or artistically inclined in any way. Understanding the importance of including the subjects is half the battle, and the other half is knowing how to introduce them to your children. Not to worry, as there are a few different ways that you can be sure to incorporate the arts. Here are some specific subjects that you can utilize:

Music Apps

One of the easiest methods is to utilize the world wide web and technology. There are numerous music apps you can use and have your children learn from. There are apps for musical vocabulary words, creating your own melodies (songwriting), learning rhythms, and many other skills. You can download and use them to incorporate music as an arts subject within your curriculum.

Make Instruments

If you have small children that aren’t technologically inclined yet, or you would rather have them wait until a certain age to become equipped with app knowledge, you can always make your own instruments right at home. This can be as simple as getting out some pots and pans for your children to bang on, or you can put on some simple nursery rhyme music for your children to listen and/or dance to. 

You can even take this a step further. Making instruments can help children with subjects like math and science. They’ll learn how to make certain notes by cutting a piece of plastic a certain way or by adjusting how much water to fill a glass with. Simple songs can teach your children speech patterns and help them learn language!

Crafts at Home

One last way to incorporate arts is through doing crafts at home. There are so many resources out there for DIY projects – the possibilities are endless. You can incorporate math and science into a regular lesson as you learn how to make your own things.Cutting shapes and using different colors also opens the door for younger children to learn those things during craft time as well.

It is important to include the arts in your homeschooling, and it’s a great way to introduce a more creative and fun outlet for children that may not seem like learning, even when they are. With arts in your curriculum, you can be confident that your children will acquire some great advantages to benefit their lives, including the ability to help work out feelings and be expressive in their own way.