A Yearlong Music Curriculum for Kids

I try to post about a variety of subjects here to inspire different kinds of learning with kids, but I think this is the first time I’ve posted something about music.

Every Star is Different shares her yearlong music curriculum, and I really like her ideas. All her kids are learning piano, and she has a musical concept to focus on each month (such as scales, opera, marching band, etc.) and a musical for the kids to watch each month (starting with Newsies, so you know it’s going to be good).

I love this idea even if you aren’t developing a full curriculum for your kids. It’s a great idea to mindfully introduce them to different kinds of music, different styles — though this is mostly classical — and a range of musicals to help them understand the range of music that is out there.

Do you do anything to teach your kids about music? We listen to jazz on Sunday mornings, but that’s about it. I’d love to hear your ideas.

[Photo via Every Star is Different.]There are lot’s of music learning resources available online too. Check out these Music games and Learning tools and Music Learning Flash Cards.

With little kids especially, linking learning to physical activity really does help them learn. Movement can help kids focus, and it just keeps them from sitting still all day, which isn’t good for anyone.

The good news is lots of different learning activities can be adopted to get kids moving while they learn, so let’s look at some math and number activities that use gross motor skills.

Probably the most obvious thing would be hopscotch, which helps kids count while they hop. You can also mix up the numbers, do skip counting with the numbers, give kids a simple math problem and have them hop to the correct answer, and on and on.

This number hop game from Gift of Curiosity is a more chaotic version, with number flash cards on the floor that kids can hop, skip or jump to as you call them out (this one is more for individual number identification than counting). It’s a great indoor option if it’s too hot, cold or rainy out to do traditional hopscotch, too.

This painter’s tape number line idea from Days with Grey doesn’t involve quite as much movement, but kids can move around while they place things on the number line and work on learning about one to one correspondence. In the blog post they use shoes, but you can count anything you’ve got handy. (Be warned when I visited this website had an ad that continually took up the whole page, but you can get the idea pretty quickly.)

One of the important tasks of learning numbers is learning a parent’s phone number just in case it’s ever needed, or how to dial 911 in case on an emergency. Teaching Mama has a great way to practice telephone numbers and get some movement in with a giant telephone keypad made out of paper plates. You can also use this for counting practice, but it’s a great idea for learning phone numbers, too.

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