Using Music for Learning

Using Music to Enhance Learning

In all of my musical training to be a school music teacher, I was never taught that music could be one of the most powerful tools to help children (and adults) learn just about anything. As I began to teach my own children, I learned what advertisers had known and used for many years -- YOU REMEMBER WHAT YOU SING!

When the children were very young, we sang all the time. It made rides in the car happy times. They enjoyed singing and everyone was happy when the music was playing.

As they got older and we started homeschooling, we found programs that used music to teach reading, geography, grammar, math and a host of other subjects. When it came to memorizing facts, there just wasn't a better way. If we were studying geography, we learned all the countries on a continent to music. If we were studying prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, direct objects in grammar, we sang the grammar songs. If we were learning to multiply and divide or learning about common denominators, we sang the Skip Counting songs. We learned all the Presidents of the United States to music and the Preample to the Constitution.

When we studied American history, we sang songs from America's past and learned about what those songs meant. Music helps you learn about people because music is the expression of what people are thinking and experiencing. Through the music, one can experience the joys and the sorrows of people long ago.

Our sons, who are now almost out of college, have even recently commented that they still benefit from the facts and information they learned to music.

ADD VARIETY TO YOUR LEARNING EXPERIENCE; TRY USING MUSIC. WE THINK YOU'LL LIKE IT!