Why Bother?

Why Bother?

“The pursuit of  truth and beauty
is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted
to remain children all our lives.”
-Albert Einstein

As all parents do, my husband and I have milestones that we mark for our children. We note their first tooth, their first step and their first word. But one milestone that may be unique for us, and may in addition prove us to be music nerds, is matching pitch. It is a banner day in our home when one of our children first matches a coo with an exact pitch, and it usually happens between the ages of one year and 18 months, though the jury’s still out on our 8-month-old!

I am fully aware that classical music, and the other fine arts (dance and higher forms of visual art, specifically), are a bit intimidating for some. However, homeschoolers, as a group, seem to have a much more honed appreciation for the fine arts, even if they have no training, and are always seeking ways to include them in their children’s lives. Children are innocent of the societal stigmas attached to things such as opera and ballet and simply grasp on to the joy inherent in these creative expressions of human emotion. We took our 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter to a shortened ballet recently and were delighted when they spent the next few days practicing pirouettes and leaps across the living room. They are pure in their appreciation, and in their purity have a sense of refined taste, unblemished and free.

So how do we as parents harness this enthusiasm for things we ourselves often don’t understand, or even appreciate? How do we get past our own distastes and misunderstandings and allow our children to see the beauty before them? The easy answer is to simply bring it to them- a smorgasbord of flavors, open, available and honestly presented. Find a local university with a music program that offers free concerts and recitals. Play easy-listening opera and orchestral music to start and go from there. Visit local art museums and shows. Display art and photography books prominently in your home. Get your child a CD player and an array of CDs from the library- not just Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, but Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Palestrina; Tchaikovsky, Holst and Delius. Ask them to create their own dances to these pieces, dress up and perform them for you. The possibilities for increasing their appetites for “The Finer Things” are endless.

Then again, why bother? I read a book recently proclaiming the woes of the homeschooler’s schedule. Few things are really necessary, it said. All of the academics, field trips, housekeeping, and other things that demand our time don’t leave much room for the things that enrich our time. If music and art are “extras”, why do we need them at all? I could spend an entire article explaining the ways that the arts enhance academic achievement (they do); I could make the case for how using the arts helps children find a constructive niche to keep them focused and out of trouble (statistics prove this is true); I could even express my strong personal opinion that the fine arts simply, but profoundly, capture the human condition in its purest and most intimate form. But instead, I will leave you with the most basic reason for deliberately incorporating the arts into your homeschool.

God, as the origin of creativity, thought it fitting to make us in His own image.

He instilled in each of us the potential for, and the ability to enjoy, the process of creating. Feeding that divine spark in our children proves to be one of the most rewarding and far-reaching activities we can experience in our homeschool journey.

As the months pass, I hope to give you encouragement, ideas, inspiration, resources and knowledge about how best to approach the arts with your children. In the meantime, feel free to email me with your questions, or drop by my little place in cyberspace.

Christine is a homeschooling mom of four, three boys and a girl ranging in age from infant to 7 years. A musician by trade, she desires to help other homeschoolers find the beauty and simplicity in teaching the arts to their children in her column, “The Finer Things”. Visit her at her blog, Fruit in Season.

Tags: art, Family Life, homeschool life, Homeschool Methods, music

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