Music is an essential art for all children. Each child should be involved in a musical activity in their elementary and middle school years. This may be as simple as weekly singing at church and daily singing in family worship, or as rigorous as weekly lessons for an instrument involving daily practice, recitals, and music theory study.
If you as parent are skilled musically, you may choose to teach music as you would any other subject. Otherwise, you will likely enroll the child in a weekly lesson or practice outside the home. For weekly lessons to be effective, there must be routine, daily practice. Since the music instruction and practice requirements will vary widely in each family, we have not shown music on the weekly lesson schedule. However, it is an essential part of education that must not be overlooked.
Our children have taken part of choirs which meet weekly and also have weekly piano lessons. We've found that daily practice is best done early in the day before the scheduled "school" subjects. Our children's practices vary from 20 minutes of daily practice for elementary piano, up to 1 hour daily for a child in piano, choir, and solo voice training. Remember to reduce the balance the daily "subject" schedule on days the child has music lessons. We do not work all subjects every day but balance as needed for these weekly lessons.
Music, musicians, and composers should be featured in the books the child will read as part of their reading and history studies. This will reinforce the importance of music and encourage the child to continue in their own music education, as well as give them a greater appreciation for the beauty and impact of this wonderful art. Also remember to take your children to various local classical concerts and other musical events. My favorite story about the advantages of home education over traditional institutional education involves a concert. One Thursday evening, my 8 year old daughter and I attended a local concert featuring Bach organ solos and cantatas. The music was stunning. A local children's choir was featured in one of the cantatas near the middle of the evening. They sang beautifully. After their song, they were all rushed out as the clock struck 8:30. They all needed to get home to bed since they all had to get up early the next morning to make it to school on time! Meanwhile, my 8 year old and I remained until the end at 10:00, enjoying a thrilling "lesson" no institution could match! We got home late so she slept until 9:00 the next morning. We shortened our daily lesson a bit to allow for the late start and continued with our relaxed schooling. One of the days activities were for her to write a paragraph about the concert. Now this is the glory of family education!
Finally, keep the classical music flowing on the radio/CD player in the home and car. Reject the noise commonly called "pop music" especially through the elementary and middle school years and your children will quickly develop a discerning ear and a love for beauty. Remember your kids will learn to love what they hear in your home and car. If they do not learn to love hip-hop and other inferior musical styles from you, they will not learn it anywhere else (assuming you are moderately cautious about the types of friendships they develop and the amount of time they spend with their peers).