🎨🎶 Using Art & Music as Core Subjects, Not Just Extras in Our Homeschool
If you peek into our homeschool on any given day, you won’t always see math worksheets or grammar drills first.
You might hear music echoing through the living space… or find the table scattered with paints, sketchbooks, and beads.
That’s because in our homeschool, art and music aren’t “just extras”—they’re the heart of how we learn.
My daughter is the artist.
My son is the musician.
And together, their creativity teaches me daily that learning doesn’t have to fit inside tidy boxes labeled “core subjects.”
It can be colorful, loud, expressive, joyful—and still deeply educational.
🎨 Why Art & Music Are Core Subjects
Traditional education tends to treat art and music as “specials”—once-a-week enrichment activities, not vital to the academic experience.
But in our home, we’ve learned that:
🎠Art builds storytelling, emotional intelligence, and observation.
🎵 Music enhances memory, mathematical patterns, and emotional regulation.
🎨 Creative expression is just as valuable as test scores.
🎶 Art and music connect learning to the soul.
They aren’t the fluff around the edges of “real” school.
They are the real school—for us.
🧒🏼👧🏽 Following Their Gifts: The Artist & The Musician
My daughter can lose herself for hours in drawing, crafting, building imaginary worlds. Through art, she explores science (drawing animals), math (patterns and symmetry), and history (studying ancient art or cultural designs). Art is how she processes the world.
My son hums, taps, and sings through his day. Music helps him regulate, focus, and engage in learning that might otherwise feel overwhelming. Whether he’s learning rhythm through drumming or vocabulary through song, music gives him a safe and joyful foundation.
Their passions became my lesson plan.
✏️ How We Center Art & Music in Our Homeschool
Here are simple, natural ways we make art and music part of our core learning:
1. Themed Projects
(You can find a list of over 100 themed units [with activities to go along with them] HERE )
We build unit studies around artistic or musical ideas. For example:
Studying Africa? We explore African drums and tribal patterns.
Learning about oceans? We paint watercolor sea creatures and learn calming ocean-themed songs.
2. Creative Morning Time
We often start the day with:
A music playlist or live instrument time
A doodle prompt or free sketch
An art appreciation card or composer of the week
It sets a peaceful tone for the day and engages both sides of the brain.
3. Mixing Core Subjects with Creativity
Math through measuring art projects or counting beats.
Language arts through writing song lyrics or art journaling.
History through exploring music and art from different cultures and time periods.
4. Art & Music as Emotional Check-ins
On tough days, we pause the academics and turn to:
Drawing feelings
Dancing out big emotions
Singing lullabies or calming background music
These aren’t breaks from learning—they are healing and expressive learning.
💛 For the Homeschool Parent Wondering…
If you’ve been feeling torn between “getting all the subjects done” and honoring your child’s creative spark, this is your permission slip:
You can build a beautiful, full education around their gifts.
Art and music aren’t distractions. They’re doorways into deeper understanding, self-expression, and even academic growth. They teach focus, discipline, emotional intelligence, and wonder.
Your artist.
Your musician.
Your way of homeschooling…
is more than enough.
In our homeschool, we don’t fit art and music around the other subjects.
We build everything else around them.
Because learning is more than memorization.
It’s connection.
It’s creativity.
It’s harmony.
Do your kids learn through art and music too? I’d love to hear how creativity shows up in your homeschool. Share in the comments or tag me @HomeschoolHarmony_—we’re raising the next generation of creators, one joyful day at a time.