One afternoon, my girls and I were enjoying a snack around the table when I decided to play classical music. This is not something I normally do. With four young children, the day fills quickly, and subjects like music tend to be pushed aside. (I’m sad to admit it.) However, I decided to try it, because I had just finished listening to a book that really encouraged me. (Modern Miss Mason by Leah Boden)

Turns out the music quit playing and I didn’t even realize. (oops!) No one could hear it. When I finally remembered it was on, I quickly grabbed my phone to figure out what was going on. I turned it up and saw the name of the song. It was a song by Beethoven.

My oldest daughter has an ear for music so I decided to “quiz” her on the spot, just for fun. “Do you know who this is?” I asked her. She looked at me like the answer was obvious and responded, “Yeah…it’s Beethoven!”

I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t even know that, but how cool! I asked her how she knew, and she just said that it just “sounded like him”. Well, this got us thinking…what does he sound like?

A quick YouTube search, and we were immersed in the world of Beethoven!

At the end of this afternoon snack, I had this boost of confidence – I can do this! I can add this in without sweat. It was so easy to sit back and chit chat about a song over a snack. Of course, in homeschool mama fashion, I laid out a plan in my head to figure out how to make this work with consistency. The following is what I came up with and some tips on how to make it work.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Choose your Composer

This sort of fell in our lap, but there’s a couple ways you could do this. If you’re studying a specific time period, you could look to see if a composer lived during that time. It would be a great way to link your subjects.

The other option would be to just pick something you’re familiar with or something that sounds interesting to you. For our first one, Beethoven was such a great fit, because it’s a well-known composer and I also knew the name well. So, it was fun to learn so much about it!

Lastly, you could pick at random from a good list of composers! Check out this website from Simply Charlotte Mason for a list of suggested composers to study.

Snack and Drink

Little ones always seem to listen better when they’re eating. So, you may want to pick a time of day where a snack fits in.

I chose the afternoon after our quiet time, but I have heard of people that do studies like this at breakfast or during a mid-morning snack. Now, a drink is not necessary, but my girls love a tea party. So, it’s turned into a little routine.

We have a cute tea set that one of the girls got for Christmas one year, but other than that our “tea party” is not fancy! Our snack has been as simple as apple slices to something more intense, like homemade muffins. Always pick what feels easy for you.

You want this time to be relaxing and enjoyable. Nobody has fun when they’re running around like crazy. Choose simplicity!

I’ll be honest, the first week we did it, I did kind of feel like a crazy person. Balancing everyone’s tea, and the honey, and the mixing, and the temperature adjusting – it was a little nuts. However, the more we’ve done it, the easier it gets.

I wonder if I should share some of my tricks with you?? If you’re interested in tea, I’ll let you know what we do to make it flow better. First, I prepare while my kids are still in quiet time. I boil the water and steep the tea.

Next, I get the snack ready and at the table (usually I just put it on a paper towel!) I set out enough tea cups for everyone, and I actually put two ice cubes in each cup. This helps cool the tea quickly so no one burns their mouth.

I also give each girl a little spoon (that came with the set). When it’s time to add the honey, the kids know the rule – fill the spoon and mix. No more 😉

Just as a side note – I treat myself to a snack and drink too. I could drink tea with the kids, and sometimes I do, but I usually like to make myself a yummy iced coffee! It’s such an afternoon treat.

Books

To keep it simple, I decided to look for books I could find at my library/local used bookstore. I put books on hold, and picked them up as they were ready. Since this study took about 7 weeks, I wasn’t in a rush to get them all at once.

My goal was to try to read one book a week. Sometimes we did this in just one sitting. Some books, we split up into two different times. I basically just read until I feel like I’ve lost their attention. (This is usually around 15-20 minutes, sometimes even shorter if my two-year-old is awake)

The books we got were great, and we learned so much! I’m going to list them here for you and I’ll put them in order of how much we enjoyed them. The first is the one we enjoyed the most!

• Beethoven Lives Upstairs
• Famous Children: Beethoven
• Ludwig Van Beethoven (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers)
• Ludwig Van Beethoven (Rookie Biographies)

You’ll notice I didn’t have a book for every week. There was a week or two when I was waiting on a book so we just looked up some information about a song on the internet. It was a quick way to learn a little bit about the song/musician, even without a book.

Music

If you do a Google search for “Ludwig Van Beethoven Compositions” you’ll get a big list. I chose a small handful to look at over a 7 week period. I will list those below.

• Moonlight Sonata
• Fur Elise
• Symphony No. 9
• Symphony No. 3
• Symphony No. 5
• Symphony No. 6 (my favorite!)

I really don’t think it matters what order you listen to the songs. You could do it chronologically, but that would take a little research. I chose the songs based on the ones I recognized first. Then, I chose ones that were brought up in a book we read or that came up on an internet search.

For each song, I used a YouTube video to play the music. There are a couple different ways I would integrate the music into our homeschool.

First, I would try to play it while I prepared our afternoon tea. When we started reading, I would turn it down. When we finished our book, I’d play the music again and this time we would listen very closely. We might point out if it’s soft or loud. I might ask what instrument they could hear.

Sometimes we would even pretend we were playing and move our body according to the feel of the music. It sounds silly, but Beethoven’s music is very up and down. One minute it’s quiet and playful and the next it’s loud and aggressive. We had fun acting this out on a pretend instrument.

Lastly, I would try to play it a little bit throughout the week. I wasn’t always good about this, but I did try. Sometimes I could just play it in the house or I might play it while we were picking up.

Playing the Music on the Piano

Every once in a while my kids will do a piano lesson on Hoffman Academy. One afternoon, my oldest realized that there was a teaching video for “Fur Elise”, one of Beethoven’s compositions.

So, instead of doing the normal Hoffman Academy lessons, she has been working on “Fur Elise” for a couple weeks. I thought it would be such a great way to experience the music, and it now had so much more meaning.

Easy Break-Down

Let’s break this down to visualize an easy-to-do checklist. Sometimes seeing it like this really shows off the simplicity, and that’s my hope here. A composer study can be this simple and still be so beneficial!

• Prepare Snack and Drink
• Gather around the table
• Read a book about the composer aloud
• Listen to a song by the composer
• Discuss the book, the music, the instruments

That’s it! No worksheets, no extra activities, just fun conversation and good food around the table. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

Simple, Fun, and Memorable

“Hey, Mom, what’s Beethoven’s favorite fruit?” This was a joke my daughter read in a magazine and shared with me one night. Of course, after listening and learning about him for so long I was determined to get this joke. “Moonlight Banana,” I said. “SO CLOSE!” She responded. And then she sang the answer, “Ba-na-na-naaaaaa”

Did you hear it? It’s from his Fifth Symphony. How cool that we can recognize that together. A silly joke suddenly has so much meaning.

It’s such a beautiful part of homeschool. I knew very little about Beethoven, and now my children and I can all share in our learning together. I used to think that a composer study was just one-more-thing to add to our day. How in the world was I supposed to get it done?

However, with this approach, not only was it simple, but it became one of the most relaxing parts of our day. I so much enjoyed pausing are afternoon to connect over music, food, and a good book about a GREAT musician.