Teaching Kids to Love Music

Growing up, my parents listened to nothing else but classical music. My dad's favorites are Rachmaninoff and Debussy. I can remember dancing around the room like a ballerina while my dad listened to Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. From my infancy, I was exposed to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Copland, etc. My parents never pushed it on me. They didn't force me to sit and listen. They just had it on at home or in the car while we went about our daily activities. By doing that simple thing, I grew to love that music as much or more than they did.

So, I decided I would do the same in my home. I don't play music constantly (sometimes silence is nice too), but now and then, I'll put on a classical CD. Not only am I exposing them to good music, but it also helps our home feel more peaceful. The other day we were driving around, and I put in a CD of Strauss Waltzes. Pretty soon my 4 year old started talking about a movie, and I realized he was talking about the Baby Neptune movie by Baby Einstein where the duck dances in the water to the music of Beautiful Danube. He also made other connections with other songs on the CD. I thought that was interesting that he would be able to recognize the music that quickly. That tells me that kids listen better than we think they do, and they learn quicker than we think too.

I don't have that big of a classical collection. So, I decided that every month I'd buy a new CD. I went on Amazon and found some CDs by some of the greats and put them on wish list. If you'd like to start building your collection but you don't know where to start, here are some of my favorites: Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Copland, Tchaikovsky. You could start by getting a compilation CD with the artist's greatest works. Hope this helps!

If you have anything to add please share in the comments!