49: How Art and Music Appreciation in Your Homeschool Can Help You Raise Leaders, Not Followers

"How Art and Music Appreciation in Your Homeschool Can Help You Raise Leaders, Not Followers" - And interview with Kerry Beck

Discover how incorporating art and music appreciation into your homeschool curriculum can develop crucial leadership skills in your children. Host Gena Mayo welcomes veteran homeschool educator and leadership expert Kerry Beck to discuss the powerful connection between arts education and raising influential leaders.

In this enlightening episode, Beck shares her journey from public school teacher to homeschool advocate, introducing her proven four-step approach to leadership education: character building, love of learning, critical thinking skills, and starting with mom's own educational journey. Learn practical, stress-free ways to implement art and music appreciation, including:

• Simple 5-10 minute art appreciation sessions using accessible resources
• How to cultivate music appreciation through Classical Kids programs
• Strategies for museum visits that spark genuine interest
• Using music to develop critical thinking and decision-making skills
• Discussion techniques that enhance listening and analytical abilities

Perfect for homeschool parents seeking to:

• Develop leadership qualities in their children
• Integrate arts education without overwhelming schedules
• Foster a genuine love of learning
• Build critical thinking through music and art
• Create a purpose-driven homeschool environment

Whether you're new to homeschooling or a seasoned educator, this episode provides valuable insights into how arts education can transform your approach to raising future leaders. Join us for this inspiring conversation about nurturing influential, well-rounded individuals through the power of arts education.

See links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/revolutionize-your-homeschool/

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Transcript

How Art and Music Appreciation Can Help You Raise Leaders, Not Followers

[00:00:00] 

Welcome Harmony Heroes to the Music in Our Homeschool podcast. I'm so happy to have Kerry Beck with me today. I have known Kerry for so long. She's just a pillar of the homeschool community and what a blessing to have her with us today. She's going to be talking about raising leaders, not followers, and how music education can help you with that.

So let's turn it over to Kerry. Can you start out by telling us a little bit about yourself? 

Sure, Gena. Thank you so much for having me. 

And, raising leaders, not followers is sort of what we're known for. But let me go back just a little bit. We were homeschool. We homeschooled for 10 years. It wasn't our first choice.

We said we would never homeschool. I was a public school teacher for six years and then put those kids in a really nice Christian school. And I mean, personally, I thought homeschoolers were too lazy [00:01:00] to get out of bed and get their kids to to school. That is me. Then we've come full circle.

God just made it to where we had to homeschool and fell in love with it and just the relationships and the bonding and everything that's gone on in our family and that homeschooling is academics, but it's so much more. And when I was homeschooling, we homeschooled for 10 years and the first 5 years, I did some Charlotte Mason, some classical.

And then my friend, Andrew Pudewa gave me a book called The Thomas Jefferson Education and said, Kerry, "You need to sell this at your store." And I said, okay, so I read it. And it was all about raising your kids to be leaders and to have freedom in your homeschool. And yet, so, you know, I start sharing this with moms, but they wanted it from a Christian perspective.

And I'm thinking, you can still get, I don't say that to them, but you can still get information from this. And so I began using it in my homeschool, sort of figuring it all out [00:02:00] myself, and in the process developed sort of a system that we now teach homeschool moms about how they can actually raise their kids to be leaders and have some purpose to what you're doing.

Homeschooling is more than academics. To me, it's, relationships are so much more important and we want to prepare our kids for life. So that's sort of in a nutshell, like, where we came from. We've had our business since 2002 or 3. I can't remember it. It is. It is evolved over the years. But anyway, that is where we are.

So how long have you been, like, sharing the Raising Leaders, Not Followers course? Is it a course? Is that what you would call it? 

It is 

a course. It started as a book in 2005 or 6, because I think, we started using it even before then. But I just decided to write a book and even what I teach has evolved.

So we started that [00:03:00] and then it turned into a book. A bundle and then it turned into a really long course that was non consumable because the videos were way too long. And about 3 years ago, I actually revised it made it a lot easier for each week for moms to be able to do something to actually change and get rid of the overwhelm to stop the overwhelm.

I see so many moms that are overwhelmed and they're like, what do I do? I need to figure this out. And so it helps them take a step back and say, Hey, we're going to add purpose to our homeschool and we're going to sometimes say no to other things. And yes, to some things as well. So what we teach in now, the course is there's 4 steps.

It is basically, it begins with the foundation of godly character. Oh, and by the way, just so you all know, I'm a person of faith. So pretty much everything I say comes across with faith. So, foundation of godly character, The [00:04:00] love of learning and the tools of learning because leaders need to, they're going to learn for a lifetime, critical thinking skills, and making wise decisions.

And in both of those areas, music and art fit in very well as well. There's probably other ways, but that's where I really see it the most. And then start with moms, actually moms too, because moms sometimes need to start themselves. Homeschooling is more than just giving them a book and you walking off and then getting on your phone and scrolling.

And I doubt that moms do that, but we really need to start with moms and sometimes reset what we think education is. 

That sounds wonderful. So what are some things that you did with music and art education with your kids? 

Well, one of the things we did was it wasn't, well, okay, let me just back up.

Okay, my kids took piano lessons. And I took piano lessons, so my kids took piano lessons and [00:05:00] they actually they had a great teacher. She was like a grandma and they had a great experience. And I mean, she just made it a fun time for them. I remember she would have a Christmas party every year at her house.

And if a kid wanted to sit down and play their song, they could, but they didn't have to. There was no pressure. It was just a very relaxed environment. But more than likely, they're all going to eventually sit down because they see other kids sit down and it's not always perfect. So she made that fun. 

She did do a recital at the end. So they had to memorize and, you know, use their brain and get some critical thinking skills in there. But, what I would say some of the things is we took a step back and relaxed a lot and really wanted my kids to love learning. 

Hmm. 

So some of the things I did personally to love learning is, for art appreciation, let's say, I did kids that took art classes and all of this, but rather just sort of focus on art appreciation. And that was something we would just do once or [00:06:00] twice a week, 5 or 10 minutes. It was not overwhelming. I found these really cool books that are out of print. So you have to get them at the library or used bookstore.

It is Ernest Raboff and Art for Children. And they are [I've never seen those before.] Really? Yeah, I mean, I can get more of them. I would, but it was just like this one, we have Michelangelo somewhere. But, you know, we might spend one day on this and just read this and look at the pictures and talk about this. And that's it.

I mean, we would go to the next page the next day. Here we go. And talk about that. We might sidetrack, but more than likely. No, I just started this. And so. This is part of, I call it family time. A lot of people call it morning time, morning basket, whatever. This was one of the things that we would alternate in doing all of that.

Another series that I actually found that was, it was current. I don't know if it is. It's Come Look with Me [00:07:00] and we used to sell these when I sold like, you know, 200 different titles in a real store. But come look with me. What I like about this is very simple, right? Here is the painting. Here is the paragraph.

No, these are the questions. And then here's the background information. 

Oh, so it includes questions. I like 

That. This one does. It is just so simple. And there's like five or six. This one is Enjoying Art with Children. There's an early American one. I can't remember all of them. So as far as that, I know there are other series that do this. These are just the two that we ended up using. Simple. We're not trying to throw more stuff and stress you out more. This is something simple. 

And seriously, five or 10 minutes, one or two mornings a week. And that was it. The other thing we did is I exposed my kids, obviously to good art, but we would go to the art museum.

I live about an hour and a half [00:08:00] from Houston, and we would go down there to different ones. Now, this is back in the good old days where you didn't have streaming things. You actually had to pay for the little cassette. It was a cassette tape, put the head phones on and walk around and listen to them. 

And there was one time that we went down there and the kids knew we were going to the museum and we pull in the parking lot. And I didn't say. I have 3 kids; they are all adult kids. Two girls that are married with kids and then Hunter's our baby who is engaged and later. Yeah, this year. But he was probably about 6 or 7 and we pull into that parking lot and he says, "Oh, no. Not this museum!" It was like. He thought we were going to the health museum where you could walk through the mouth and see the lungs breathing and get on the bike and do all this stuff.

Oh, that's cool too. . It's cool. But I was like, okay, Hunter, listen, I know this isn't your [00:09:00] favorite thing. You need to listen. And it was a, I think it was a Monet, it was some sort of Impressionistic. I love art anyway, but so we get in there. I'm like you need to listen to three audios I don't care which one of the paintings in here you listen to three. And then you can go across the hall and there's an entire Star Wars exhibit. So, well, it's not like I forced my kids to do it, but I kept exposing them little by little to great art, to fine art. 

Now, he was six. If you fast forward 10 years, we were in London, we were hosting a conference, and we told the kids, if y'all will come and help us for the weekend, we'll stay for a week and sightsee. And there was one day that I really wanted to go to the National Gallery of Art, and the only person in my family that would go with me was Hunter.

And I share that story to say that was 10 years. I wasn't like banging him. I was, you know, I was not [00:10:00] forcing him to go. We need to give our kids time to grow into a love of learning. And they may not like this when they're kids, but he grew into that. And I think over time, he, seriously, it was just the two of us wandering around this whole museum as well.

So that was, that's sort of the art aspect of love of learning. The other thing we did with music appreciation, I don't think I have, I don't even know where these are. Again, they were cassette tapes. It's called Classical Kids, and at the time there were like five composers, and it would play, it would tell a story about a fictional character, and the actual real composer, and would play the music along with it.

So, when we would. Every morning, you know, we eat breakfast. They go get ready. They practice the piano and usually they were finished before I was so they would go in and put the cassette in and listen [00:11:00] to the music. I really didn't talk to him about it. We just listened to it a lot. We listened to it in the car.

And then sometime we were listening to Vivaldi and I also had some, some tapes as far as Vivaldi that were not Classical Kids, no story, just straight Vivaldi music. And I popped it in and they all were like, that's Vivaldi. Now, did I teach them? This is Vivaldi. You got to take a test on this. No, they just had heard it so much that they recognized where that music had come from.

So that's a real, those are just simple ways that you can include art and music to encourage a love of learning. 

That's, I love that. So, love of learning, you said that's the second step, right? Yes. What were the four steps? 

Again? Well, character, haven't quite figured that out. Moms, I would say, moms, if you're going to do it, you've got to get into this somehow.

You've got to sort [00:12:00] of think about it. As far as like, You do not want to stand next to me at church and listen to me sing, but I will sing my heart out. I sing off key on a regular basis. So that's not my gift. I think I've told Gena, but I can provide music. I can go find other means of doing it. I can find books and I actually can do art myself.

But yeah, you don't have to do it all. Just see that art and music is important and rethink about what you think is important. Again, it's, you know, reading, writing, and arithmetic are important, but mom, you, if you want them to appreciate, like I saw that ten year change over Hunter, a lot of it's because I appreciate it.

Again, I didn't lecture him on it. I modeled that for him as well. So character, we've got love of learning, start with mom, but yeah. Those are sort of out of order. The other one is critical thinking. Okay. 

And I sort of thought about critical thinking, and [00:13:00] I know there's a lot of stuff out there as far as brain development with music and all, but I did make a few notes so that I would remember some of this, because I think when you're working, let's say with music, you're using different parts of your brain than some of just your typical academics.

And from what I've learned just in research, Using music, listening to music, even young kids listening, it can help them to solve puzzles. They say there's studies to take piano for six months. Now, again, I didn't do the research, but I've been told that you can improve your, prove your puzzle ability by as much as 30%.

Wow. 

So I do think it is helping your brain think critically and creatively. And then you go even further. When you're looking at a piece, and let's say my kids were learning how to play a piece for their recital, they had to have some decision making. [00:14:00] You know, how are they going to perform this? They need to analyze and sort of interpret that piece of music.

Obviously, they had a piano teacher that would help them with all of that. That as you grow in your ability to perform music, you would grow in analysis and interpretation of music. grow in decision making. And these are all skills that our kids need as adults. You know, they need to be analyzed, you know, what's going on to interpret correctly, to make wise decisions, to be able to go off into real life.

And that's something we teach our leadership students, the moms, you need to raise your kids. They are going to lead. They need to be able to analyze, interpret, make decisions. Now, when I say leader, I don't mean CEO or president of the United States. The word leadership means influence and we're all influencing people.

And so all we have to, I mean, more than likely your kids will be a [00:15:00] mom or a dad. They are going to influence. They are going to raise those kids somehow. And so I don't want people to think, Oh, my kid isn't going to be the leader, but leadership is influence. And so to be a good leader as a mom or dad, you also need to interpret what's going on around you.

You need to make wise decisions. Music is a way you can begin to build some of those skills as well. 

Definitely. I, I am getting excited about this course. 

And that's thing in leadership education, discussion is really big in those teenage years. We teach read, write, discuss, but I think discussion can also be important in music as well and it can apply.

We probably lean a lot towards classical books and interpreting those and what, what do we think about them, but with music, you can play a piece and maybe not with little kids, but maybe some. These are just a few questions. You might ask to build up a discussion [00:16:00] about a piece of music. Why do you think the composer wrote this piece?

How does the music make you feel? Now, I think a younger kid could probably answer that. That gets them to start thinking about how, how do I feel? Why, why did he do this? Why did he write this piece? How would it change if you changed instruments? Like, instead of playing a trumpet, you played a violin. And these are just very simple questions that you could ask.

You're relating it all to music. But it's also building some critical thinking skills as well. So, and then probably the, well, there's a lot of things I could go on. The other thing is listening skills. I mean, let's, if music, most of us don't really have good listening skills. We tend to want to talk. We're thinking of whatever we're going to say to that person.

With music, you can really start to build some good listening skills with your kids. And I think this is really important. And I think a good communicator actually listens and isn't just [00:17:00] forming their answer before they've actually listened to whatever someone's saying. Music allows you to build up those listening skills as well.

So, so good. I love this. Well, as we're wrapping up today, is there anything else you'd like to share with us? 

All I can say is. Music and art seem supplemental, but I think it is still vital. It may not take three hours of every single day. It may but look at your kids and look at them individually and see where they, they lean if they're really into an instrument, let them pursue that interest. That will help with a love of learning. If they're really into art, I had a daughter who loved art, and so she took watercolor classes and they took pottery and all sorts of things. Allow them to pursue some interests like that, and they're going to learn.

It's not necessarily book learning, but they are going to be learning as well. And I think all of these are things that can [00:18:00] encourage the love of learning, the critical thinking, and decision making, which for us, and what I teach is part of that leadership education, 

And if you'll allow me, we do have, I don't know exactly when this is going to, publish, [Pretty soon.]

We've got, we've got a summit coming up. It's called Life Skills Leadership Summit. We have a free pass. Gena can give you a link to wherever it is. But I would love for you to join us. 

A few things that are going on. We have a leadership track. So one day it's all on love of learning. Another day is critical thinking, another day is moms and parenting. So you, and character. It's got all of it. I was just leaning more towards music and art here. And then we have a life skills. So communication or building relationships or hands-on at home. We have things with baking. Doesn't that sound like fun? 

So anyway, February 24th through the 28th and I would just invite y'all to join us. It's a great week. We have some awesome speakers and would love for you to join us. Like I [00:19:00] said, you can get a free pass and come all 5 days. 

That's so wonderful. Thank you for offering it for free, Kerry. That makes everyone able to attend. Well, this has been so good. I hope you all have enjoyed it as much as I have and have gotten excited about Raising Leaders, Not Followers.

It gives me some ideas of some things I want to do with my own children as I'm still homeschooling them. Thank you, Kerry. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much, Gena. I appreciate you having me. Bye-bye.

See links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/revolutionize-your-homeschool/