55: How the Music and Art Homeschool Summit Can Help you Succeed in Your Homeschool

In this engaging episode of the Music in Our Homeschool podcast, join host Gena Mayo as she delves into the vibrant world of music and art education with the inspiring Justina Thurston. As the host of the Music and Art Homeschool Summit and the mastermind behind Just Classical, Justina shares her lifelong dedication to music and art, offering invaluable insights for homeschooling families eager to integrate these essential subjects into their curricula.

Discover how the Music and Art Homeschool Summit, taking place from March 12 to 14, 2025, can revolutionize your homeschool experience. Justina emphasizes the profound benefits of music and art education, from enhancing cognitive development to fostering emotional expression. Learn why these subjects are not mere electives but pivotal aspects of a well-rounded education.

Throughout the episode, listeners will explore the intersection of music, art, and other educational subjects, such as math, science, and history. Justina and Gena highlight the upcoming summit's diverse offerings, including pre-recorded sessions with renowned educators like Alicia Gratehouse and Mary Prather, and live classes designed to captivate children of all ages.

Homeschool parents, seize this opportunity to enrich your teaching approach with insights from experienced educators. Whether you're focusing on the Charlotte Mason philosophy or classical education, the summit promises a wealth of strategies and resources tailored to your family's needs.

Don't miss the chance to sign up for this transformative event, which includes free gifts and access to exclusive content. Tune in to learn more about this enriching homeschool resource that combines the beauty of music and art with educational excellence. Join Justina and Gena for a journey into the heart of creative education that will leave a lasting impact on your homeschooling adventure.

Find all links to resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/music-and-art-homeschool-summit/

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Transcript

How the Music and Arts Summit Can Help You Succeed in Your Homeschool Podcast interview with Justina E55

[00:00:00] 

Welcome back to the Music in Our Homeschool podcast, everyone. I'm so excited to have Justina Thurston with us today. She's going to tell us all about the Music in Our Homeschool Summit, but let me tell you a little bit about her first. She runs Jus' Classical and she's the host of the Music and Art Homeschool Summit and Bundle.

She's a musician, video, and course creator and songwriter. She has a degree in music therapy and has worked as an early childhood music teacher for over 20 years. At her church, she helps with the music ministry, playing oboe in the orchestra, and teaching Sunday school to early elementary age children using her Westminster Shorter Catechism songs.

Justina is also a blessed wife and a homeschooling mom of three. At Jus' Classical, she seeks to encourage other homeschool moms and families, especially in focusing on Christ, in enjoying classical music and [00:01:00] great art through her courses like the Composer Detective, a music appreciation course for families, the Artist Detective, an art appreciation course for families, Making Music with Handel, a music fundamentals and tin whistle course, and Drawing with Rembrandt, a beginning drawing course.

She brings them all together for families to get both music and art in the Just Classical Fine Arts membership. Oh, that's so exciting. I love your stuff, Justina. You're very fun.    

So tell us about how and when you got involved in music and art. 

So I've been a musician my whole life. My parents introduced me to music.

My parents love music so much. And so they were always involved in church choir. And so I also got involved in church choir. I actually was in choir in elementary school. school and through junior high and high school. And I also got to choose to play an instrument when I was in fourth grade. [00:02:00] Actually, I guess I play, I probably played piano a little bit before that.

I don't do not call myself a pianist, but I can play. And so I chose oboe and cello when I was in fourth grade, I did not stick with cello, but I learned to play the oboe. And I continue that to this day. And so because I love music and was involved in the choirs on the, playing the oboes with orchestras and bands, I went and got a degree in music.

I just didn't really know what else. to do. So, cause that's what I had done. That was kind of my identity too, right? And I got a scholarship for music. So I was able to go and study music and I got my degree in music therapy because it was an interest. Well, it was interesting to me to use music to help people.

And I had been interested in helping special ed kids and thought I could combine my interests that way. I did not end up staying in music therapy. It's a little hard to market. So I [00:03:00] probably should have gone into music education. 

But I heard about a program called Musikgarten, and I discovered I could teach my classes in my own home. And it was with little kids, so it was really fun, it was a lot easier to market to people. And so I started my own studio doing Musikgarten. 

Now with art, I got involved in that because I was teaching in Classical Conversations. They're actually called tutors. And in those classes, we did a flyover of composers and artists. And so I was asked by the director of one of my communities if I would write skits to kind of bring the artists and the musicians to life. And so I got involved in writing the skits of the artists and Also the composers and I had other moms from the community play the parts. And so I realized with that, that we were just doing this [00:04:00] flyover and we could go so much deeper.

So I took my skits and turned them into YouTube videos where I played all the parts, but it brought the composers and the artists to life. Because they got to tell their own story. 

And so it was also through Classical Conversations that I had to teach little kids drawing. And I didn't really think I was an artist before that. And so we were teaching them how to draw in a way that we broke things down into steps. And I was teaching four and five year olds at the time, so it was not too intimidating. And I was able to figure out, Oh, I can learn to draw this way. I thought I couldn't because I hadn't been exposed to art before, even though I was creative and artistic in lots of ways.

And so, it was through Classical Conversations that I realized I could also teach art. And I wanted to bring it to more families, so that's where I put videos on YouTube and ended up turning it into courses. So that's why [00:05:00] I started Jus' Classical, so that art and music would not be intimidating to homeschool moms.

So that's, yeah, that's a long answer to the background of how I got involved 

in music and art. And I hadn't heard a lot of that story before. It's so funny how you and I have so many things in common. Like I got involved in singing at my church choir and then did it in elementary school. I started playing the cello when I was in fifth grade, but I didn't stick with it.

Then I did Musikgarten too, and I'm still teaching that to this day. And I started a lot of my Music in Our Homeschool courses because of what I first started teaching at our homeschool co op. And then I turned it into courses. So, so many things we have 

in common. Yeah. And I did musical theater and in high school.

I loved that. I love singing still. I think singing is actually my favorite. Although I was just playing oboe yesterday at church and I'm like, Oh, I just love to play oboe. So yeah. That's neat. [00:06:00] Yeah. 

So that's, you just answered the next question of how you got started with Just Classical because you put him on his YouTube videos.

So if anybody hasn't seen your YouTube videos, they need to go take a look. Is your YouTube channel Jus' Classical as well? It is. Yeah. J U S. It doesn't have a T. 

Right. That is kind of a play on my name. Huh. Yeah, I love it. My nickname is J U S, Juice, actually, is how my family's called. Oh, okay. But then I kind of played it around with that.

And it is pronounced Jus' Classical, yeah. But it is confusing for people without the T, but. I think 

it's cute. I like it. Yeah. So what are the benefits of music and art education from your perspective? 

There's so many benefits. So first of all, music and art bring beauty to our lives. And I mean, I don't know anybody who doesn't love some kind of music, right?

And we [00:07:00] also are looking at art all the time. We look at God's creation, and it's His creative, artistic canvas. And we have our own desire to be creative in some way. Like I have a daughter who just loves to decorate. That's being artistic. And in, Being involved in music and art, we're imitating God, the creator.

And so that, to me, is the first and greatest benefit. We're imitating God, we're enjoying God through those things. Mm hmm. And then, music is so important. I'll talk about music first. Music is so important in development. Now, you might remember this from some of the training in Musikgarten, but they talk a lot about the development of children and how music mirrors that.

So, for example, we start with listening and development, because children are able to hear in the womb, and they, the first thing they do when they're born is they can hear, whereas their vision is not so focused. And [00:08:00] so listening is the cornerstone of development for childhood development. Of course, music is all about listening.

And then after that, you know, the ear serves two purposes. It's for listening, but it's also for vestibular function, which is balance And so. So, the next thing that happens to development for children is movement, and of course, music enhances all the movement. When you see a little kid hear a song with a strong beat, they just kind of start dancing.

So, the music is enhancing that level of development. And then after that, they're developing language skills, and music has a lot of It's all about phrasing and it's all about vocalization and creating passages that is a language in itself. So that helps enhance their language skills. 

And then of course, social skills. You can be involved in music and enjoy music with other people or create music with [00:09:00] other people and so it enhances children's social skills. And then emotional skills is next in their development, and so they are able to express themselves through music or have a place to go to with their emotions by listening to certain songs that help them work through emotions. 

And then last is cognitive development. Music provides the opportunity to understand how to read and write and express and think on a higher level. 

And you could say that with art as well, obviously art doesn't have that cornerstone of listening, but it does correlate with some of the other aspects of development, like motor, when the child starts to write, they can be drawing pictures, manipulating a paintbrush, a crayon, something like that.

They can also, express themselves through art as a means of language in [00:10:00] the development. Because you can create pictures even if you can't write your thoughts and words quite yet. But they're developing that form of language and understanding pictorial language. 

For social art, you know, you can be sharing your artwork with other people or working on an art project together.

And just like music, art can be an emotional aspect, an expression of emotion, or something we look at to understand our emotions. And then for the cognitive stage, again, it's a way of reading and writing and a means of expression. 

So that's development, but then there's education. The benefits of music and education is that And art, I should say music and art, is that they integrate with every single subject that we're teaching.

Right? I mean, think about math. With math, if you're thinking about art, there are shapes and perspective that help [00:11:00] with math. And with music, there's time. Music is all about time and counting and subdividing, so you can create rhythms. So, that's a great way of math, and we talked about a little bit with science, you can be studying the sound, and how music has different aspects of science, like, the wavelengths of pitch.

And the same thing with art. There's wavelengths to see things with the art, like how colors are made. You can talk about refraction, and I know a lot of people use art for nature studies, which is science, right? And then, of course, with history, music and art are part of every culture and every history. So if you're studying history, you should be studying the music and the art, and there's lots of ways to look, and you shouldn't look at art or music without studying the [00:12:00] history, because otherwise you won't understand the different genres, the different eras.

So for example, like in the Baroque era, it's the time of nobility and kings, and so the and the art are fancy and decorated, and they were usually commissioned by nobility or the church. So you can see the soaring beauty of the music and the art in the church through music like Bach and Handel, and you can also feel like you're in the presence of nobility or kings when you listen to other pieces that maybe weren't commissioned for the church.

For example, Handel's piece. Zadok the priest is still played at every coronation of an English king or queen. So it's that, that era. So you're, you're looking at that kind of music and that kind of history. 

And then you see the art and the architecture with the gold and the gilded things and all the fancy things of that era. So music and [00:13:00] art correlate great with history. 

And so those are just some examples. Oh, I was going to say too, then you know, with science, we talk a lot about STEM and that's science, technology, engineering, and math. But there are people who are including A, the A for Arts, and calling it STEAM now, and that's so important because they're realizing you need that creativity to go along with the science and the math and the technology and the engineering, or, they're not going to accomplish a lot.

And there were famous scientists who are musicians, like Einstein, played the violin, and it was an important thing for him in his creative processes and emotional support. So, so many benefits of music. I'll stop now. 

Oh my gosh, I totally agree with everything you said.

So we are excited about the Music and Arts Homeschool Summit coming up in March 2025. Can you tell us about that and why you had the idea to begin it? 

Well, [00:14:00] partly because I love music and art so much, and I want everybody to be able to include it in their lives and their children's education. And as I just mentioned, STEM STEAM, I think that there's kind of a pushback in our society.

Like, everybody should just study science, technology, engineering, and math, right? Or there's homeschool parents who say, oh, we just got to focus on the three R's, reading, writing, and arithmetic. 

But as a music and art educator, I, I feel like I have to educate parents that the music and art are so valuable in our homeschools too, and people lump them together and say, Oh, they're just electives, but I believe they're essential and that they are part of our children's education and they're part of what make us human. And so I want people to be able to include them in their homeschools and not just look at them as electives and say, Nope, these are core subjects for us. [00:15:00] And they're actually Something we're going to enjoy our whole lives long beyond the formal learning years.

So why not include them? Plus, I say, we're going to be singing in heaven, right? So why not learn about music now? 

Also, I know so many music and art educators, wonderful music and art educators like you and Alicia Gratehouse, who's going to be part of this and many others who can help families and enrich their lives.

So I want to showcase how important and beautiful music and art, are in our lives. And I want to showcase all these other music and art educators. And of course we would love for families to get involved with us. I would love it if people would buy my courses and be part of my membership But I know I'm not the right teacher for everybody.

And so I want to partner with these other music and art educators like you, so that we can showcase all of our talents and see what might be a good fit for families because we [00:16:00] all want to help families include music and art in their homeschools and integrate it with the other subjects and we don't want families to be intimidated by music and art so they can experience the joy of including it in their family's lives.

And so this Music and Art Homeschool Summit is going to introduce people to the beauty of music and art, show how you can use it with a few different philosophies. 

For example, there's a lot about the Charlotte Mason philosophy and the classical philosophy in this particular upcoming summit. And there's also a lot for high school age.

In the previous summit that we did, there's more for younger ages, so people can pick up those, video recordings as well if they want to. But this will help people understand. How they can integrate it in their homeschools and show them who can help them with it, right? 

So for someone who's never attended a summit before, can you give some [00:17:00] specifics?

Like the dates and then is it all online or do they have to attend things live? How does it work like that? 

Right. So this is a three day summit. It is all online and parts of it are pre recorded and parts of it are live. So it's going to happen March 12th through 14th. That's a Wednesday through a Friday.

And March 12th is going to be Music Day. And so this year, all of the recorded sessions are interviews. So I have interviewed you and Mary Prather from SQUILT, plus a few other people who are maybe not so much educators, but can bring us a perspective about music.

I have a young man named Daniel Craig, who grew up as a musician, had great training. But now he's actually a homeschool summits host himself. It's part of Generations Curriculum at Homeschool Summits. 

I also am interviewing Sharon Barrett, who also was homeschooled [00:18:00] and has a background in music. And then I actually interviewed my own mom because she has provided a legacy of music in my family. And so there's a few interesting stories like that, plus the educators. So that's all on Wednesday, March 12th, and those are all prerecorded sessions. 

And then on Thursday, March 13th, again, prerecorded interviews. And those will be the art sessions. And that will include Alicia Gratehouse from Masterpiece Society, and Cindy West from No Sweat Nature Studies, so she brings science and art together, Jo Ditt Williams from Jo Ditt Designs, she's going to be talking about how we can use art in our relationship with God. And then Ashton Rodenheiser is from Sketch Note School, and she talks about using art in taking notes, and how that's another great way to take notes. I also am talking to Erin Cox from the Gentle and Classical Press, and she talks a [00:19:00] little more about the, bringing classical education and Charlotte Mason together in Morning Times and including it in that way.

So, those are the ones on Thursday, and then Friday is live classes. So there is a live element to the summit and some of the people who I've just mentioned are going to be doing live classes for our audience. So yes, you would have to show up live. You'd have to get a zoom link for that one. So yeah, that's how those 

live classes for kids or for parents or is it just a mixture?

Oh yeah, those are for kids. So the people who will be doing the live classes will be presenting to the children. Now, I encourage the parents to watch that part as well, just to see how their children interact with the person presenting. Obviously, that's not the end all, be all as to whether you're going to know if that person is the right fit, but it helps you see how your children interact.

[00:20:00] What I mean by not the end all, be all is because it's on a Zoom link, right? So sometimes the interaction isn't as Fresh as if it were live, but in person, I should say, because it is live. But that gives you the opportunity to see how those teachers teach, see how your children respond, and see what kind of content they can offer.

But whether you end up going with one teacher or another, whether you end up buying any of the courses that all of us have to offer or becoming part of our memberships, it's still a fun day. Just call it a Fine Arts Friday that's totally free for the families to come to and be part of. And then as parents, you don't have to think about what you're teaching that day, right?

Because there will be several classes that your children can participate that day. 

So you said it's totally free, so we will have a link for them to sign up so they'll know exactly when everything is. Do they get something else as well? I think it's called [00:21:00] the Homeschool Art and Summit and Bundle, right?

There is a bundle that goes with it. 

I will say first, though, most of the speakers are offering a free gift. And so you can get a sample of one of our products and use it. And that right there is going to help you with something to do music and art in your homeschool. But there's also a bundle, and there are some people who are not speakers who have also contributed to the bundle.

Okay. So, yeah, that is an upgrade. And that will be sold as a bundle, and you'll also get access to the videos. , that you can have ongoing access if you don't have time to watch them all during those three days. So that's the purpose of the bundle, to give you access to the videos, and resources you can use in your homeschool immediately that will help you with music and art.

And I don't have the price set quite yet, but it, it's not gonna be an expensive thing. And you'll get all these resources, so it's really worth the upgrade. 

Yeah, that sounds so fun. But even if people couldn't upgrade, they [00:22:00] could do it for free. We want it to be for everybody, right? So, yeah, anything else to share about the summit?

Or did we cover it all? 

Yeah. I mean, I just really encourage people to come and attend some of the sessions or all of the sessions and be encouraged, inspired. I have learned so much from interviewing all of the speakers myself, so I know you guys are going to learn so much from this and be encouraged and how beautiful it is to have music and art in your lives if you don't already believe that, right?

If you already know how beautiful it is. 

Oh, and it is for families of all ages. Preschool through high school because I know my interview was focusing on music education for high schoolers Exactly. Yeah, but I'm sure you have some others for the younger kids, too 

Yeah, so we have several sessions that pertain to the high school.

I feel like there's a focus. That's a little towards the older kids this [00:23:00] time, I feel like the last summit that we did was focused a little more towards younger kids, but this one has more sessions for older, but it has sessions that are going to apply to all ages. And I know, like, in speaking with Erin Cox, she has kids of different ages, so it was really helpful to see how she was able to include all of her kids in the music and art times that she does.

So you can do it with your variety of ages in your family. 

Oh, that sounds so fun. Can't wait. Yeah. All right. So as we're wrapping up today, Justina, any other things you'd like to share with us, maybe about how music has impacted your life? 

Yeah, I can't imagine life without music and art, honestly. And I think that Of course, a lot of my identity is in being a musician in particular.

Now, of course, my first identity is being a child of God, being a Christian. And [00:24:00] so I have to balance that identity, right? Of being a musician and a, and a child of God. But. It has been a huge part of my life in so many ways. And it, it's just something I've always done being a musician, but it's something I enjoy so much and that's why I want to share it with other people.

And so I have so many memories around music. Just singing in different choirs, different songs that become kind of part of you when you're a musician, when you practice them so much and then you hear them again and it creates all these memories. And it also just brings so much joy to life. It brings so much joy to my life and it touches so many aspects.

So I love to sing. I love to play my instrument, my oboe. I love to make up songs to help people memorize things. And I listen to classical music and study it so I can help other people enjoy it. And so [00:25:00] it's just touched my life and all these ways where I can enjoy life so much better. I think and, and grow as a person.

All the memories, all the, the confidence it gives and performing and talking to people. And so. And again, music just helps me enjoy God more. And I want to encourage everybody to join us in the Music and Art Homeschool Summit and, and learn a little bit more and be encouraged in that way as well.

Well, thank you so much, Justina, for being with us today. I will definitely include the link for the Summit in the show notes and the description so everyone can sign up and take a listen to the workshops, the different encouraging speakers and get all the free gifts that are going to be shared. This has been wonderful today.

Thank you again and hope you all will join us. Thank you. 

Find all links to resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/music-and-art-homeschool-summit/