98: Tune Up Your Homeschool: How to Set Up a Simple, Beautiful Music Space for the New Year in Your Homeschool

Are you hoping to make music a consistent part of your homeschool this semester—but unsure how to set things up so it actually happens?

In this practical and encouraging episode of the Music in Our Homeschool podcast, veteran homeschool mom and music teacher Gena Mayo walks you through how to create a simple, beautiful, and functional music space in your home—without stress, expensive equipment, or a dedicated music room.

As the new year approaches, this episode is your gentle reset. You’ll learn how small changes to your environment and schedule can make a big difference in keeping music from getting pushed aside once life gets busy again.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why your learning environment matters more than elaborate lesson plans
• How to set up a music space using a corner, basket, shelf, or rolling cart
• Simple safety and practicality tips for families with younger children
• Age-appropriate guidance for choosing instruments like piano, violin, recorder, guitar, ukulele, and rhythm instruments
• Budget-friendly ways to acquire instruments and supplies
• Multiple scheduling options—including Music Monday, loop scheduling, and block scheduling
• Encouragement to stop trying to do it all yourself and instead press play and go

This episode is especially helpful for busy homeschool parents who want a quality music education without overwhelm—and for anyone looking to bring more beauty, joy, and peace into their homeschool rhythm.

🎵 Try a free music lesson:
Visit MusicinOurHomeschool.com/Sampler to access a free sampler course.

🎼 Make music effortless all year:
Join the Music in Our Homeschool Plus Membership at MusicinOurHomeschool.com/Membership and receive the Music Lesson Calendar of the Month—your done-for-you guide to daily 15-minute music lessons.

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/set-up-homeschool-music-space/

Please follow/subscribe to the podcast and leave a 5-star review and comment if you liked this episode! Find all courses at https://Learn.MusicinOurHomeschool.com ,free music lessons here: https://MusicinOurHomeschool.com/FreeMusicLessons , and lots more links here: https://linktr.ee/genamayo !

Transcript

E 98 Tune Up Your Homeschool How to Set Up a Simple, Beautiful Music Space for the New Year

Gena: [00:00:00] Hello, Harmony Heroes. Welcome back to the Music in Our Homeschool podcast. I'm your host, Gena Mayo, and today we're doing something a little different. We're tuning up your homeschool for the new year.

December is such a natural time to reset. After Christmas school, after the rush of recitals and concerts and performances and all the holiday music, homeschool moms often say, "Okay, I want a fresh start in January, but I need to set things up so that music actually happens this semester." And that's exactly what we're going to walk through today. How to create a simple, beautiful, and functional m usic space and routine in your home, one that supports your kids' learning without adding any stress to your plate.

Before we jump in, let me give you a quick introduction in case you're new to me. My name is Gena Mayo. I'm a veteran homeschooling mom of eight. My oldest kids are grown, my middle ones are in [00:01:00] college or are working, and I still have three teens at home. After all these years, I'm still right in the homeschooling trenches with you, and I know how hard it is to fit everything in.

I also know from my own experience that when we don't prepare our environment, music is often the first thing that gets pushed aside. My mission at Music in Our Homeschool has always been to make music and fine arts simple, doable, and truly enjoyable for your whole family. Today is really the nuts and bolts episode to help you do exactly that.

If you are a homeschooler looking for ways to easily and affordably include a quality music education in your homeschool, you've come to the right place. This is the music in our homeschool podcast. I'm Gina Mayo, homeschooling mom of eight, a music teacher for over 30 years.

Let's [00:02:00] start with the why. Why do you want to include music in your homeschool? Because if you understand the benefits, you'll fight to keep music on schedule. Study after study has shown that studying music strengthens the brain, both academically and emotionally.

Kids who engage with music regularly show stronger language development, better pattern recognition, and more confidence in social situations. Even if your child never becomes a professional musician, a musical foundation helps them make sense of their world.

It also builds cultural literacy. So many books, films, reference composers, instruments, musical styles, and famous works. And when kids have no exposure, they're missing half the meaning. And practically speaking, music brings beauty and joy and peace into your home. And we all [00:03:00] need more of that.

Step one is to create a simple music space. You don't need a separate music room. Truly, most homeschool families I work with, including my own family, just use a corner of a living room, a shelf in a dining room, maybe even a rolling cart that moves around the house.

My own space is our living room for Morning Time, and it works beautifully. We have a couch, a coffee table, a smart TV, and a big basket on the end table where I keep books and printables that we need.

Here's what matters most. A setting that's comfortable. A place to store instruments or supplies that you're going to be using. And this could be in a basket, a bin, a few shelves or a cabinet. Access to a screen if you're using online lessons. And this could be a smart TV, but it could be a portable laptop, an iPad, even just [00:04:00] your phone.

And some beauty. Make sure it's a room that you enjoy being in. That will make it far more likely for you to get your music done consistently. And how can you make it more beautiful? Maybe put up a framed piece of artwork from my Fine Art Pages, a candle, or some beautiful books on a bookshelf.

Step two is to think safety and practicality. Especially if you have toddlers or preschoolers, you'll wanna think through if you have a heavy instrument that could fall over, like a guitar. Cords across the floor, you could hide those under rugs. Headphone volume controls. Make sure that your kids know not to play music too loud if they're listening on headphones or earbuds. And fragile or mouth-sized parts on rhythm instruments. For example, I have some little jingles that I [00:05:00] use with my preschool classes, but if kids put those in their mouth, the little part on the jingle can get stuck on their tongue. So when I used that with babies and toddlers, I covered it with a clean sock and a really tight rubber band. And that way, just in case they put them in their mouth, it wouldn't hurt them.

One tip if you do have guitars or something like that, is to have those hangers that you can put up on the wall, and you can hang those up high.

Step three if you are wanting to include instruments, is to think about your children's ages. I'll give you a quick run through of what I think the best ages are for each instrument. For guitar, that's best for ages 10 and up. For violin, you could do it as young as age three if you're using the Suzuki method. For recorder, age eight and up is ideal. Younger students will often struggle with hand position and air control [00:06:00] if they're younger than eight.

For piano, it really depends on the teacher. I started at age seven, which I thought was a great age. Some piano teachers are fine with taking children younger than that. Ukulele can be played by children younger than age 10 because it's a lot easier to press down the strings on a ukulele than a guitar.

Rhythm instruments are great for all ages. This includes maracas, rhythm sticks, sandblocks, tambourines, egg shakers. These are great for helping practice steady beat, coordination, and early listening skills. And then, drums can be for all ages, depending on what type of drum you're using.

 And really you only need one thing for most of the music appreciation classes at Music in Our Homeschool, and that is your phone. You can pair your phone to a laptop or a smart TV if you do want a bigger screen. You can add a [00:07:00] Bluetooth speaker if you want a louder sound, if your phone volume isn't loud enough.

Gena: If you're a member of Music in Our Homeschool, Plus, that's my Premium Membership, you will get the Music Lesson Calendar of the Month, and that makes it so easy to know exactly what music lesson to do each day. You just pull up the day's lesson at MusicinOurHomeschool.com calendar And press play.

Now let's talk about where you can buy some of the resources that you might want to use in your homeschool. Instruments can easily be purchased at a pawn shop or borrowed from a friend, Facebook marketplace. All of those have great options.

And the same goes for your organizing materials, like bins or baskets. Buy those at a thrift store. And you can have something beautiful and keep your place organized and neat.

Your music lessons [00:08:00] also don't need to be expensive. I've done my very best to make everything at Music in Our Homeschool super affordable. But here's some great ideas from creative families of Music in Our Homeschool. Ask Grandparents to give lessons as gifts. You can barter with a private music teacher. If you want piano lessons or something like that, bring home cooked meals, do some tutoring or cleaning. You can share a teacher with another family and split the cost. Find a teacher to go to your homeschool co-op and have a group class lesson.

Okay, now let's move on to scheduling. How are you going to schedule these music lessons so that there's consistent music learning throughout this semester? Here's four ideas that have really helped my students stay more consistent. One is, you could do a Music Monday. A 15-minute music lesson [00:09:00] every Monday morning or switch it to Fine Arts Friday. Include music or art or poetry, anything creative, fine arts related on Fridays.

Another option is a loop schedule. This means that you add certain things to your loop. It's a list, and you just go to the next thing on the list when you have that time in your loop schedule to do the next thing. So it may not be every Monday. It might be Monday this week. Then you have time on Thursday, and then next week it comes around on Tuesday, that type of thing. So that's called a loop schedule.

And then another option is block scheduling. And that's where you schedule a longer block, a longer period of time just to focus. So rather than just doing one 15-minute music lesson, maybe you're doing four, and you spend a whole hour once a week, or once every other week. Choose the rhythm that works for you and your family. It doesn't have to be the same as everybody else's.

So let me end with just a word [00:10:00] of encouragement. As we head into January, I want you to remember something I learned the hard way. You don't have to teach everything yourself. You don't have to be the expert at every subject in your homeschool, and you don't have to create elaborate lessons. You don't have to carve out hours and hours every week. You can simply show up, press play, and give your kids the gift of beauty, creativity, and musical understanding.

Set up your space. Choose your schedule. Choose your resources. Keep it simple and enjoyable, and click play and go. And I promise you will see your kids grow in confidence, curiosity, and joy this year.

Thanks for tuning in with me today. I hope that you will head over to MusicinOurHomeschool.com S ampler and get a free sampler music appreciation course to try out some lessons. Head over to MusicinOurHomeschool.com membership and join the membership to [00:11:00] get that Music Lesson Calendar of the Month, every single month, to make the lessons as easy as possible.

Well, I will see you next time on the Music in Our Homeschool podcast, when we are going to look back on 2025 and count down the top episodes.

I'll see you then. Bye-bye.

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/set-up-homeschool-music-space/