PE and Music

As I was making a purchase today at a museum shop, I asked if they offer a discount to homeschoolers as I heard them offer another customer a teacher's discount. The sales clerk was very nice and said that she would. She started chatting with me about homeschooling. Its always so interesting to hear the different responses and questions that people have when they learn I homeschool.

This sales clerk hit me with a question I hadn't previously been asked -- she wondered about physical education and music. The PE part was a no-brainer. My kids get to play at playgrounds far more than they would if they were in school. My eldest takes a gymnastics class. In nice weather, they play outside a lot with other kids -- tag and hide n' seek being favorite games.

Music was a bit harder -- what do we do for music? We listen to a lot of music -- all different kinds. Suzanne spends time with a book titled, Story of the Orchestra and has listened to the CD a bit. We love the Classical Kids CDs and they've learned bits about some major composers. We have a piano and piano instruction books in the house and I've plucked out some tunes with Suzanne though she has mostly worked on her own. I'm thinking my kindergartner has had more exposure to "Music" than she would have had if she was enrolled in the half-day kindergarten program offered at the public school in our district. I suppose some private schools may do more in the music department, but people aren't usually thinking about private schools when they ask homeschoolers these kinds of questions.

I couldn't help point out the concern that many public schools are cutting back on PE and music in order to allow more time to review before tests like the SOLs.