Complete Week-by-Week Preschool Music Curriculum for Homeschool: Building Musical Foundations

The gentle tap of a wooden rhythm stick, the joyful shake of a tambourine, the melodic notes of a xylophone—these sounds create more than just music in a child’s developing brain. They build neural pathways, enhance cognitive abilities, and create joyful learning experiences that last a lifetime. For homeschooling parents, incorporating a structured music curriculum isn’t just about teaching children to sing or play instruments; it’s about leveraging one of the most powerful developmental tools available.

Music education during the preschool years (ages 3-5) serves as a foundation for multiple developmental domains. Research consistently shows that early music exposure enhances spatial-temporal skills, mathematical reasoning, language development, and social-emotional growth. At The Music Scientist, we’ve observed firsthand how a well-designed music curriculum can transform not just how children learn, but how they engage with the world around them.

This comprehensive 36-week music curriculum for homeschool preschoolers is designed to progressively build musical foundations while supporting cognitive development across multiple intelligences. Each week introduces new concepts while reinforcing previous learning, creating a spiral curriculum that grows with your child. Whether you’re a musically confident parent or someone who feels they “can’t carry a tune,” this structured approach makes implementing quality music education accessible and enjoyable for everyone involved.

Let’s embark on this musical journey together, creating not just songs and sounds, but pathways for learning that will resonate throughout your child’s educational future.

Understanding the Importance of Music in Early Education

Before diving into our week-by-week curriculum, it’s essential to understand why music holds such a privileged position in early childhood education. Music isn’t simply an enrichment activity; it’s a fundamental learning modality that activates multiple areas of the brain simultaneously.

At The Music Scientist, our approach is grounded in developmental science. When preschoolers engage with music, they develop:

• Cognitive Skills: Music strengthens memory, attention span, and pattern recognition—all crucial for mathematical thinking and problem-solving.
• Language Development: Rhythm and melody enhance phonological awareness, vocabulary acquisition, and listening skills that form the foundation for early literacy.
• Fine and Gross Motor Skills: From finger plays to dance movements, music activities develop coordination and body awareness.
• Social-Emotional Growth: Group music-making fosters cooperation, turn-taking, and emotional expression.
• Cultural Understanding: Exposure to diverse musical traditions builds appreciation for cultural differences from an early age.

Our curriculum intentionally targets Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, engaging logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, verbal-linguistic, and interpersonal intelligences through carefully sequenced activities. This multifaceted approach ensures that every child, regardless of their primary learning style, can access and benefit from musical learning experiences.

How to Use This Preschool Music Curriculum

This 36-week curriculum is designed to be flexible while maintaining developmental progression. Here’s how to implement it effectively in your homeschool setting:

Frequency: We recommend 3-4 music sessions per week, each lasting 20-30 minutes. Preschoolers benefit from repetition, so revisiting the same concepts throughout the week reinforces learning without requiring new preparation each day.

Structure: Each week’s plan includes:

• Learning objectives
• Key vocabulary
• Core activities
• Extension opportunities
• Connection to other learning domains

Adaptability: While the curriculum follows a developmental sequence, feel free to adjust the pace based on your child’s interest and mastery. Some concepts may warrant spending additional time, while others might be quickly grasped.

Integration: Music naturally complements other subjects. We’ve included suggestions for integrating each week’s musical concepts with literature, science, math, and art to create a holistic learning experience.

Essential Supplies for Your Homeschool Music Curriculum

Creating a rich musical environment doesn’t require expensive equipment. These basic supplies will support the entire 36-week curriculum:

Rhythm Instruments:

• Rhythm sticks (1 pair)
• Tambourine
• Egg shakers or maracas
• Hand drum
• Triangles
• Bells

Melodic Instruments:

• Xylophone or glockenspiel (with removable bars)
• Resonator bells or tone bars

Listening Equipment:

• Music player
• Quality children’s music recordings (classical, folk, multicultural)

Movement Props:

• Scarves for dancing
• Bean bags
• Ribbon sticks

DIY Options: Many instruments can be crafted at home: water xylophone (glasses filled with different water levels), homemade shakers (containers filled with beans/rice), and drum sets from oatmeal containers. These projects can become part of your curriculum.

Weeks 1-9: Rhythm and Beat Foundations

The journey into music education begins with its most fundamental element: rhythm. Rhythm is the organizing framework of music and forms the foundation upon which all other musical elements build. These first nine weeks focus on developing beat awareness, tempo understanding, and basic rhythmic patterns.

Weeks 1-3: Introducing Beat Awareness

Learning Objectives:

• Identify steady beat in music and environmental sounds
• Maintain a steady beat through body percussion (clapping, patting)
• Associate visual representations with beat patterns

Week 1 Activities:

Begin with heartbeat listening. Have your child place their hand on their heart to feel its steady beat. Explain that music, like our hearts, has a steady beat. Use simple songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and tap the beat on your lap while singing.

Introduce “Beat Buddies” – stuffed animals that can be rocked to the beat of music. Play a variety of music selections and practice rocking the Beat Buddy steadily. This tactile experience helps children internalize the concept of steady beat.

Week 2 Activities:

Progress to body percussion, using clapping, patting knees, and stomping feet to maintain steady beats. Create beat pattern cards using simple pictures (heart, star, circle) and have your child clap when pointing to each image, maintaining even spacing between beats.

Introduce the concept of “Beat Walks” – moving through space with each step representing one beat. Use a drum to guide the walking pace, emphasizing the connection between sound and movement.

Week 3 Activities:

Transfer beat awareness to simple instruments. Begin with rhythm sticks, tapping them together to the beat of familiar songs. Practice starting and stopping together, developing the important musical skill of responding to cues.

Create a “Beat Book” – a collection of pictures representing things with steady beats (clocks, trains, heartbeats). Use this visual reference to reinforce the concept throughout the day, not just during music time.

Weeks 4-6: Exploring Tempo

Learning Objectives:

• Distinguish between fast and slow tempos
• Adjust movement and playing speed to match changing tempos
• Use appropriate vocabulary (fast, slow, getting faster, getting slower)

Week 4 Activities:

Introduce tempo with animal movements. Demonstrate how turtles move slowly while rabbits move quickly. Play a steady beat on a drum, alternating between slow and fast tempos while your child moves like the corresponding animal.

Create a “Tempo Train” using chairs lined up as train cars. As the conductor, call out tempo changes (“The train is moving slowly up the hill… now it’s racing down!”) while your child moves their train to match.

Week 5 Activities:

Explore tempo with instruments. Using tambourines or drums, practice playing at different speeds. Introduce the terms “accelerando” (gradually getting faster) and “ritardando” (gradually getting slower) through playful games.

Create “Tempo Cards” with simple drawings representing different speeds. Draw a turtle for slow, a person walking for medium, and a race car for fast. Use these visual cues when listening to music to help your child identify tempo changes.

Week 6 Activities:

Combine beat awareness with tempo understanding. Play “Tempo Freeze Dance” – dance while the music plays, freezing when it stops. Vary the music between fast and slow selections, encouraging movement that matches the tempo.

Read books with inherent rhythm patterns that change speed, such as “The Little Engine That Could.” Emphasize the changing speeds in your reading voice and have your child tap along with rhythm sticks.

Weeks 7-9: Simple Rhythm Patterns

Learning Objectives:

• Echo simple rhythm patterns
• Connect rhythm patterns to word patterns
• Create visual representations of rhythm patterns

Week 7 Activities:

Introduce rhythm echoing games. Begin with simple patterns (tap-tap-tap, rest) and have your child echo them back. Use familiar phrases like “I like ap-ple juice” to demonstrate how words have natural rhythms.

Create a “Rhythm Name Game” where you tap out the syllables of family members’ names and have your child guess who you’re “playing.” This connects rhythm directly to language in a personally meaningful way.

Week 8 Activities:

Explore rhythm through movement. Create a “Rhythm Obstacle Course” where different movements correspond to different rhythm patterns. For example, jumping through hoops might be quarter notes, while tiptoeing across a line represents eighth notes.

Introduce rhythm pattern cards using simple notation (long and short lines to represent long and short sounds). Arrange them in different sequences and “read” them together by clapping or playing instruments.

Week 9 Activities:

Combine all rhythm concepts in a “Rhythm Band.” Assign different rhythm patterns to different instruments and conduct your child through changes, developing listening skills and responsiveness.

Create a rhythm composition using pictures. Draw a sequence of images (cat, butterfly, elephant) and assign each a rhythm pattern. “Read” your composition together, creating a musical piece based on visual cues.

Weeks 10-18: Melody and Pitch Exploration

With a solid rhythmic foundation established, we now turn to melody—the sequence of pitches that create recognizable tunes. These weeks focus on developing pitch awareness, simple singing skills, and melodic understanding.

Weeks 10-12: High and Low Sounds

Learning Objectives:

• Distinguish between high and low pitches
• Use body movement to represent pitch changes
• Recognize ascending and descending patterns

Week 10 Activities:

Introduce pitch through vocal exploration. Play “elevator sounds,” moving your voice from low to high and back again. Have your child use their arm to show the direction of the pitch (arm up for high sounds, arm down for low sounds).

Create a “Sound Museum” with objects that make high and low sounds (small bells vs. large drums). Categorize them by pitch height, creating a visual and aural understanding of the high/low concept.

Week 11 Activities:

Explore pitch through storytelling. Tell stories that incorporate high and low sounds, such as bears with low voices and birds with high voices. Have your child provide sound effects at appropriate moments.

Introduce a simple xylophone or glockenspiel. Show how larger bars make lower sounds while smaller bars make higher sounds. Create simple high/low patterns for your child to echo.

Week 12 Activities:

Connect pitch to visual representation. Draw “sound mountains” on paper, with peaks representing high sounds and valleys representing low sounds. “Read” these visual patterns together, vocalizing the corresponding pitches.

Play “Animal Pitch Match.” Show pictures of animals and assign them appropriate pitch levels (mouse=high, elephant=low). When you point to an animal, your child makes a sound at the corresponding pitch level.

Weeks 13-15: Simple Melodies

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize and reproduce simple 2-3 note melodies
• Follow melodic direction (up, down, same)
• Connect melodic patterns to visual representations

Week 13 Activities:

Introduce the sol-mi interval (the “calling interval” found in children’s chants like “Ring around the Rosy”). Use hand signs (hand at chest level for sol, hand at waist level for mi) to visually represent this important musical relationship.

Create “Melody Boxes” – small boxes or containers labeled with different colored dots representing different pitches. Arrange them in different orders to create simple melodies that your child can sing or play on a xylophone.

Week 14 Activities:

Add the la pitch to create sol-mi-la patterns, common in children’s songs worldwide. Play singing games like “Lucy Locket” or “Rain, Rain, Go Away” that utilize these three pitches.

Introduce “Melody Maps” – simple line drawings that show the direction of a melody. As you sing familiar songs, trace the melody shape with your finger, helping your child visualize the pitch relationships.

Week 15 Activities:

Explore melodic question and answer patterns. Sing a simple melodic question (“Where is thumbkin?”) and have your child respond with a melodic answer (“Here I am!”). This develops the important musical concept of phrasing.

Create a “Melody Garden” where different flowers or plants represent different pitches. Move between them to create simple melodies that your child can echo vocally or on instruments.

Weeks 16-18: Singing and Vocal Exploration

Learning Objectives:

• Develop comfortable singing voice (moving beyond speaking voice)
• Match pitches with increasing accuracy
• Express character and emotion through vocal tone

Week 16 Activities:

Introduce the concept of “singing voice” versus “speaking voice.” Play “Voice Switch” games where you alternate between speaking and singing simple phrases, having your child identify which voice you’re using.

Explore vocal timbres through “Voice Painting.” Use different vocal sounds (smooth, choppy, wavery) to represent different types of lines and shapes that you draw together.

Week 17 Activities:

Practice pitch matching with echo songs. Begin with simple descending patterns (sol-mi) which are typically easier for young children to reproduce. Use a puppet who “sings” to your child, creating a playful environment for vocal practice.

Create a “Song Basket” filled with objects representing different familiar songs. When your child selects an object, sing the corresponding song together, focusing on pitch matching and vocal production.

Week 18 Activities:

Explore vocal expression through character songs. Sing the same simple melody as different characters (tired elephant, excited rabbit) to explore how emotions affect vocal production.

Introduce “vocal explorations” – guided vocal play that expands vocal range and flexibility. Use imagery like “siren sounds,” “roller coasters,” or “bouncing balls” to encourage diverse vocal expression.

Weeks 19-27: Musical Expression and Dynamics

With foundational skills in rhythm and melody established, we now focus on the expressive elements that bring music to life. These weeks explore dynamics, musical mood, and movement expression.

Weeks 19-21: Loud and Soft

Learning Objectives:

• Distinguish between and produce forte (loud) and piano (soft) sounds
• Recognize gradual dynamic changes (crescendo and diminuendo)
• Associate dynamics with expressive intent

Week 19 Activities:

Introduce the musical terms piano (soft) and forte (loud) through contrasting animal sounds. Tiny mice make piano sounds, while lions make forte sounds. Create simple animal puppets with dynamics labels as visual reinforcement.

Explore environmental sounds, categorizing them as piano or forte. Create a “Dynamics Sorting Game” with pictures of sound sources (whisper, vacuum cleaner) that your child can sort into piano and forte categories.

Week 20 Activities:

Introduce crescendo (gradually getting louder) and diminuendo (gradually getting softer) through movement. Start crouched small on the floor and slowly stand and expand arms for crescendo; reverse for diminuendo.

Create “Dynamics Cards” with symbols representing different volume levels (small dot for piano, large dot for forte). Arrange them in sequences and “play” them on instruments, adjusting volume according to the visual cues.

Week 21 Activities:

Explore how dynamics affect musical expression. Play the same simple melody with different dynamic patterns and discuss how it changes the feeling of the music.

Create a “Dynamics Story” where volume changes advance the narrative. For example, soft footsteps approaching, loud knock on the door, whispered conversation. Have your child provide sound effects with appropriate dynamics.

Weeks 22-24: Mood in Music

Learning Objectives:

• Identify basic emotional qualities in music (happy, sad, scary, peaceful)
• Connect musical elements to emotional expression
• Create music to express specific moods

Week 22 Activities:

Introduce the concept that music can express feelings. Play short musical examples with distinct emotional qualities and have your child match them to emoji faces representing different emotions.

Create a “Mood Music Box” with cards describing different scenarios (“a sunny day at the park,” “a thunderstorm,” “bedtime”). Draw a card and create music together that expresses the appropriate mood.

Week 23 Activities:

Explore how tempo and dynamics work together to create mood. Play the same melody at different speeds and volumes, discussing how these changes affect the feeling of the music.

Create “Music Paintings” where your child listens to contrasting musical selections and paints or draws their emotional response. Discuss how colors and lines in their artwork relate to the music’s expressive qualities.

Week 24 Activities:

Introduce the concept of major and minor tonalities through movement. Major modes often feel “happy” or “bright” while minor modes often feel “sad” or “serious.” Create contrasting movement qualities for each.

Develop a “Musical Emotion Wheel” with different feelings arranged in a circle. Point to different emotions and have your child create vocal or instrumental sounds that express that feeling.

Weeks 25-27: Movement and Dance

Learning Objectives:

• Respond to music through creative movement
• Use movement to demonstrate musical concepts (form, dynamics, tempo)
• Follow simple choreographed movement patterns

Week 25 Activities:

Introduce movement response to music using scarves or ribbon sticks. Play contrasting music selections (flowing, percussive, bouncy) and explore how the movement quality changes to match the music.

Create “Movement Stations” around your learning space, each with a different movement prompt (“move like water,” “freeze like a statue,” “bounce like a ball”). Move between stations as music plays, changing movements with each new musical section.

Week 26 Activities:

Explore form through movement patterns. Assign specific movements to different sections of music (A section = twirling, B section = marching) to physically experience musical structure.

Create a “Movement Conversation” where you and your child take turns leading and following movement ideas, just as musicians engage in musical dialogue when they perform together.

Week 27 Activities:

Introduce simple folk dances with repetitive patterns, such as circle dances or line dances appropriate for preschoolers. These structured movement activities develop listening skills, coordination, and social awareness.

Create a “Movement Story” that integrates all the musical concepts explored so far. Tell a simple story that incorporates changes in tempo, dynamics, and mood, with corresponding movements for each element.

Weeks 28-36: Instrument Exploration and Musical Concepts

The final segment of our curriculum deepens musical understanding through instrument exploration, creative applications, and synthesis of all concepts learned.

Weeks 28-30: Instrument Families

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize basic instrument families (percussion, string, wind, brass)
• Identify instruments by sight and sound
• Understand how instruments produce sound

Week 28 Activities:

Introduce percussion instruments through hands-on exploration. Create a “Percussion Petting Zoo” with various drums, shakers, and rhythm instruments. Discuss how these instruments make sound through striking, shaking, or scraping.

Develop a “Sound Science Lab” where your child can experiment with different ways of producing sounds on various objects. This connects musical concepts to scientific inquiry about sound production.

Week 29 Activities:

Explore string instruments through visuals, recordings, and if possible, real instruments. Make a simple shoebox guitar with rubber bands of different thicknesses to explore how string tension affects pitch.

Create an “Instrument Sorting Game” with pictures of various instruments that your child can categorize by family. Extend the activity by listening to recordings and identifying instruments by sound.

Week 30 Activities:

Introduce wind instruments through breathing games and simple wind instruments like recorders or harmonicas. Make kazoos from wax paper and combs to explore how vibrating air produces sound.

Create an “Instrument Memory Game” with matching pairs of instrument pictures. As each match is found, listen to the sound of that instrument and imitate how it would be played.

Weeks 31-33: Music and Storytelling

Learning Objectives:

• Use instruments and voices to enhance storytelling
• Create sound effects that match narrative elements
• Recognize how music contributes to story meaning

Week 31 Activities:

Introduce sound stories where instruments represent different characters or events. Begin with familiar tales like “The Three Bears” and assign appropriate instruments to each character (papa bear = drum, mama bear = tambourine, baby bear = triangle).

Create a “Sound Effect Station” with various instruments and objects that can produce interesting sounds. Read stories together and add sound effects at appropriate moments.

Week 32 Activities:

Explore program music – instrumental music that tells a story. Listen to selections like “Peter and the Wolf” where instruments represent characters, then create your own musical story with assigned instrument voices.

Develop “Musical Picture Books” by adding sound patterns to wordless picture books. Create a different sound or short melody for each page, developing the concept of musical motifs representing ideas or characters.

Week 33 Activities:

Create an original “Musical Story Box” with character cards, setting cards, and plot cards that can be randomly selected to generate story ideas. For each story element, create appropriate musical accompaniment.

Explore how background music affects mood in storytelling. Tell the same simple story with different musical backgrounds (peaceful, mysterious, exciting) and discuss how the music changes the story experience.

Weeks 34-36: Musical Creativity

Learning Objectives:

• Create original musical ideas (rhythms, melodies, sound pieces)
• Make intentional musical choices
• Present and share musical creations

Week 34 Activities:

Introduce composition through rhythm building blocks. Create rhythm cards with simple patterns that can be arranged in different orders. Have your child create “rhythm recipes” by selecting and sequencing cards, then perform their compositions.

Develop a “Musical Sketchbook” where your child can draw symbolic representations of sounds and musical ideas. Create a personal notation system that allows them to record and revisit their musical thinking.

Week 35 Activities:

Explore melody creation using limited pitch sets. Set up a xylophone with only 3-5 notes (pentatonic scale) and invite free exploration. Record your child’s melodic ideas and play them back, discussing the musical choices they made.

Create “Sound Sculptures” by arranging instruments in your space and designing a sequence for playing them. This explores spatial aspects of music and introduces the concept of installation sound art.

Week 36 Activities:

Synthesize all musical learning through a “Mini-Recital” where your child can perform favorite songs and original compositions. Create simple programs and invite family members or stuffed animals as an audience.

Create a “Musical Growth Timeline” documenting your child’s journey through the curriculum. Include recordings, photos, and artifacts from different phases of learning, celebrating the progress made throughout the year.

Tracking Progress and Celebrating Musical Growth

Documenting your child’s musical journey provides valuable insight into their development and creates meaningful keepsakes. Here are strategies for tracking progress:

Musical Portfolio: Create a dedicated folder or digital collection for your child’s musical creations, including:

• Audio/video recordings of performances and compositions
• Drawings and notations representing musical ideas
• Photos of instrument explorations and movement activities

Development Observation Journal: Keep brief notes about your child’s musical responses and milestones. Note when they first match pitch accurately, maintain a steady beat independently, or create original musical ideas.

Celebration Rituals: At the conclusion of each curriculum section (every 9 weeks), hold a special musical sharing time. This might include:

• A “mini-concert” of favorite songs learned
• A listening party featuring music that resonated during that period
• A musical show-and-tell where your child demonstrates new skills

Remember that musical development follows a natural progression but varies widely among children. The goal is not perfection but engagement, joy, and growing musical awareness.

Enhancing Your Homeschool Music Curriculum

While this 36-week curriculum provides a comprehensive foundation, here are additional ways to enrich your child’s musical experience:

Community Connections: Seek opportunities for musical engagement beyond home:

• Attend children’s concerts and musical events
• Join community music classes or playgroups
• Arrange music playdates with other homeschooling families

Cross-Curricular Integration: Connect music learning to other subject areas:

• Mathematics: Explore patterns, counting, and fractions through rhythm
• Science: Investigate sound production and vibration
• Literature: Enhance storytelling with musical elements
• Geography: Explore music from different cultures and regions

Expert Guidance: Consider supplementing your homeschool curriculum with professional music enrichment. At The Music Scientist, our developmentally-sequenced programs like Happyfeet for toddlers and Groovers for more active learners provide expert guidance that complements home learning.

For children who show particular interest in science concepts, our Scouts program combines music with scientific exploration through catchy melodies that reinforce learning.

As your child approaches kindergarten age, our SMART-START English and SMART-START Chinese programs provide preschool readiness through music-integrated learning, ensuring a smooth transition to formal education.

Music education in early childhood is one of the greatest gifts you can give your child. Through this curriculum, you’re not just teaching songs and sounds—you’re building neural pathways, enhancing cognitive abilities, and creating a foundation for lifelong learning. As you journey through these musical weeks together, remember that the most important elements are joy, connection, and a sense of wonder.

Implementing a structured music curriculum in your homeschool preschool setting is an investment in your child’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development. The 36-week curriculum outlined here provides a progressive approach that builds skills sequentially while maintaining the playful spirit essential for early childhood learning.

From the foundational beat awareness activities in the early weeks to the creative composition experiences in the final segment, each element has been designed to maximize developmental benefits while fostering a genuine love for music. The spiral approach ensures concepts are revisited with increasing complexity, allowing for deep learning that connects to multiple intelligences and learning styles.

As you implement this curriculum, remember that the process is more important than perfection. Some days may involve concentrated focus on a specific musical skill, while others might feature brief musical moments integrated throughout your day. Both approaches have value in building musical foundations.

The ultimate goal of early childhood music education isn’t to create professional musicians (though that may happen!) but to develop neural pathways, enhance learning capacity across domains, and nurture the innate musicality that exists in every child. Through consistent, joyful musical experiences, you’re giving your child tools for expression, communication, and understanding that will serve them throughout their educational journey.

We at The Music Scientist hope this curriculum serves as a valuable resource in your homeschooling journey, and we’d love to support your musical adventures further through our specialized programs. Here’s to a year of joyful music-making and learning with your young musician!

Ready to enhance your child’s musical journey with expert guidance? The Music Scientist offers specialized early childhood music programs that complement your homeschool curriculum. Our research-backed approach nurtures multiple intelligences while creating joyful learning experiences.

Contact us today to learn more about our programs and how they can support your child’s development through music: Get in touch with our music education specialists.