CM and school

This is what my mother did with me and my siblings, although she had never heard of CM. We didn’t really think of it as a ‘thing’, just more our family culture.

How it looked? Well bedtime stories were pretty much always classics, and we had a small but well-stocked home library with all sorts of classics and other interesting books that she picked up for pennies at charity shops and yardsales. There would be classical music playing in the background (not all the time), but also jazz of all different styles. Handcrafts, hmm,  well there was knitting, and modelling clay. We got good quality Derwent pencils as gifts, calligraphy sets, plaster casting sets, paints. My dad (who was a scout leader) taught us leather work, and knot tying, and oh,  a gazillion other things. As we got older, there were riddles and lateral thinking puzzles. We had philosophical discussions around dinner and just asked our opinion and thoughts about things.

My sisters and I did ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary dance. I learned the clarinet in high school and was in choir and drama. The only thing we didn’t really do was picture study.

In writing this it seems like a HUGE amount of activity and organisation, but really it wasn’t, except for the dance classes, because it was just little snippets naturally sprinkled in through our daily lives. It was just what we did. And we didnt notice it as a contrived thing as kids, it was more, we just got included in what interested my parents.

Im sure, just the fact you are thinking about it, that you already have a leaning that way. Thing is, kids are often TIRED of ‘having’ to learn when they get home from school, so the secret is to not make it seem like something else they have to do. So perhaps when they get home from school have a little bit of classical playing in the background. Maybe even the same piece for a week or so, and even if they complain you can pop in the name like ‘ oh don’t you like Mozart’ or Beethoven or whoever. Actually Vivaldi’s Four seasons is great one to start with. They will eventually start picking up the names

Have a picture stuck up on the fridge and rotate every couple of weeks. You can also get famous paintings as jigsaw puzzles which is fun.

Our place mats have the world map on them and we sometimes play a ‘who can find…’ game through dinner.

There are just so many ways you can incorporate these beautiful things into your day without too much effort or cost especially if you have genuine interest in them yourself.