SQUILT Music Appreciation is a curriculum designed to help students understand and enjoy classical music. It focuses on listening and appreciating music rather than playing instruments.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), approximately 3.3 million students were homeschooled in the United States as of 2023, representing roughly 6% of the school-age population. Research from the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) shows that homeschooled students typically score 15 to 25 percentile points higher than public school students on standardized academic achievement tests.
What is squilt?
SQUILT is a music appreciation program made by Mary Prather from Homegrown Learners. The name comes from a special method she used as a public school music teacher. During SQUILT time, kids lie on the floor and listen to music in quiet. This helps them soak in what makes each piece special. The lessons focus on four main musical elements: dynamics (volume), rhythm and tempo, instrumentation, and melody/harmony. Students explore music from the Baroque era to modern times.
How squilt works
Each SQUILT lesson features a classical piece. Students learn to listen for specific musical elements. Lessons include info about the composer, listening maps to highlight important moments, and hands-on activities. Older kids use notebooking sheets, while younger ones get coloring pages. SQUILT isn't about playing music; it's about understanding and appreciating it. This builds a great foundation for any music education, whether they take instrument lessons or just enjoy the music.
Ages and multi-level learning
SQUILT is perfect for kids from preschool to middle school. Activities can be adjusted for different ages within the same lesson. Younger kids (ages 4-6) love coloring pages and simple listening tasks. Older students (ages 7-14) work on notebooking, listening maps, and deeper analysis. This multi-age setup is great for homeschool families. Everyone can join the lesson and then do age-appropriate activities. Many families stick with SQUILT through middle school as extra music enrichment.
Musical eras and composers covered
The curriculum covers Western classical music history, organized by era. It includes Baroque (Bach, Handel, Vivaldi), Classical (Mozart, Haydn, early Beethoven), Romantic (Beethoven, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky), and Modern (Gershwin, John Williams, Duke Ellington). Composer Spotlight volumes let students dive deeper into individual composers with three works each. There are also seasonal volumes for Christmas and holiday music. Students finish with a strong familiarity with major composers and the ability to spot different musical styles.
The bottom line
SQUILT helps solve a common problem for homeschoolers: how to teach music appreciation if you're not a musician. You don’t need any special knowledge—just hit play and follow the lessons. In just 30 minutes a week, students can really appreciate classical music and learn the vocabulary to talk about it. Whether you prefer the flexible self-paced PDFs or the interactive live lessons, SQUILT Music Appreciation makes music education accessible for any homeschool family.
