For as long as I can remember, I have always appreciated silence especially while I was working. I had friends who listened to music while they studied, but it never worked for me. I tried classical music, but it was never the type of music that was the problem. It was any type of sound in the background that made it almost impossible for me to focus on the task at hand. I’m now a homeschool mom of three with a full time work from home job. The hours in which there is complete silence in the background are few and far between. 

It has not been an easy transition to learn to operate with my gremlins and all their noise in my background. I have had to practice tuning it out and concentrating on one specific window, task, or assignment in front of me. I have learned to do activities that require less intense focus during time that the children are the loudest, and more complex assignments during lulls. It took a while for me to learn to embrace this phase of life, but as I slowly adapted, I learned not only to tolerate the noise but to love parts of it.

I have recently begun adding a background soundtrack to our environment intentionally. We have a composer that we study for about 12 weeks. Once a week, we listen to a piece by the composer, discuss it, and often illustrate it. I have recently found times of the day that we can listen to other pieces by the same composer, often ones that the kids particularly enjoyed. This term’s composer is Beethoven, and Ana Lia loves Symphony 3 Eroica. Each morning the kids spend 5-10 minutes practicing handwriting and listening to the music while they write, and they love to point out the dynamics while listening.

In the afternoons, Finiasi needs to lay down for a nap. We have tried a variety of ways to accomplish this, and the most successful is for him to get his pillow and blanket to get comfortable on the couch. The older two and I each get a handicraft to work on, and I turn on an audiobook. I try to choose a mix of classics and modern living books, but we have enjoyed listening and discussing the characters. For the books that the kids loved, like The Wingfeather Saga and Robin Hood, they continue through the afternoons acting out the scenes and depicting the characters in different ways. This also gives my voice a break since I spend a few hours each day reading our way through our lessons. (Just a note, we use the Libby app through our local library and borrow almost all our audiobooks for free.)

As I have learned to appreciate the ways in which background music can add to the atmosphere of the house, I have used it to make chores more enjoyable. When I do the dishes, I listen to country music. No one else in the house enjoys it as much as I do, but it brings joy in what I often feel is drudgery. When I fold laundry, I listen to the BEMA Discipleship podcast. I’ve learned so much from listening to it, even though it’s taking me a few years to get through. Based on the podcast, when the kids and I started studying Judges, I made sure to introduce them to the “Redemption Cycle” instead of the “Sin Cycle,” emphasizing the unending mercy God showed toward His people.

The benefits of my embrace of our background music became most apparent on a recent road trip. We were all driving the seven hours from the Bay Area to San Bernardino. The kids had slept for a few hours but had then awakened and wanted to engage. While they were sleeping, Afa had been listening to his music, which is mostly The Eagles and similar bands. About 30 minutes into awake time, Finiasi began getting restless. He was whining and wanted to unbuckle despite our explanations that we had about 5 hours of driving left. Fin has always been prone to uncontrollable meltdowns, and I could sense the precipice of one.

Suddenly, I realized we needed to change the music. I told him that he could pick the next song, and his eyes lit up. He chose I Love Rock-n-Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. In a single song, the entire mood of the drive shifted from palpable tension to infectious joy. I went around the van letting each person choose the next song. Hilariously, every time it got to Afa, we went back to easy listening, but it was a good lesson in patiently enjoying others’ selections even if it wasn’t one we have chosen. Some of the songs we got to listen to included:

• Who Let the Dogs Out by Baha Men
• Take it Easy by the Eagles
• Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee
• What’s Up Danger by Black Caviar and Blackway
• The Middle by Grey, Mary Morris, and Zed
• Water Under the Bridge by Adele
• Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland
• Encanto – the entire soundtrack
• You All Dat by Baha Men
• Journey by Jimmy Cliff
• Don’t Stop Believing by Journey
• Belly Dancer by Akon
• Hotel California by the Eagles
• The Chicken Wing Song by Lankybox
• Happy by Pharrell

This enlightening experience helped me appreciate the background music even more. On the drive back we got to repeat the exercise, and it worked just as well. I could easily ride the length of California in silence, but I loved the opportunity to connect with the kids by listening to some of their favorite songs and some of ours. It has been an area of growth for me, but one that I look forward to developing even more in the future.