Classical Music for Cleaning Up

Do you turn on motivating music while cleaning the house?

(I certainly do, and I'm willing to be most of you do as well.)

I'd like to suggest you do that for your children - but make the music classical.  The benefits of this are two-fold:

• Cleaning up is accomplished.
• Classical music is secretly inserted into your children's memories (you can even call it "school")!

We always had a clean-up time around 5:30 in the afternoon, right before dad got home from work. It made the atmosphere nice for him, and it also signaled the transition to dinner prep time (when I would shoo the kids away to play!).

When my kids were very little I would sing a clean-up song, but as they got older I would pick classical music with a fast tempo to inspire them. I would give them specific tasks and see if they could accomplish them during the time the music was playing.

Two Ways to Approach Classical Music Clean-Up Time:

• Play the YouTube video of the piece for your children, pointing out who the composer is and what ERA OF MUSIC they come from - then tell them the TEMPO is fast! Can they clean quickly (and well!) while the piece is playing?
• Simply play the piece and have your children clean! Don't worry about doing anything else with it - your children are still listening to great music all children should know!

If you choose the first option and really have your children listen to the music and perhaps do a little additional research, I have created a Classical Music Clean-Up Draw What You Hear Sheet.

You can use this YouTube playlist to listen to the pieces.

Or, if you prefer, here is a Spotify playlist.

William Tell Overture

by Gioachino Rossini/Romantic Era

This is the overture (introduction) to Rossini's opera, William Tell.

Our family always loved watching the field crew for the Atlanta Braves clean up the field to this music between the 3rd and 4th innings!

This piece was also famously the theme for The Lone Ranger.