5 curricula I’m developing
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” - Albert Einstein
I design learning environments that promote musical literacy while making a case that the arts belong at the foundation of the education our children deserve because music touches so many dimensions of human development at once. I enjoy creating experiences where music becomes the thread connecting many worthwhile areas of knowledge.
I currently design for three broad stages of cognitive development:
Pre-literate children ages 3–6
Early literate children ages 6–9
Academic children ages 9–12
I have not yet felt called to design a full curriculum for teens, though I can imagine something zodiac-themed someday. What does interest me is mentoring teens who want to gain the skills to make a living as facilitators of musical learning. That is, when I’m ready! My curriculums are still in the prototyping phase, but they are forming nicely and I am excited to continue to develop them.
At this point, I am developing five major curriculums:
1. The Land of Music
The Land of Music began as a two-hour musical, which I had the joy of producing with my students in the summer of 2025. It is a colorful and whimsical introduction to music theory and composition that initiates musically curious children into the practical basics of musical literacy.
This curriculum gives children who are joining my program after they have already learned to read a way to understand music as a language. Students encounter musical ideas through characters, songs, story, and creative participation. I’m in the process of adapting The Land of Music into a 10-week class.
2. Harmony Pals
Harmony Pals is designed for ages 6–9. It engages early literacy students in a piano-mastery adventure through 12 keys. Each unit focuses on an animal, a virtue, and a tonal center. Students learn classical repertoire with themed lyrics, build fluency at the piano, and compose through guided exercises. The structure is playful, but the goal is developing musical fluency.
This curriculum is partially developed, and I am currently prototyping it with several students.
3. Flower Folk
Flower Folk is, at its core, a tea party. Designed for ages 3–9, Flower Folk blends music education with nature study, creativity, and imaginative play. Children gather to share music, drink tea, create art, and explore topics like plants, animals, nutrition, and relationships through songs, stories, movement, and composition.
This curriculum is intentionally acoustic, with minimal use of technology. Students make a scrapbook that functions as a music curriculum, creative journal, and record of discovery.
My hope is that Flower Folk cultivates musical literacy alongside a lifelong sense of wonder, appreciation, and connection to the living world. It is meant to help them engage reality deeply and develop a nourishing relationship with music and nature.
4. The Aeolian Academy
The Aeolian Academy is designed for ages 9–12. It is an immersive, story-driven music curriculum where students become members of a magical school devoted to the musical arts. This is a multi-instrumental program.
Through collaborative adventures, historical and cultural exploration, composition, classical repertoire, duets, ensembles, improvisation, jamming, and creative storytelling, students develop increasingly sophisticated musicianship while exploring the many ways music helps us understand and participate in the world.
The Aeolian Academy is also where technology begins to enter more intentionally. Students are invited to use technology to their comfort level, and the curriculum reinforces a healthy, creative relationship with digital tools rather than treating technology as either a threat or a toy.
5. Quantumnauts
Quantumnauts is designed for ages 9–12. It is an immersive comic book adventure imagined as something students might discover in the library of The Aeolian Academy.
In Quantumnauts, students become tiny superheroes exploring the microscopic world. It is a STEM-focused curriculum where music, math, science, engineering, and technology intersect. Through imaginative problem-solving, creative storytelling, composition, and collaborative missions, students develop musical literacy while learning to think deeply about the world around them. This is a technology-positive class that teaches production skills in a DAW and explores the appropriate use of AI.
The Larger Vision
These five curricula are companion projects within one developmental ecosystem. Each one expresses the same central question: How to optimally cultivate musicality in a child?
These curricula are living projects, informed by my 20 years of experience teaching children music. While making music is essential to my fulfillment, pedagogy is the art form that I truly love to practice.
In other words, I design learning environments that cultivate musicality and metacognitive skills through imagination and participation.
