In this day and age, raising global citizens is a hot topic, and encouraging kids to immerse themselves in other cultures through music (as well as art, literature, and food) is a great way to make it fun. To help your kids (or your students) really internalize the music, as opposed to seeing it as just a cultural oddity, you have to get them thinking about it on a deeper level. There are lots of ways to do that; here are just a few to start with, some of which will work better than others, depending on your child's learning style.

Get Kids Moving to The Music!

With a few notable exceptions, most genres of traditional music are made for dancing or movement. Putting some music on the stereo and letting your kids dance freely is a great start here (and if you join in, you can totally count it as your cardio for the day), but if you really want to work on relating the music to the culture in question, you might want to do a little bit of research. Perhaps check out some Irish Dance videos or a live performance, and then play some Irish Music and jig away. The large movements of African dance are great fun for kids to try, as are the sweeping and dramatic motions involved in Chinese classical dance, and every kid likes to see how long they can whirl like a Dervish! Just pop in the appropriate music, and off you go!

Get Kids Talking About The Music!

Ask your kids questions about the music, both questions about its origins and also about their reactions to it. Here are some simple questions that can jump-start your conversation -- naturally, some may be more or less appropriate for different age groups:

• Where do you think this music sounds like it comes from? What continent? What country? A city or a small town? What makes you think that?
• Do you hear a voice or voices singing the songs? What kind of voice(s)? A man? A woman? Children? Many people? Do they sing in the same language we speak, or a different one?
• What kind of instruments do you hear? Do they sound like instruments with strings, or like horns? Do you hear drums? How do you think people play these instruments -- with bows or sticks or their hands or their mouths?
• Do you think this kind of music was created for dancing, or perhaps for praying, or for lullabies, or to tell a story? Does this music make you want to dance?
• How does this music make you feel? Is it happy music, sad music, scary music, funny music, or another kind?
• How do you think the people playing the music are feeling?

Once you've got your kids answering questions, invite them to ask their own questions, or to ask the same questions back to you. Be prepared with the correct answer to a few of these questions (i.e. know the music's actual country of origin, and perhaps some information about the genre and the artists performing the music).

Get Your Kids to Create an Artistic Response to The Music!

It's not uncommon for art to beget more art, or music to beget more music. Artists of all kinds take inspiration from other artists, and there's no reason that your kids shouldn't be part of that time-honored tradition! Encouraging your child to create a focused piece of art or writing that was inspired directly by a piece of music will give them a way to solidify their thoughts. For younger kids, simply listening to the piece of music while drawing, painting, or macaroni-stringing is probably the easiest way to go. For older kids, you might consider finding an art, poetry, or craft project that is a cultural match for the kind of music you're listening to. Japanese music could pair with a sumi-e painting, or perhaps with writing a haiku. Similarly, Tibetan chanting could pair with creation of a simple mandala, and listening to Ghanaian drum music could match up with making and decorating a simple drum. If your kid is very motivated, they might even like to try to compose and perform their own song in response to what they've been listening to!