Art Curriculum for Homeschoolers

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If you are anything like me, art is not exactly your forte. After looking around for several years, I have finally decided that the best way to teach art is by doing a combination of the following:

  • art projects from the internet
  • art workshops for children organized in our town throughout the year, by different entities, usually for free
  • arts and crafts for our history curriculum
  • art appreciation books
  • Home Art Studio DVDs

I recently ordered First Grade and Second Grade, and received a third DVD for free: the Holiday Arts and Crafts. They have a special offer going on right now and I think it is a great deal.

Home Art Studio Coupon

I can only encourage you to give this a try. For $29.99 per DVD set, you receive almost 20 lessons, PDF lesson plans, virtual art field trips and more. If you do any price comparison at all, you will know that this is a great deal. I like the convenience of staying home and not having to drive to an art studio rain or shine, where my children have to share the space with five to ten other homeschoolers.  Continue reading »


60 Ideas for Arts and Crafts

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Many people use “I’m not a teacher” as an excuse for not homeschooling. It’s a mentality they grew up with. I did too. I understand. I got out of it when I felt called to homeschool my children, slowly but surely.

The Industrial Age has turned all of us into specialized professionals along the assembly lines of the world. Each of us has been instructed to take care of only one job and so we go through life assuming teachers teach, bakers bake, pilots fly planes and architects design.

60Ideas

In fact, you CAN teach your child. You can! It’s as simple as picking up a teacher’s manual and reading the lesson the night before. In this post, I am illustrating the point by giving you 60 ideas for arts and crafts. I’m no artist. My kids can draw better than I can. But I teach them art with the right tools.

Even if you yourself are not that great at art you can teach your children art. To teach means to educate. And “educate” come from the Latin word “educare,” which means “leading out, taking somebody from here to there, guiding.” So you can guide your children through the process of discovering art. Take my case: I am not an artist, but I appreciate art. And, I discovered, it does not take much to expose my children to arts and crafts.

Here is a list of 60 arts and crafts you can do with your children:

1. Visit your local Museum of Art. For us, it’s Arrowmont in Gatlinburg and the Knoxville Museum of Art.

2. Visit your local children’s museum. The closest one to us is in Oak Ridge and we have not been yet. I have only heard good things about it, but it’s just been a little out of the way for us.

3. Visit your local science and technology center. Check this list out to locate one near you. They are bound to have craft tables, among all those scientific projects. If you travel, it would make sense to invest in a membership. That way, you can visit everywhere for free. We got a membership at The Muse in Knoxville and have already visited another science center for free (the Discovery Center in Charlotte, NC). That’s what you can do any time you travel.

4. Visit your local natural science museum. They usually have programs and tours for children which end up with a craft. We go to McClung in Knoxville for their free stroller tours.

5. Visit your local artisan shops. Sometimes they have artist at work demonstrations. Exposing the children to the creating process inspires them. We go to the Arts and Crafts community on Glades Road in Gatlinburg – 120+ shops to explore.

6. Visit the National Gallery of Art website for kids and virtual shop. You will gain four things: knowledge, inspiration, ideas, and pretty things to share with friends and family.  Continue reading »


Home Art Studio DVDs Review and Giveaway

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Home Art Studio DVDs for grades K-6th is a part of my birthday month giveaway extravaganza. Homeschooling can get a little rough around this time of the year. So I think a lot of homeschoolers should be interested in a curriculum that keeps the kids happily making art while mom can catch up on her work around the house. No textbooks required, no busy work, no power struggles.

Sculpey cinnamon buns and plate

We made cinnamon buns on a plate out of Sculpey, a clay one bakes in the oven before painting

But this award-winning art curriculum is more than just something to do to get over the winter blahs. During the school year, homeschool students can tackle one session a week and create different art projects in different media. Through painting, sculpting, drawing and coloring, children can express themselves while learning different techniques and even a bit of art history.

Home Art Studio DVDs K-5th plus holiday DVD

One lucky winner will receive all six grades plus the holiday DVD of this homeschool art curriculum

We have done five lessons so far from the Kindergarten set and our only problem is that once we get started, we don’t know when to stop. From a winter landscape to Van Gogh’s sunflowers, to a happy sun and sculpted cinnamon rolls on a plate, we had fun. That’s what it’s all about, right?

Van Gogh's Sunflowers, one of the projects on Home Art Studio DVD for Kindergarten

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, one of the projects on Home Art Studio DVD for Kindergarten, as created by one of my children

I really like art but I would not know where to start and how to teach it. This DVD set does all the work for me and in a professional manner, too. I cannot say enough about how impressed I am with Ms. Volin’s relaxed, inviting teaching style.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the kindergarten curriculum. I only recommend curriculum we use in our homeschool. To enter the giveaway, please sign up for our quarterly e-newsletter on the right hand menu by March 1.


Katie Meets the Impressionists Review

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(This post contains affiliate links, i.e. you purchase great products at no additional cost to you and I receive a small percentage of their price. For my full disclosure policy, click here.)

Homeschooling moms tend to be curious, life-long learners because teachers must be willing to learn constantly. Personally, I love studying new things. I almost feel selfish at times for all the fun I have learning and reading and preparing my lesson plans for the following day. Take, for instance, art appreciation.

Recently, I came across a series of art books for kids, featuring Katie, a little girl who goes to the art museum and can enter and exit paintings as needed. James Mayhew, a graduate of Maidstone College of Art, wrote at least a dozen of these books, from what I can gather, and I want all of them! Do I sound like the nerdy kid from “The Polar Express” movie, when they passed by the toy store window?

We bought two titles to get started on our collection: “Katie Meets the Impressionists” and “Katie and the Spanish Princess.” My children asked me to read each of them twice the first time we cracked them open. That night, they asked daddy to read them again.

Auguste Renoir (French, 1841 - 1919 ), A Girl with a Watering Can, 1876, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection

My three-year-old recognized this painting. We have seen it before in “A Year in Art.” It was the first confirmation I received that my art education efforts are paying off.

In “Katie Meets the Impressionists,” our heroine meets Jean, Claude Monet’s son, as well as the Girl with the Watering Can, the girl on “Her First Evening Out,” and lots of Blue Dancers – all mesmerizing characters in famous paintings by Monet, Renoir and Degas.

I was very proud of my three-year-old daughter who reacted as soon as she saw the Girl with the Watering Can – “She’s the girl from that other book!” My daughter recognized the girl in the painting because we have been using “A Year in Art” for our tea time and this painting is featured in there.

Charlotte Mason advocated exposure to art. Most educators believe in the refining influence of art education. “Katie Meets the Impressionists” provides a gentle introduction to or an exciting continuation of art appreciation.

For the French names or words in the book, a Google search like “Degas pronunciation” helps.

Your own copy of this book, which you can show your children again and again, will create great homeschooling memories.

Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop

3 Simple Solutions for Music and Art in Homeschooling

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In homeschooling, just like in traditional schooling, it can be tempting to set music and art aside for when we have time (or money). How can a busy homeschooling mom add music and art to an already full schedule? Here are my solutions (besides violin lessons):

1. Can You Hear It? will start you on this quest to steal a few moments for classical music and art appreciation simultaneously. My kids love this book and CD, which we got from the library. We soon got our own copy from Amazon.

I play the music during meals, but, also, while I cook and they play nearby. We open the book and turn the pages as the tracks change. Sometimes I read to the kids from the book. Other times, we listen and comment on what we see.

Small girl having tea and looking at painting

My daughter listens to “Carnival of the Animals – Aquarium” while looking at the corresponding painting in “Can You Hear It” and enjoying a bagel and raspberry zinger tea; my son is not in the picture because he was finishing up a LEGO project before joining us.

2. A Year in Art offers us visual pleasure as we enjoy our afternoon tea time, a tradition we started about a month ago. Around 4pm, I put a tea kettle on the stove and get out some scones, or biscuits, or bagels, or graham crackers, or toast. I use what I have on hand.

We open the book and look at 3-5 paintings while sipping tea and enjoying something sweet. They have questions. We look for answers together. Sometimes we locate towns and countries on a world atlas.

3. Free concerts – We catch the Knoxville Youth Symphony concerts several times a year and, also, the Sevier County Choral Society concerts (December and May). I used to sing with the Choral Society before I became a mom, so it sort of feels like a reunion for me. If you check your local newspaper or Google free concerts in your area, you should find similar offerings where you live.

I have felt the liberating and relaxing effects of art and music in our homeschooling enough, that I am thinking about experimenting with doing music and/or art before math, reading or writing. I’ll let you know if I have enough courage to implement it on a regular basis. So far, I have done it once and we all loved it.