This Adventures in Art series has been a fun peek into how we approach art in our homeschool. We covered art appreciation, art lessons through DVD, and art just for fun in Adventures in Art and Adventures in Art: Help from the Professionals. Now it’s time to talk about what it looks like when art shows up in other areas of our homeschool — art outside of “art.”
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Art Through Homeschool Co-op
Our art time became a no-brainer last fall. Our homeschool group got together each week and tackled projects from Home Art Studio’s Third Grade Program. Prissy enjoyed doing a couple of the projects with my help, but this was especially nice for The Boy. He loved being with his friends and doing art together. When our semester of art was finished, we got together and shared all of the kids’ work by hosting an exhibit for our families. This was such a fun night and we’ve been doing art with our group ever since!
Our co-op has just started back and we’re having fun with the second round. If you’ve ever wondered if a co-op is right for your group, art is definitely a good way to test it out. As a homeschool mom, I’ve loved knowing that art is covered and that there’s no chance of me getting too busy to give it the time it deserves. While I know it’s important, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day! Doing art with a group makes it easy to set aside time to *ahem* “be creative.” (I tried my best to sound like Ms. Volin there from Home Art Studio.)
Cross-curricular Art
Then there are those times when art just happens to intersect with other subjects. I love how seamlessly Brookdale House’s Sheldon’s New Primary Language Lessons injects aspects of art into our language arts lessons. I’ve said before how The Boy isn’t big on lots of writing. Drawing is another story though! For him, having the chance to illustrate as part of his language arts is a treat and because of that he actually looks forward to language arts. You can see why I’m a fan, right?
In addition to our language arts, art seems to blend in nicely with our history lessons. We own several books from the Draw Write Now and Draw and Write Through History series. Draw Write Now is primarily for younger elementary kids whereas Draw and Write Through History is geared for children eight years-old and up. We have used both and I can’t say enough good things about them. If you’re looking for a great way to supplement your homeschool history, you’ve got to check them out. They’d also be great for any kid (homeschool or not) who enjoys history and drawing.
While Draw and Write Through History obviously focuses on history alone, the Draw Write Now series can also be used to supplement a few subjects. Plenty of history is covered in the series, but there’s also tons of geography and science. Specifically, weather, seasons, and animals and their habitats are all included throughout the volumes. The first book in the series even covers traditional storybook characters. That could be used in conjunction with reading or language arts for a younger child.
All of this art is a pretty cool thing. As I’ve freely admitted, the art gene skipped me; as much as I wish I had the gene, I just don’t. I may not be an artist, but thankfully I don’t have to be! There are tons of ways to encourage them to love art and empower them to create it. If you haven’t made art a part of your homeschool days, what are you waiting for? You can do it, too!
Check out the rest of the series:
Adventures in Art
Adventures in Art: Help from the Professionals