Art At Home

I think I have written before about the wonderful art class Madeline took this past year.  She really enjoyed it, and is looking forward to taking it again this next year.  Isabella is also looking forward to it as she will now be old enough, and I am even considering letting Hailey take a few classes herself since she has been saying that she would like to go to art class too. They do have a preschool class as well.  

I really think that art and creative expression is very important and I don't want the girls to think they have to wait for art class to do art, so not being a great artist myself I have located several art resources.  One that the girls really enjoy is Atelier.   It is a video-based program.  The girls spent more than an hour last night working on a lesson.  Truly they should have been in bed, but art won out.  The lesson involved the creation of work similar to Starry Night.  After they finished, Isabella wanted to do another lesson, so I let her choose another video lesson.  Madeline also decided she wanted to create more art.  She decided to go her own way and create her own artwork, entitled "A Sunny Day".

This is Hailey working on the swirls in her "Starry Night" picture.

Isabella working hard on her masterpiece.

Hailey's finished piece.

Isabella's picture.

Madeline's version of "Starry Night."

This is Hailey's picture "The H Family."

Isabella's "Cat in the Hat"

Madeline's "The Sunny Day"

Madeline's "The Little Flower"

Where are we going?

Well, it seems that the answer to the question, "What curriculum will we use?" is a map that is always changing. It seems like there is a never-ending quest to find materials that are a good fit for the girls' learning styles. My ideas for what we would use this year have changed several times this summer, but I think I have settled on some appropriate materials for the year (subject to change at any time, of course).

I ran across a curriculum that is designed for "gifted and creative" children, Moving Beyond the Page, that addresses that is based on the standards, and is very hands-on. I will be using the 5-7 curriculum materials for Isabella and the 6-8 curriculum materials for Madeline. The girls seem to like the lessons so far, and the material seems to be appropriately challenging for them.

In addition to this curriculum, we will be using ABeCeDarian Reading. This program is a nuts-and-bolts, how to read curriculum. To me, it seems, it is a combination of the best of every program I have used. It has "making words"-type activities; is very methodical in the teaching of phonics, like Sigfried Engelmann's work; and includes writing activities as well. I even like the handwriting portions as much as I like the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. It is really the type of curriculum I would develop myself, if I was so inclined. We are all happy with it. The girls have seen success with it, and even Hailey asks to learn to read when she sees her sisters doing it. We will also be using LOTS of library books at their reading levels for independent reading, and probably some guided reading.

I think we will also continue to use the Write Source materials for writing. I like the direct instruction in the 6 Traits of Writing that the program provides, and Madeline enjoyed the kindergarten program last year. We will also continue with journaling, and we will encourage both Madeline and Isabella to continue to write down their wonderful stories.

As I posted previously, we are using Singapore Math, and we continue to really like that program. Isabella especially has made huge progress in the past month with it. We will continue with it.

We have experimented with a few art programs this summer, and have been happy with all of them, for what they offer. The Atelier Homeschool Art program has certainly held the girls' attention and lead to lots of spontaneous art being done in between the lessons. The geeArt program has also been enjoyed. They just do not seem to be a complete program, and since we are almost 1/2 finished with the Atelier program (Level 1), and we just started this summer, it will probably not get us through the whole year. I just heard about a program that is suppose to be fabulous, called Artistic Pursuits, which I think I am going to check out. I am also going to use ideas from Discovering Great Artists

and Great American Artists for Kids, both by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Kim Solga.

We are also planning to purchase a used piano or keyboard so that the girls can learn to play. If that doesn't pan out, we might go back to taking a music class, as we have in the past.

Physical education gets covered through the many classes that the girls are involved in. We have dance and gymnastics planned. Madeline would also like to take a karate class, and she and Isabella have played soccer in the past, so we will see what happens later this year.

Well, I think that is what is "mapped" for now. I'm sure it will be adjusted and changed as the year goes on, and I am sure the girls will add their own ideas to it as we progress through the year.

Potatoes?

It is fascinating to see the girls' minds at work! I was getting ready for the next days art lesson, and the girls were intrigued by the fact that I had gotten out potatoes. They started trying to figure out what exactly they would be doing in the lesson with the potatoes. Madeline decided that we were going to glue the potatoes onto the papers to make faces and then paint them - actually not that far from that actual project, which was using potato prints to begin a family portrait project (another project from Atelier Homeschool Art). So, she ands Isabella proceded to design faces made from some small potatoes.

Here are the girls designing their "faces" with the potatoes.

Here are their "Family Portraits" that were the intended product of the art lesson.

Art!

We have recently added a couple of art programs to our homeschool which the girls really seem to enjoy. Madeline has been asking for quite some time to take art lessons, and we have been unable to find anything that we like for her age group, so we decided to try these out.

The first is a computer-based program called geeART16. It contains a lot of really great art information, some online activities for learning more about art and artists, and includes Corel Painter Essentials. The kids can do the art activities on Corel Paint so it is less messy : 0 ). The 16 lessons are divided into sayArt, a seeArt, and doART. It allows you to save a portfolio of the work done on Corel Paint for each lesson. It also includes lesson plans for additional projects that can be done with art materials, off of the computer. You can find the program at http://www.geeguides.com/. You can test out the program at the site. I think Madeline did the sample lesson T least 5 times before we ordered the rest of it. It has really kept her attention!

The second program is Atelier Homeschool Art (http://www.homeschoolart.com/). This is a video-based program. There are 8 levels, broken into 3 modules each. We started with Level 1, Module A. The kids watch the video and follow along as they complete the projects. We have completed the first 2 lessons. Both Madeline and Isabella did the first art project, a line caterpillar, a couple of times. They did the second lesson today. It was learning about Pablo Picasso's Mains Aux Fleurs, and then painting their own similar masterpiece. They also learned how to mix primary colors to make secondary colors while completing the lesson.

Here are some photos of their artistic processes:

And some of their final masterpieces: