Our elementary school art curriculum



I admit, I am probably not the best person to ask, "What is your favorite curriculum?" because although we have a 2nd grader, a kindergartener and a preschooler, we have never bought a curriculum! There have been times where I would have dearly wish we could have, and times that it certainly would have made less work for me to have it all planned out, but my husband lost his full-time job the year we started officially homeschool our oldest son, and he has been taking odd jobs and looking for full-time work since, so a curriculum has never been in the budget. Thankfully, we have lots of great homeschooling friends and my mom, who is a retired elementary school speech teacher, we've gotten lots of materials to look through and piece together! Our art curriculum is the same. We got this book from my mom (I see they have a newer version here )

 



It has lots of works of art that have been simplified for easier coloring and a small description of the artist on the side.


 

 I have an idea of using tracing paper as well on a few of the pictures, when my oldest son gets a little steadier with his pencil- fine motor is not his forte. But I wanted to go a little more in depth in talking about these artists, so when I found this book set on clearance, I scooped it up!

It has beautiful full-color glossy images of the paintings and an additional description of the artist and style of painting he/she used.

My oldest son and I sit together and discuss one artist per day look at some of the art work he has done (an internet image search can really help with this as well!)  and then together we work on coloring in the picture. We have used colored pencils, chalk, water colors, tempera paint, and pastels. We are working on blending, colors together to make new colors, talking about what sort of feelings each painting makes us feel, and what is the main subject of each painting. He has been asking everyday if we can do art together, so I think he has really been enjoying it! Hopefully, we can take a family trip to the art museum soon and he can have some more inspiration!

left: Vincent Van Gogh-"Wheat Field with Cypresses"(tempera paint), right: Vincent Van Gogh Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (pastels)

 

If you want to do an art study with your children, these books are great resources, but your local library should also have a great collection of art books to study painting together and here are a few resources I pulled together for free online:

•  This blog has a TON of great art resources and ideas!
• This is the US government art for kids site. There is some things on there that are a little fluffy and low on content, but there are a few links that we have found interesting as useful!

Some famous artwork you can print and color for free (please look through these on your own and pick ones that suit your families personal modesty convictions- there are a few pictures mixed in that may not suit everyone)



• mostly trees and a few others
• some wonderful artwork here
• there is some beautiful pictures here, however if you don't have a high-speed connection (I don't) they have far too many videos and moving pictures on that page that will eat up your data in no time!)
• art history coloring pages this also has a brief paragraph about the artist and work of art.
• There are some interesting art nouveau coloring pages here, probably for older children or excellent artists in your family
• the art student

I'd love to here what kind of art curriculum you use/what art projects you are working on in the comments!