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!

 

 

"Don't Color With Your Kids!"

source 

 

I don't know if this qualifies as someone giving me parenting advice. It was said to me back when I was not a mom. My "future" husband and I were just engaged, and I was working as a one-on-one aide in a preschool for a little boy with autism. My job was to shadow him through the classroom and step in as needed to help him interact with other children and use the toys appropriately (several of the non-autistic children could have used someone to do this as well, but I digress). My little one-on-one pupil was absent that day which meant that I became a regular classroom aide for the day. I went to sit with the children over at the table and began to chat with them about what they were making. We began discussing animals and fast cars, dinosaurs and castles, and I began to draw with them. The kids were all very interested in what I was doing, they watched my picture progress and all seemed to enjoy the camaraderie of coloring together. That's when the classroom teacher came over to me and pulled me aside. "Don't color with the children!" she said. "I can't color with them?" I asked. "No, we were taught in school to never color with the children, it will make them think their coloring is inferior and damage their psyche." "Okay" I said and walked away. And that conversation has still rattled around in my brain until today, when I decided to evict it out onto my blog.
 

This is really more a discussion about perspective. Could a child, if you color with him (or play a game with him, or cook dinner with him) feel badly that he can't do it as well as you? Sure, but what is the issue that really needs to be addressed here, is it that he is feeling badly, or is it that he is comparing himself to someone else and feeling like he doesn't measure up?
"Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load." -Galatians 6:4-5
I think the bigger issue is whether we remove obstacles when they are difficult or unpleasant for our children, or whether we teach them how to change their perspective and look at things in a new way.
 
"A merry heart does good like a medicine" Proverbs 17:22
 Our three year old daughter is working on that verse (we learn a lot of Scripture through song, this CD is one of our favorites!!) She is learning (and we are all getting the refresher course) that your attitude can change not only YOUR experience, but the experience of those around you as well! If you choose to look at the negative, what you can't do, what's been taken away from you, what you wish you could have, then you will be unhappy and make those around you unhappy. But if you choose to be happy, to enjoy what you have, to not compare what you have to others but instead be grateful your merry heart will make you feel better!
I do color with my children, I love coloring with my children and if, as has happened on occasion, one of my children says "Wow Mom, I wish I could color like you!" I tell them that it wasn't the work of a day, that I have practiced coloring for a long time, that perseverance has helped me learn how to be better at it. (and of course I compliment their hard work as well!) So there's my piece of advice for today, color with your children- and remember that EVERY moment is a teaching moment.