Homeschool Art Lessons

One of the most daunting subjects to teach, homeschool art lessons can also be among the most rewarding. Whether your child has an artistic gifting or you want to help him or her appreciate art, there are curriculums and resources to help.

Notebooking is a great way to teach art.

There are numerous ways to teach art to students and many categories to consider. You may choose to concentrate on art appreciation, honing your child’s drawing skills, or other interesting topics. What is studied is controlled in a large part by the age of your child, his interests, and his learning style. Your own interest and abilities in art will also make a difference in which type of art lessons you choose to do.

Studying the unique styles of the different artists and eras throughout history is a good way to introduce art to your child. Like writing skills, children learn to emulate the things they are most familiar with. If your child studies an artist as he is studying history, then he will make the connection between the time period and the art. He will be able to see how earlier artists and styles influenced later artists and styles.

Just looking at a Vermeer one may not pick up the exquisite detail of his work without an understanding of the lifestyle of the time. It is interesting to note that Vermeer’s paintings of people depicted them involved in everyday activities much like Norman Rockwell’s paintings did some four hundred years later.

Some great resources for studying art history, as well as tips and suggestions can be found at Art History for Homeschoolers.

Whether your student wants to paint, draw, or use a camera composition is an important ability to have. The visual success of a work of art will depend on how pleasing it is to the eye; the proportion, balance, and relationship of the images to each other.

Resources for learning composition skills include:

• ARTistic Pursuits- A series of readymade lesson plans for grades kindergarten through high school that lead your student through basic art lessons. Each lesson encourages interaction between parent and child and lasts about thirty to forty minutes total, including the project.
• Atelier - A video based art program aimed at the needs of homeschool students and their parents. There are several videos in the collection. If you have a visual learner this would be great.

Maybe your child has a natural talent and isn’t interested in art history or technical work but would just like to learn the techniques involved when working with various media, like:

• Pastel
• Oils
• Acrylics
• Gauche
• Watercolor
• Inks
• Pencil

The best way to learn a specific technique is to study with a local artist. The artist can give tips based on what your child is doing and their style. Some homeschool co-ops have art lessons. Other places to consider are:

• Art department of the local community college
• High school art department (for upper elementary students)
• Check with local galleries and frame shops

Don’t discount your child’s ability to learn on his own through trial and error. One of the best ways to discover how to use a material is to experiment with it. One of the benefits will be your child developing his own artistic style rather than copying someone else’s.

If you are looking for curricula that will give you homeschool art lessons in technique, then you may want to look at the following websites.

• Homeschool Arts has free online lessons and links to many different techniques.
• Teach Art at Home
• Donna Young has numerous free printables and helps on this site.

Another way to teach art is to write your own curriculum. It is much easier than you may think even if your main connection to fine art has been comic books.

One of the simplest ways to teach homeschool art lessons is to utilize the local library:

1. Check out a biography on an artist that you are interested in.
2. Check out a book about his art. Get one with plenty of images.
3. Read the biography of the artist aloud.
4. Place him on a timeline so that your child can understand his life and work in the context of history.
5. Spend some time looking at his work in the art book. Talk about what you see.
6. Try to copy one of his creations.

You might be surprised at how much your child will get out of these brief lessons if they are done consistently.

Although art may seem like a difficult subject to teach it can be done. Anyone can learn to appreciate the talent and skill that goes into a painting whether they are artistic or not. Since children generally like working with arts and crafts materials art is more playtime than school time.

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