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Harmony Fine Arts Users


julikins
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Any Harmony Fine Arts Users out there?  My children have never done any serious art or music appreciation studies before.  I know, sad, since they are going to be in 7th and 4th this year.  But I've found Harmony Fine Arts and think this is something we can handle. 

 

My question is where do I start? 

 

Should I put them in at grade level, at where we are in the history cycle, or should I do the introductory year.  I know it's for first grade, so maybe not the 7th grader, but perhaps the 4th grader who struggles with hand-eye coordination?  Then where would I start the 7th grader (she loves art and would thrive, doing much of it on her own, I think)? 

 

Thanks

 

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I couldn't afford the books. My library doesn't do ILL well. I crashed and burned so quickly with this that I even gave up doing a 4 year rotation, just to have art and music integrated into another curriculum.

 

Since then I found the master list of artists and composers in the logic part of TWTM 3rd edition. Why didn't anyone tell me about this list earlier? I copied and pasted the lists from my Kindle book and printed it out. I feel all set for now. I'll just use whatever is on the library shelves, and tick those names off as we go.

 

I'm going to have students use the lists as lifetime lists, and they can finish up the lists themselves long after we part ways.

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She mentioned that she is going to have a sale in August. I plan on purchasing then. She has an internet option, so you don't have to have extra books. Have you looked at her samples? If you have Facebook I would write on her Harmony Fine Arts page and ask her where she things you should begin. I had questions about my soon to be 2nd and 3rd grader and she answered quickly. I personally wouldn't begin at Gr. 1, it would be way too easy. I would either start at Gr.4 and beef it up for the 7th grader or get Gr.7 and simplify it a bit for the 4th grader.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just came across this post ... we use HFA here, and I'd suggest going with the levels to match the history cycles & stage -- grammar/ancients, for example.  The actual art projects are either coloring pages (related to historical information or instruments of the orchestra, for ex.) or from Artistic Pursuits, which doesn't require a high level of drawing ability. 

 

That's just my opinion; if you are unsure, email Barbara (aka Harmony Fine Arts mom) and I'm sure she'd be happy to help with placement.   I haven't used upper levels of Artistic Pursuits, so I may be off there; though it is only option of her three strands.

 

One easy way to bring up drawing abilities would to be the Draw Write Now series at an accelerated pace (skipping the handwriting portions, probably).  Or look at Timberdoodle for drawing curricula; theirs are usually good and easy to implement. 

 

ETA: if you haven't gotten around to music/art history/appreciation, and it's a value of yours, I strongly suggest HFA's downloadable form (you could get hardcopy too if you are that sort of person and have extra money for it).  On a bad day you just click onto a Youtube musical selection for the music; click the link to that week's art piece and look at it; then you're done! 

 

We do this at lunch about 4 days/week.  The boys do the music first -- I often hunt around youtube for a live performance of the music, if the link is audio-only -- and then I put up the art piece -- looking around Google images sometimes for a higher-definition version.  On the first day we usually look, discuss a bit, I have the older one study it with me and then we shut the laptop and "narrate" the image back to each other.  Each day one boy picks a segment to zoom in on and we study it more closely.  This spring and summer the actual art projects and composer bios are not getting done, but the boys have regular exposure and are learning to listen to good music and look at good art. 

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