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Is anyone here providing a fine arts focused homeschool experience?  That is, a focus on music, art, dance, and/or theater?  If so, how are you balancing that with the need for academics, without losing sight of your fine arts goals?  I'm particularly interested in your middle and high school level experience.  Thank you.  (Cross posted on high school board)

Edited by klmama
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Our home school is pretty heavy on music, with each kid doing at least two practical music subjects plus non-negotiable music theory and group music extracurricular activities. Two of the kids are doing somewhat less music than I would ideally like them to do, because they still need some remedial help with foundational academics, and if they want to back off on numeracy and literacy before they achieve basic competence, it will be over my dead body! But with the third kid, who doesn't find academic stuff too challenging, we do 'borrow' time very freely. For example, she has a major performance exam coming up in June, and she will be having about 9 weeks of no math at all (except what she learns informally) in order to fit in an extra violin practice session per day. This kid is only in 4th grade, though, so I'm not sure how it will work when she is older. I guess I'm hoping that by the time she is high school age, she will have decided whether she has career aspirations in music (in which case we can safely drop most other subjects and work towards getting her into the conservatorium) or whether music is a hobby only (in which case she could back off music in favor of regular college prep).

How is it working with your dc?

Edited by IsabelC
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DD12's high school will be arts-focused, but I'm not sure what that's going to look like, yet.  She wants to major in fine arts as an undergrad (she's thinking about becoming a doctor, so I need to make sure she has a solid college prep plan, too).

 

At this point, I have her working with an art teacher twice a month.  I can't afford more than that.  The teacher is telling me she's on a late high school/early college level.  

 

She's going to a sculpture camp this summer.  Also, we're looking into doing some contests with scholarship money.  

 

I'm interested in hearing what others are doing!

 

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We are music focused as well. (Both of my boys are practicing for scholarships right now so we are REALLY music focused. Lol)

 

I keep the academics as short as I can within our state requirements. My oldest is definitely a Humanities guy so I haven't been too worried about STEM stuff at this point. He's still very young and has plenty of time to surprise me, but so far I haven't seen the need to go to far into math and science. (Above requirements)

 

As to what it looks like, my oldest will be in 6th grade next year and will continue with piano and possibly add drums back in. He's really into hip hop and rap and we were so lucky to find a mentor for him who helps us nurture this in an age appropriate manner. He does weekly piano lessons and will meet with his hip hop mentor twice a month. He writes music and has a solid grasp of theory but we will probably look for some advanced theory soon.

 

We also do art lessons at our art museum and he is in a creative writing after school program two afternoons a week.

 

We are going to spend the summer looking for Shakespeare festivals and that will carry into a Shakespeare study in the fall.

 

Mostly for us it looks like freedom to create art.

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My 12-year old is a classical dancer (ballet mostly, but also some contemporary) on a pre-pro track. We will (likely) continue homeschooling through high school so she can continue to prioritize dance.

 

We also live in a city with excellent performing arts; thus, we have season subscriptions to our world-renowned opera, orchestra, and theater companies. Though none of my kids are musicians, we patronize the arts at a high level. Our art museum is a family destination on at least a monthly basis. I love that we've made the arts a big focus of our homeschool over the years.

 

Forgot to say how we're balancing strong academics. So far, for DD12, keeping her home is how we make time for dance. Next year, she will take a number of online classes and dance even more. Time will tell if we can keep on the pre-AP/AP track while also dancing many hours per week. Many dancers in her 'shoes' go away to year-round training programs. Ideally, we will avoid that in favor of remaining at her home studio (attached to a professional company) and continuing to homeschool. Although, we would consider a residential arts school if we could afford it (would need substantial scholarship).

Edited by fourisenough
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My dd loves music and is doing a lot of music related activities, but she also loves animals and has done many hands-on animal things. She's keeping her sciences and math up so that she has the option to pursue music and/or biology. The music requirements for University are really small compared to the science requirements. 

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Dancer was on the pre-pro dance track through middle school and we basically did academics in the morning and she danced in the afternoon (3pm+)/evenings. She also assisted in teaching classes.  

 

In 9th, she went to the state arts school which also did academics in the morning and the fine art (voice, theater, dance, music, visual art) from about 1-4 or so. The dance track was attached to her home studio, so she danced with the school, and with her studio. Her pre-pro class fees were offset with her assisting to teach lower level classes, so she was busy. The school did academics on a rotating schedule. There were 5 classes, I believe, A-E, but only 4 were done daily. So it was A-D one day, then B-E, the next, C-A, etc. It was quite confusing to me, but she did ok. In that one year, she got 4 credit hours in fine arts, mostly dance and performance, and not including the dance, performances, and teaching at her home studio. She also had credits for the core 4 - math, science, English, history. ETA: she also got an elective.

 

In 10th, she wanted to homeschool again, and we maintained academic days and dance in the afternoon/evenings. Because of an injury, she quit dance, but moved into a vocational field -baking. That required her days to be flipped (she does dual enrollment), so she spent her morning in the kitchen and her afternoons and evenings doing academics.

 

Being homeschooled has been key for keeping her grades up in academic courses regardless of her focus, because of the ability to work at her pace. When she was in the arts school, she had a hard time keeping up.

 

ETA for spelling.

Edited by Renai
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We are not fine arts focused as in we are competitive in any form, but I feel we are very fine arts focused. It just goes with our liberal arts in general. I would say our main educational focus is on the latin at the core of our curriculum. Of course we do our maths and sciences, but the arts in many forms fill up our days.

 

For us that means daily piano practice for one. It means including art and drawing in everything we do for the other and finding ways to use that in her daily work to help with the academics because that is how she learns. Both of mine dance several days a week and volunteer to help teach other classes.  We take outside art classes when we can with co-op and with paid art classes when we can squeeze them in. We have learned about photography and did so much across the curriculum with that one year. We do compete in art contests as a way of working on our art. Both enter things into the fair from cooking to photography and scrapbooking to their favorite art pieces from the year.  They entered an art/essay contest on a certain theme and won a big prize last year. Both essays and art pieces included references to artists they had been inspired by over the course of that particular year. We read the classics together daily and the Bible often which surrounds us with another form of art and peace and beauty.

 

We are not in piano or dance competitions. The dance classes do include camps in the summers and big recitals. But my kids aren't going to be professional dancers. They have never expressed that wish, though they wouldn't give it up for anything. It is for the love of it and the personal benefits that they do it. I could see them teaching dance at some points in their lives. One of mine may go into art as a minor or art history of some sort.  So I do plan to increase her art study as she gets into high school and learn how to prepare a portfolio.

 

But the beauty of including the arts daily is a major benefit of our homeschool. Every afternoon is about reading aloud, art or the latest craft, dance classes, and piano practice. 

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We are music focused, especially for my oldest. Honestly, it's made hooking into a HS community tough. We can't really spend much more time away from the house and still fit in lessons and necessary practice. Anyway, he is a pianist and organist...we are just coming off of piano exams (all high honors and one perfect score- whoo hoo!) and gearing up for some big organ performances.

 

Right now, we are easily able to have a strong academic program while still allowing him the necessary hours for practice and theory. I can see that will need to change as he ages, but it remains to be seen how. I think it'll depend on whether he ultimately decides he wants a career in music or not. He also has a strong STEM interest, but he's only turning 11, so he has some time. 

 

My next kids all play the piano, but none have the inherent drive and ability he does (though they all play well for their ages). But it means that daily practice is non-negotiable, as is theory and music history. 

 

 

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Our homeschool isn't what you're looking for, but I'll tell you about another family's music-centered lifestyle:

 

K went to a good private school through 6th grade. (That's where we met: I was one of her teachers.) However, by that age she was working at a high level in piano and violin and with the commute and the homework, she didn't have enough time to practice during the school year. She felt she needed a minimum of three hours a day at that point (solo practice, on top of instruction and group stuff), and her music instructors agreed.

 

Her parents somewhat reluctantly agreed to try homeschooling for one year. They enrolled her with Calvert, plus hired me and one or two other tutors to come in every week or two to ensure she was getting the same level of academics she'd get at her school. She would get up in the morning, walk the dog, shower, eat, and then start practicing around 7:30. She would practice for a few hours. After lunch, she'd do school work for about five hours. In the evenings, she would have group practices (youth symphony or her chamber group, which meant she also got to hang out with friends) or see her tutors. Some weekends, they'd go to another city for some extra private lessons.

 

They stretched the school year out so she could get everything finished, but reserved some time so she could attend national events each summer.

 

It went very well for her. She wound up cutting back on piano to focus on violin. They stuck with Calvert through 8th and then Keystone 9-12. (Both her parents are scientists, and they wanted to make sure other subjects also got enough feedback and a diploma from someone besides them--homeschooling was less popular here then.) She ended up taking one further year to become more competitive musically and do some APs. She was very well situated academically and musically, and being at home also made it easier to deal with migraines and food sensitivities.

 

K is just now finishing her university program, where she has been concertmaster, and I think plans to attend grad school next. She's very diligent by nature--her parents really didn't expect to have their child take a path in the arts like this, but she made up her mind really as a preschooler and never looked back! Great kid.

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We tend to do lots of music, too. My 12 year old practices about 3-4 hours most days. I do take this into account in planning his school, and we let things go if it gets too much in the way of practice (like latin this year). He does have a fairly solid academic load for his age, but he is pretty efficient, and our home-school is definitely geared towards efficiency so he can follow his passions. As he gets further on, he will have to think more carefully about balance, and we are going to start reducing some activities (like Suzuki group) to make more time for school and his other musical activities. I love that he is passionate, but I do expect him to get a solid high-school education so that he could go on in most any field he wanted to. We'll see how that works :-}. 

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Our homeschool was pretty arts-focused for ages 9-10, and dc is back at a public charter for middle school. They are applying to a performing arts high school, and another high school with an IB art program. If they don't get into either of those, I think we will be back to homeschooling for high school.

 

We did academic subjects in the morning, and took advantage of after-school and weekend classes for various arts. Most weeks, that included 10-15 hours of dance classes, 5 hours of art classes (divided between lecture and studio courses at a museum, and classes with a working artist), and 1 hour of music lessons (for which they practiced at home about 3 times per week). I also designed our own course on the development of landscape architecture and the rise of public parks, plus a bit of intro to museum studies.

 

While in public school, dc keeps up with dance, but we had to drop music and outside art classes during the year. Dc plans to do 2-3 weeks of art camp and 1-2 weeks of dance camp this summer. (edited to add: once homework is done, dc spends at least 15 hours a week drawing at home, either on paper or using a drawing program on the computer.)

 

If we end up doing high school via homeschooling, we will be relying on a lot of outside classes again, and I expect the schedule to look mostly like it did at ages 9-10, but probably double the art classes. It will be trickier though, since dc will probably enroll in some cc classes for academic stuff. I think I will mostly be coordinating the schedule spreadsheet, but I expect that I would design a few more classes like before. I would also try to fit in more travel to places like NYC and DC once we exhaust local resources (of which we have many, thankfully).

 

Editing to add: I forgot about theatre! That was one thing we specifically looked for in a middle school. Dc did the musical and then the Shakespeare group, and would like to continue with that. There are several local theatre programs they can do in high school if they don't get into the performing arts school. So the weekly schedule would probably be 7-10 hours of dance class, 7-10 hours of art class, and 3-4 hours of theatre group, plus a bit of drill time at home. Music probably stays dropped.

 

Editing once more, to talk more about academics. Dc is extremely driven, and is an advanced/accelerated learner, and actually asked to homeschool in order to be able to move ahead more quickly in math/science/languages/writing/etc.  The arts interest was already there, but not the reason to homeschool. Homeschooling allowed more time to pack it all in. If dc goes to the arts high school, they will need to rely on dual enrollment or get creative for math after 10th grade.

Edited by slackermom
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  • 2 weeks later...

DD12's high school will be arts-focused, but I'm not sure what that's going to look like, yet.  She wants to major in fine arts as an undergrad (she's thinking about becoming a doctor, so I need to make sure she has a solid college prep plan, too).

 

At this point, I have her working with an art teacher twice a month.  I can't afford more than that.  The teacher is telling me she's on a late high school/early college level.  

 

She's going to a sculpture camp this summer.  Also, we're looking into doing some contests with scholarship money.  

 

I'm interested in hearing what others are doing!

Hello!

   I just saw that your daughter loves art and can only afford lessons a few times a month?  I just thought I would let you know that I teach affordable art classes online, using a live feed.  All participants can see and interact with one another, and I am able to give guidance and feedback as they work.  You said she was advanced, so she would be able to either join the 4-8 class and do a variety of mediums, all with projects based upon art history.  Or she would be able to join the "high school" class, which allows for more independant work, but also includes art history and technique.  I have had some that do both classes for both experiences, but I'm pretty open to putting students where they fit best.  I'm a homeschooling mom afterall. ;)  Anyways, if you are interested my website is www.blossomingartists.com.  I am currently registering for the summer session. 

 

 

I hope you find something that works! :)

 

 

Sarah

Edited by smartise
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