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elementary art class--what would you want?


kristin0713
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If you were to enroll your elementary aged child into an art class with a substantial fee (including materials and the instructor's time), what would you expect from the class? What projects, concepts, mediums, etc. would you want the class to include?

 

We have a woman offering art classes to our co-op. She taught a group of older kids this year, and has offered to teach a younger group as well next year. She is very open to hearing what parents want from the class. At first she mentioned basic projects and I said that I would want it to be things that I would not want to do at home because of the mess, the cost of materials, and my lack of knowledge in this subject. I don't want to pay for something that I can easily do, like a tissue paper collage. I suggested painting, pastels, sculpture. She wants to design it to meet expectations but I don't know what else to suggest. I would be putting both of my kids in it, so I want it to be worth the cost.

 

Suggestions?

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I said that I would want it to be things that I would not want to do at home because of the mess, the cost of materials, and my lack of knowledge in this subject. I don't want to pay for something that I can easily do, like a tissue paper collage. I suggested painting, pastels, sculpture.

 

This! Absolutely. That's exactly what I want - things I can't do easily (pottery) or won't do because of the mess.

I also want them taught (age-appropriately) about things I don't know enough about.

 

Some amounts of shading, perspective, and other drawing techniques should be covered, depending on how old the kids are.

Paint techniques - brush strokes, for example. (I don't know enough even to know what to ask for.)

 

We had someone hook up with a college art student to offer art once per month for our homeschool kids. It was usually less than satisfactory, IMO.

Attendance dropped off considerably once people realized what they were paying for. We have one left & I'm hoping for something really good to end the year. But I'm not holding my breath.

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My number one desire would be for the class to cover actual art instruction and techniques in a purposeful, thoughtful, sequential way instead of random introduction of various projects. My kids were in an art class before we moved. There were solid lessons in the principles of art, but the kids were still free to be creative and do projects that didn't look like carbon copies of the others in the class. Then the class got too big for one teacher, so they divided the kids into groups by age. The new teacher was awesome--great personality, carefree, exactly who you would want to teach art. But the "lessons." Ugh. They stopped learning anything of substance, and I really did not want to pay for what they were getting at that point. I left the kids in because it was a good social opportunity and they loved the teacher, but mostly because we were coming up on a move anyway. Had we been there permanently, no way would I have continued to pay for cheerful arts & crafts lessons.

 

Anyway, I would leave the projects up to the teacher, but I would make it clear that I would want true art instruction, with real terms and techniques introduced and used.

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I would be happy with an art class that taught elements of art and method technique over pre made projects. Those art instructions where a teacher makes or draws something and then the kids are instructed to then make it and draw/color it exactly like the teacher are not good imho. I also don't like drawing lessons that have kids follow steps to draw a horse or something. Much better to teach kids how to find some basic elements and draw what they see instead of memorizing steps to make a horse that can only look the same way each time. But some basic instruction in drawing, painting etc and then the kids can use those methods to then create their own art would be good. I wouldn't pay for a glorified arts and crafts time.

 

ETA; Ask to see some samples of the instructors own artwork or samples from previous classes.

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Thank you, this is really helpful!

 

My number one desire would be for the class to cover actual art instruction and techniques in a purposeful, thoughtful, sequential way instead of random introduction of various projects. My kids were in an art class before we moved. There were solid lessons in the principles of art, but the kids were still free to be creative and do projects that didn't look like carbon copies of the others in the class.

 

I am going to tell her this. Can you give me examples of the projects and techniques that your kids did? She asked me to be very specific about expectations and I really don't know enough about art to be that specific!

 

Does anyone have pictures of art that they did in a class that you were very pleased with?

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