Art and Music Appreciation Studies - Is it better to align with history?

[Cindyz]

I'm planning art and music appreciation for this year and I've found some good resources that don't align with our history studies.  Harmony Fine Arts does align with history studies, so I could use that.  However, I was thinking about trying out some new resources.

 

So do you think art and music appreciation is best done within the context of history following the timeline, or any old mash up will do?

 

Thanks!

[helena]

We do both.

My main fine arts/music study is it's own thing, but when opportunities arise via history studies, we jump on it. 

Last year I bought all the Dover art sticker books (on sale :)) and put them in our history timeline books. So, not necessarily in the period we were studying, but still art and history together. 

 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

Not always better.  During your ancient year it is really hard to do artist studies.  We studied art from the period and looked at pottery and styles of architecture and the mosaics and frescoes in the remains of old buildings.  But we couldn't really study specific artists :)  But other than that year I do try to stick to the period.  It is easier after that.

 

But if we aren't getting any art history/appreciation done then I have also done studies not in the period just to make sure we are getting some done when I realize we have been slacking.  So I guess it doesn't really matter to me.  A bit of both can be good.

[happypamama]

We hit a major overview when appropriate, but no, we don't correlate with history for the most part. We pick the artist or composer that we want to study, regardless of time period we are studying in history.

[Candid]

I don't think it matters, especially for younger children. At some point in middle school, you might like to begin to tie the humanities together although even then it isn't totally necessary. 

[chelsmm]

_{We aren't aligning our art/ music appreciation with our history. We are doing ancients, and like someone else posted, we do talk about and study the art from the period, but that's different than our art/ music appreciation.  We have only just started, but we have studied Bach and Mozart because I like them.  :)  So far, the kids have enjoyed them as well.  For art, Picasso and Rousseau.  I want the kids to enjoy art and music appreciation, so I am choosing people that we will have fun with for now.}

 

 

[happypamama]

Another reason NOT to align them is because that would typically put several artists or composers of similar styles together -- for instance, the French Impressionists -- since they were around the same times, and that may make them less distinct in children's minds. Simplycharlottemason.com, for instance, suggests using artists and composers of different time periods so that the styles are more distinct and therefore the artists/composers stand out more to the children.

[thebacabunch]

We don't.  However, we do discuss when different artists, writers, and composers lived when we reach that point in history.  I am still blown away thinking about Chopin composing his nocturnes at the same time that banjo music was taking off in America, lol.