If you don't use "boxed", are you comfortable with the art, music, and fun you're doing?

[Meadowlark]

When I look at programs like HOD, MFW, and others, I am comforted by the fact that the music appreciation/composers, poetry, art, and projects are all there scheduled for me. It's the other parts of the "boxed" or "semi-boxed" that may not work for me in the long run.

 

So, in the event that I ever do branch out and start piecing things together, how do I get in all of that stuff (which I believe to be just as important)? I'm confident with the core academics, but it's tying everything together that I'm not sure I'll succeed at. The well-rounded program so to speak.

 

So, if you pick and choose, how do you make it all come together in that way?

[LivingHope]

I like choosing my own artist, composer, poet, and crafts. I like to hitch these "spread the feast" activities (as Charlotte Mason called them) to our mealtimes: poetry and picture study at lunch, music while we do dishes, and crafts right before dinner...so we actually have to clean it up to use the dining table. When I feel like I need some inspiration, here are a few resources I use besides searching google or the library:

---Ambleside Online http://www.amblesideonline.org/ArtSch.shtml

---Simply Charlotte Mason (love their art portfolios) http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/curriculum-guide/picture-study/

---Charlottemasonhelp.com http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/picture-study.html

---Blog called All Things Bright and Beautiful has a weekly poem, art print, music selection http://classicalmusicnartcharlottemasonstyle.blogspot.com

---HarmonyFineArts.org

---Art DVD's: Creating a Masterpiece and Home Art Studio

---For history projects: Homeschool in the Woods

---Every May (middle of the year) I go to calendar.com and purchase discounted artist calendars.

---Amazon sells mp3 downloads called 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_11?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=100+supreme+classical+masterpieces&sprefix=100+supreme%2Caps%2C1201

---Fun artist and composer biographies by Mike Venezia

---Opal Wheeler's Composer biographies (Great Musicians Series reprinted by http://www.zeezok.com available also at Rainbow Resource)

[lexi]

Those are great ideas and good resources. Thanks for sharing!

[Angie in VA]

Check out responses to Katy's thread about music recommendations too. 

 

Lots of good stuff there.

[Desert Strawberry]

PPoetry, music and art are part of our lives. I haven't felt much need to have a scheduled study of anything. It's just what we do, kwim?

 

 Coming up, next year, we might do more focussed composer and artist studies, just because it sounds like fun and we will have room in our schedule.

 

Is there room in your schedule for something like this? Are you looking for specific art and music instruction, appreciation and history, or just exposure? Can you put some things together that sound like fun, possibly during a break from formal schooling, or in between to break things up a bit? Could you study works from a given period in history? I'm looking forward to talking about DaVinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael during our Renaissance study. We already covered Shakespeare, just a little (not much interest from my crew). Tying it in to history gives a bit of historical perspective and shows a bit of the evolution of the arts.

[IsabelC]

Poetry, music and art are part of our lives. I haven't felt much need to have a scheduled study of anything. It's just what we do, kwim?

 

Yes! If the kids see that everyone in the family enjoys these things, they will want to be part of it too. 

So we try to share things that we like or find interesting. My children will usually respond positively to something like "Hey, this Rachmaninov is great, I think you might like it too" but I seriously doubt that "Now it's time to study Music Appreciation" would ever instill a love of music in them. We also do a bit of strewing, such as leaving the James Mayhew Katie books around (these have been very popular and started quite a few rabbit trails on famous works of art). I usually sing with each child as part of their good night routine, but sometimes we'll recite poetry together instead. Pretty much anything to let the children experience fine arts without thinking it's "school".

[Hunter]

It was lack of art and music that put me over the edge to start using the ORIGINAL What Your Grader Needs to Know series again, despite it not being in eBook format. I just could NOT get myself together with art and music. I know it sounds stupid.

 

Art and music nourish. I elevate art and music even above academics in importance. If we are not mentally healthy and spiritually nourished we can't study and work. But no one ever really modeled art and music for me. Art and music were for the wealthy and talented and any attempts I made to enjoy and participate were met with scorn and mocking. I understand how critical these subjects are, but get overwhelmed trying to schedule them. I have a lot of baggage surrounding the subjects.

 

For ME, NtK works to get them done. I just supplement the topics one by one with WHATEVER is EASY to get at the local library. It might not be the best, but it's enjoyable and nourishing and balanced, and it gets DONE.

 

So, I'm not the only one who can go rogue with EVERYTHING but art and music. :lol:

[Meadowlark]

It was lack of art and music that put me over the edge to start using the ORIGINAL What Your Grader Needs to Know series again, despite it not being in eBook format. I just could NOT get myself together with art and music. I know it sounds stupid.

 

Art and music nourish. I elevate art and music even above academics in importance. If we are not mentally healthy and spiritually nourished we can't study and work. But no one ever really modeled art and music for me. Art and music were for the wealthy and talented and any attempts I made to enjoy and participate were met with scorn and mocking. I understand how critical these subjects are, but get overwhelmed trying to schedule them. I have a lot of baggage surrounding the subjects.

 

For ME, NtK works to get them done. I just supplement the topics one by one with WHATEVER is EASY to get at the local library. It might not be the best, but it's enjoyable and nourishing and balanced, and it gets DONE.

 

So, I'm not the only one who can go rogue with EVERYTHING but art and music. :lol:

What is NtK?

 

So I think part of my trouble with this is our family dynamic right now...5 little kids leaves little time for the "extras". But, I know this will not last forever and so I'm thinking a few years down the road. I'd rather have so etching in place and skip/tweak, than to have to hunt things down.

[NASDAQ]

NtK -- What your X Grader Needs to Know, from Core Knowledge

 

My kids do tons of music and they seem to be able to amuse themselves fun-wise, so I'm good with that.

[zenjenn]

No boxed here. In fact, the longer I homeschool (almost 5 years now), the more unschooling we get (with the exception of math - and for one of my kiddos, spelling.) I don't know if that's a function of my style changing or the fact that my kids are more mature and capable of (and interested in) learning independently. Probably both. 

 

But - I look to the community for enrichment. My children play with the city Youth Orchestra and have private music lessons (tip: if you have a university with a music program in your community, music education majors can make eager and EXCELLENT teachers for your young ones at a very fair price! I managed that for one of my kiddos.) I have an art degree so art is easily covered. For science, local hiking trails, Girl Scout badges, and FIRST LEGO League afforded my kids the best science education they could have hoped for. The local literary association runs an annual youth writing contest, kids did a candy structure engineering contest locally, and participated in university girls in Engineering day, etc etc etc.

 

Online resources are fantastic too. Khan Academy is a favorite here, DIY.org is a great inspiration for creative hands-on stuff, and for my budding programmer Scratch and Code Academy are also visited almost daily.

 

Of course my advice is founded on the principle of having pretty focused and self-driven kids and a community with a good library system, a state university, a science museum, all in easy driving distance.

[redsquirrel]

My kids take lessons in two instruments, the younger is in a youth choir and the elder is taking voice lessons. I think we have music covered, lol. They have exposure to lots of different types of music because their dad is in three bands. One is rock, one is traditional middle eastern music and the other... I don't actually know what it is, lol.

 

As for art, many family friends are artists of many talents. They have had drawing lessons from  their best friends' mom. She is an art teacher. Both boys are involved in the school of the local ballet company, and my older boy is in a youth theater company.

 

So, it's spotty I agree. There are holes. I don't cover much art history and I prob should do a more. But their lives are full of the arts.

 

And yes to local universities! I am lucky enough that one of the colleges in town has a well respected music school. My boys get lessons for their band instruments there for free. Not the piano lessons though, their piano teacher is a music professor so we have to pay him, lol. But the music school does provide the instruction for the children's choir as well. The choirs are led by professional directors, but they are assisted every year by student teachers. We grow quite attached to the students over the year and are always sad to see them move on.

 

 

[abba12]

I have very little interest in art history and music history, I remember seeing little purpose in it as a kid and still see little now, so it's never really made it on my radar the way some families do it here. having said that, my husband is an accomplished classical pianist who is knowledgeable about most of the music history names I hear, and I intend to do a little 'strewing' too, picking up maybe a book series on famous art or something down the track. we are fortunate to have family and friends who enjoy talking about this sort of thing too, so I think a lot will be picked up by osmosis and general interest.

 

now, practical music and art, that's a different story! my husband intends to teach our kids piano to a certain competence level, and we are always listening to music in our house from a huge range of styles and artists from the 60s right through to modern hits. they certainly never go a day without listening to something and with many musically inclined relatives there is plenty of opportunities. I make art a formal and priority subject. one of their aunts is an extremely talented artist. right now the goal is just creative expression but, if we follow through on my future plans as they stand now, I aim for each child to do a thorough overview course in art mediums, methods and styles during high (I found a great looking 3 year art course for high schoolers covering it all really well, it gives a basic overview of a huge range of techniques and a rather indepth focus on the major skill sets. in fact I hope to do it myself!) and I intend to require an indepth drawing course in the middle grades as I think drawing, like piano, is something good to have a basic grounding in because of it's versatility, the way it stands as a basic art allows a lot of skills to be learned which can translate to many other areas and as a life skill drawing is something useful to have.

 

for us, it's a matter of priorities. our core subjects look different to many families, art ranks higher than history for us, and I make time to schedule it in.

[Hunter]

What is NtK?

 

So I think part of my trouble with this is our family dynamic right now...5 little kids leaves little time for the "extras". But, I know this will not last forever and so I'm thinking a few years down the road. I'd rather have so etching in place and skip/tweak, than to have to hunt things down.

What Your _ Grader Needs to Know. The new series is better is you are just using the art and music. The old series is better if you are using the books as a complete curriculum.

 

The old series is best purchased at Thriftbooks.com as you can save on shipping. They are the sponge painted hardcovers from Doubleday; Grades 1-6. The paperbacks with the children on front are the new series and are preschool-6; beware that the new 6th grade is the last book published but does NOT finish the history cycle. The art and music is prettier and expanded, though.

 

I like that the old art and music are integrated into the other subjects. There isn't much there, really, but...I don't know. It gets me started. It gives me confidence, inspiration, direction, and a push. I honestly don't know why the series works so well for me. When I stand back and try to look at the books objectively, they certainly don't look like much. But when I USE them, everything just falls into place. It's a bit odd, really.

[Walking-Iris]

What Your _ Grader Needs to Know. The new series is better is you are just using the art and music. The old series is better if you are using the books as a complete curriculum.

 

The old series is best purchased at Thriftbooks.com as you can save on shipping. They are the sponge painted hardcovers from Doubleday; Grades 1-6. The paperbacks with the children on front are the new series and are preschool-6; beware that the new 6th grade is the last book published but does NOT finish the history cycle. The art and music is prettier and expanded, though.

 

I like that the old art and music are integrated into the other subjects. There isn't much there, really, but...I don't know. It gets me started. It gives me confidence, inspiration, direction, and a push. I honestly don't know why the series works so well for me. When I stand back and try to look at the books objectively, they certainly don't look like much. But when I USE them, everything just falls into place. It's a bit odd, really.

Your last paragraph. I know exactly what you're saying. I really do! 

 

There's a lot that I use other than those books, but I can't imagine not having them around. They don't look like anything, but they work. I'm not as concerned about the copyrights as you are, my set is a mix of old and new, but they still get the job done. Whatever job it is they are doing!

 

For the original question of art. I wouldn't worry about ages of kids. All 3 of my children do art together, same level. 

 

I like harmony fine arts for having a workable weekly schedule. We have had Friday set aside as art/nature study for some time. The rest of the week I just have various art books and material about. And we play music of some type daily. Read aloud and poetry happen daily. 

 

In my mind art and music are just a part of life. And can vary depending on a family's lifestyle. I don't consider them school subjects either, or even fun extras. They just are. They are a part of the human experience. 

[sagira]

We're taking a Charlotte Mason approach with Poetry, Art, and Music and we are thriving. The kids both memorize and recite poetry and for Art DH teaches them both appreciation and application. In Music the children are learning about the orchestra with a book called Story of the Orchestra. We're going slowly through it and watching a Youtube video online as well where they can hear the different instruments. Art and Music are integral to our curriculum. I just need to make time for actually teaching piano, which has gone to the wayside since Christmas! DS is still playing Christmas songs - ack!

[Lucy]

I'm pretty laid-back about art.  This year I have a book called "great American aritists" and we do one artist a week.  Google the artist, look at his/her art, talk briefly about his life and do an art project inspired by him.  At the same time, I pull up Pandora and we listen to music from the year/era.  (American gothic, listened to old jazz like Lois Armstrong - Watercolor artist, listened to Bob Marley)  It blends in well with our American history this year.  I try to find a guide book that matches our history.

[serendipitous journey]

We box the music and art.  :)   I'm using Harmony Fine Arts.  Poetry we do regularly too, my choice usually; and I try to have A. do some drawing assignment each day, pulling from Complete-A-Sketch, Draw Write Now, and Draw 50 ___ series. 

 

At lunch I set the boys down and pull up the HFA composer Youtube selection on my laptop. I usually replace her choice with something more interesting (live performance, this week it was BBC animated Magic Flute).  After the music's done we look at the artist selection and discuss, the littles take turns each day picking something to zoom in on.  Then I do the poetry reading. 

 

If we don't hit at lunch I try to do a "make up" session at "afternoon tea". 

 

ETA: I do the Artistic Pursuits projects & other HFA extras as we can, but don't fret it.