Friday is the day we do art and our artist studies in our home. Since I have art and artists on my mind today I thought I would write about just how we do those things in our homeschool.

I know when I first started using AmblesideOnline that I had a really hard time trying to figure out what it was I was supposed to be doing with these artist's print we were supposed to be "studying. There were suggestions to have the children copying the painting they were studying but I knew that would be frustrating for my little ones so we didn’t even attempt that.

Artist Study in the Folden Home

I generally like to be at least a term behind the regular Ambleside list when it comes to things like artist study because the people there are SO very helpful and they share all of the links and information that they find. Being at least a term behind gives me the chance to compile all the information that is shared on the group which means it’s much more likely to be used.

There are 6 prints for each 12 week term which means we’ll study one print every two weeks. The first Friday I get the print out and show it to the children. We talk about it – what’s the story behind the print? What colors are used? What do you notice first? How does it make you feel? Is it realistic or more of an impression? Etc.

I also save the prints to my computer. Each term I make a screensaver out of the 6 prints we are studying that term and every two weeks I set the specific print we are doing as my desktop wallpaper. Our computer is in our classroom/library so the children are exposed to the artist’s works often.

The second Friday we get the print out again and if this is the first print for that particular artist we go over a very brief biography of the artist. I usually try to come up with some fun way of dealing with the print this second time but I’m not always very creative. Sometimes we play Guess the Title, sometimes we look at the print closely for 3 minutes then I put it where only I can see it and ask the children to name everything they can remember about the painting. Sometimes we just discuss WHY we think the artist painted this particular painting or WHY he may have painted it the way he did.

Art in the Folden Home

My daughter is a very creative person and loves to do art projects. She decided she wanted to do an art curriculum that would help her to be a better artist. We chose Lamb’s Book of Art which we are doing together as a family. My son, who isn’t as into art, isn’t wild about it but he suffers through it anyway. This book has also helped us to be able to discuss things like color and why an artist would choose to use certain colors in his work.

Expanding our Art Study

I have occasionally asked the children to illustrate something from a book they are reading. I don’t do it on a regular basis but they enjoy doing it occasionally, especially when they are permitted to chose the scene they illustrate. Next year I am planning to ask for one illustration a week from my daughter but still will only do it occassionally with my son until he is a little older.

I also plan to do more Art History with my daughter next year.

That’s the plan…we’ll see.