Impressed by Impressions of Impressionism
February 16, 2010 by Kristina
This is one fun project that I did with a group of boys, last year, to present at an art show in our town. The first thing I had the students do was a lesson from one of my personal favorites: Drawing Textbook, by Bruce McIntyre. It doesn’t look like much on the surface yet it packs a mighty punch of information that you and your family can use from age six to adult.
You can read more about it here: http://www.avdp.com
I then reviewed the Seven Laws of Perspective. This is what I taught, in a nutshell:
- Surface ~ things that are closer to the eye are drawn closer to the bottom of the picture
- Size ~ things that are nearer to the eye should be drawn larger
- Surface lines ~ these lines wrap around the object you are drawing to give it three dimensions
- Overlapping ~ things that are closer to the eye overlap the further parts
- Shading ~ this is used to give volume to the object that you draw
- Density ~ things that are closer to the eye are drawn with more detail than things farther away
- Foreshortening ~ the whole object is foreshortened, to give proper dimension
I have found that students really like the fact that there are rules to art and once you learn them, you get to have fun “breaking” them! We often know what looks good to our “untrained” eye, but not why certain things work for us and others do not. The Seven Laws of Perspective lend a lot to helping a person appreciate a particular piece of art or not.
The lesson for this particular day centres around Impressionism, using acrylic paint on paper.
What you hope to achieve: students will attempt to create an Impressionist painting following the directions given from the DickBlick lesson plan. You can find a ton of lesson plans at the site: www.dickblick.com or go here, specifically: http://www.dickblick.com/lessonplans
Think of this project like pixel-izing the image, in a way, breaking the image down into pieces that come together to create the whole.
Webster’s Dictionary defines a pixel as “a discrete element that together constitutes an image”.
Small brush strokes make us think of Seurat. More like pointillism, with very fine strokes. Large brush strokes imitate Van Gogh. Larger brush strokes are also very visible, individually, but together create a full picture.
What you need:
- Paper to paint on
- Brushes
- Water to clean brushes
- Paper towel to dry brushes
- Acrylic paint in the following colours (or whatever colours you have handy), if I am going to go technical on you:
- Marseilles Yellow (put on your best fake French accent to say that one)
- Scarlet Red
- Lapis Blue
- Olivine Green
- Mummy Brown
- Ivory White
Now, I’ll let you in on a simple secret … I went to the Dollar Store, here in my small town, and picked up dollar acrylic paint. Easy.
You can choose to mix colors, copying what is shown in the sample, or actually buy paints in the colors you want to have in your finished painting. We also liked the idea of having our work framed so I bought cheap canvas boards to paint on, also at the local Dollar Store. You can paint on cardboard, painted white first, if you want something more stiff than paper. Get creative! Just because I suggest you go out and purchase paint does not mean you have to!
The biggest challenge is in the brush strokes you must use. All your strokes must be vertical and on the small side. Paint the flowers first, entirely in yellow. To apply the paint, all you have to do is touch the brush to the canvas or paper, laying down the bristles of your brush, then pick the brush up again. The paint should be fairly heavily applied in order to imitate the impressionist brush strokes.
You also need to continue painting wet. Don’t let the layers of your flowers dry out in between colours. After the yellow petals have been painted, use the orange that you either mixed (yellow and red) or bought. Leave some areas of the flower solid yellow.
- Then add the red, leaving some spots solid yellow and some spots solid orange.
- The leaves are formed first in yellow, then greens.
- Water is a combination of blue and white. Use the white paint to “highlight” certain areas, mimicking light.
- Shading is done by using brown mixed with blue.
Hope you are equally impressed!
Kristina is a happily married wife in her eleventh year of homeschooling the flybytheseatofyourpants method. So far her two boys seem intelligible and relatively unscathed. She is an intern Educational Therapist with NILD and in her spare time loves to scrapbook, paint, make linoprints and write novel study guides. In your spare time, check out her blog On Fire at: www.kristinacamp.blogspot.com
Five Simple Ways to Add Art Appreciation into Your Homeschool Routine
November 24, 2009 by Jimmie
1. Get an art calendar and hang it in your home. Make a point to spend time at least once a month discussing what you see in the artwork. Each month you will have a new reminder and a new art print.
2. Take a field trip to an art museum, an art gallery, or even an artist’s studio. Remember that visual art includes pottery, sculpting, drawing, architecture, and printmaking. Don’t limit yourself to paintings. Look in your yellow pages to see what options you have locally.
3. Choose a favorite children’s book illustrator. Look through as many of his books as possible. Have your child talk about what makes his style unique. (It may be helpful to compare or contrast his work with another illustrator). Then let your child copy his style as he illustrates his own story.
4. Find art that matches the period of history you’re studying. Look for paintings that reflect the historical events in your curriculum, for example art of the American Revolution.
5. Stop and appreciate art when you see it no matter where you are. Is there a unique sculpture at the community center? Is there a reproduction of a famous painting hanging in the mall? Take time to pause and discuss it with your children. For discussion starters, try this PDF.
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
Encourage Your Children to Express their Creative Side
Oh how I love art and crafting. Although all my kids have their own favorite activities, I am a watercolor fan. I truly wish I had a bit more time to develop my drawing and painting skills. When I lived up north I would take the littletons to art museums often. The true beginning of this activity began for me the first time I was taken to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This is my most fond museum memory, and will likely always be my favorite museum for that reason. However, living close to the city, I had the ability to visit museums often. There are so many in and outside of NYC. As I grew into adulthood and moved to the Ohio Valley, I found respite in the resources in Pittsburgh, Pa. You could have found me, pushing a stroller, nursing a babe, and talking about what we were seeing; always a marvel to me.
Here in southwest Florida, there is not much museum hopping to be had. Certainly nothing as what I had been accustomed to. I have been to several museums, but it seemed that as the littletons grew to be eldertons, they did not have the same interest and thus time took hold. Imagine my surprise when a littleton told me the other day that she was going to have her art displayed in a museum one day. It wasn’t astonishing that she wanted to showcase her art, but that at four, she even knew museums existed. She has not been taken to a traditional museum yet and we don’t discuss them…at least that I can recall. At any rate, you can tell she is the most art oriented of the group.
Although she comes up with the most amazing ideas on her own, left to a room filled with art supplies this girl will astound you with her creativity and vision, I often research a wide variety of art ideas with an even wider variety of mediums. I have wanted to share this wonderful site, but today is the day I introduce it. I have been pondering through this site for the last several weeks and am truly finding so much held within, that a mere post cannot possibly encompass all it has to offer.
Often times art is left behind in our homeschool world. We want to teach it, but for a variety of reasons, such as inadequacy or time limitations, we push it to the side. The thought process that is involved in creating is intricate and beneficial to other functions of the brain. Creative thinking strengthens other areas of thinking such as logic. Creativity is like exercise for the brain. So don’t worry about teaching a specific art. Instead encourage your children to create anything and everything. Don’t limit your children with your thoughts of what art is. Let your children guide you. Creating with Knex, is art. Drawing with chalk on the sidewalk is art. Turning a box into a robot is art. Painting rocks is art. Change your thought of art as an extracurricular activity to one that views art as an integral part of brain development.
Now, I know art projects can be expensive. Mom can also become overwhelmed with the idea of coming up with projects. However, I want to share this GREAT page on frugal and recycled craft ideas. You can find that page by clicking here. While the page will likely give you a lot of ideas for your home art, I recommend you bookmark the site (Creativity Portal) and spend time when permitted perusing all it has to offer. This isn’t just for kids! So encourage all your children to express their creative side. Creativity Portal will help you along the way.
Leslie Valeska is the wife of Thomas and homeschooling mother of four children who reside in SW Florida. Her family operates Fresh Gear Solutions, LLC and enjoys RVing. She is the founder and director of Simple Journey Ministries which was established to encourage, inspire, and support women on their journey to Godly womanhood. Leslie is also employed as a vintage seamstress by Vintage Vixen.
Fall Into This Idea for Art (Part 1)
November 18, 2009 by Kristina
Fall is one of the most perfect seasons as far as I am concerned; I only wish it lasted longer. I love to breathe in the scent of warm soil, slowly decaying leaves, and the myriad of spices begging to be added to purees of pumpkin, squash or apple. How can one spend any amount of time outside and not be inspired to at least attempt some form of art, be it painting, photography or poetry?
When my husband and I taught art lessons, one of our ideas came from all those vegetable displays that are so rampant at this time of year. What a wonderful way to glorify God by portraying or replicating His creation. This is, artistically speaking, the hardest art form for me, so if you also discover that watercolour painting is harder than you first thought, don’t get discouraged. Practice makes perfect, so they say. In any case, you will be trying something new and exposing yourself to new avenues of expression. I hope you will enjoy both the fruits of your labour and the “fruits” of the season, afterward!
What you need: ( some of these materials will not be used until Part 2 )
Watercolour paper, watercolours, water for rinsing brushes, paper towel to blot with, brushes, assorted seasonal gourds, fruits and vegetables, salt (preferable coarse salt), plastic wrap, sponge, pencil, tape, imagination
While watercolour paper is, obviously, ideal, you can experiment with different sorts of papers, keeping in mind that watercolour paper will allow for the best absorption of the colour. If you do not have a watercolour set (no, you do not need to run out and purchase the most expensive tubes of watercolour paints. The “cheap” dollar store watercolour paint sets are perfectly fine for playing with colour)
If you can find a copy of a watercolour for beginners type book at the library, check it out! My personal favourite is: Watercolour for Absolute Beginners, by Bill Whitsett.
What you do:
Ask your child(ren) some questions about watercolour painting, like:
Q. What supplies do you think we need to paint with watercolour?
Q. What kind of brush do we need if we want to paint details?
A. small, thin, round brushes that can hold a point
Q. What kind of brush do we want for painting with watercolour, in general?
A. large round brush
Q. What if we want to paint a large area, like the sky?
A. a flat brush, about 1 inch, for large areas
Q. What are warm and cool colours?
A. Warm colours are yellows and reds. Cool colours are blues and greys.
Q. Why do we need water containers?
A. We need two water containers, one for rinsing and cleaning paint colour from the brush, and one for getting clean water on the brush. This way, our colours don’t end up looking like mud!
Try this:
Paint a picture using only one colour, (monochromatic), but experiment with shading, making some parts of the image darker than others. Things that are in the foreground should be shaded more than those in the background.
Put some watercolour on a small section of paper, perhaps cutting the paper into a 3×5 card, making sure that it is wet enough for salt to be absorbed into the paint, but not so wet that the salt alters the paper. Sprinkle the coarse salt (you can try table salt, but often the result is less than impressive) over the paper. This is an example:
Try sponging on paint, then try painting, but using the sponge to remove some of the paint, trying to allow the sponge to leave a mark in the paint, as only a sponge can do.
Put some watercolour paint on another small card of watercolour paper, then press down on the paper with plastic wrap. Do not smooth the plastic wrap out as though you are coving a dish before putting it in the fridge. Leave it wrinkled and smushed up (is smushed a word?). leave it on for quite a while, “forgetting” about it for a few hours usually ensures a great result! Here is my husband’s example:
Try other ideas you come up with, as a family, and make predictions about what the results might be. Next article I will talk about painting fruits and vegetables. In the mean time, set up a display of one to three fruits or vegetables and begin making a rough sketch of them. You can practice adding shading and depth if you like, thinking about the 7 laws of perspective, but save one sketch that is mainly the outlines, like this:
Kristina is a happily married wife in her eleventh year of homeschooling the flybytheseatofyourpants method. So far her two boys seem intelligible and relatively unscathed. She is an intern Educational Therapist with NILD and in her spare time loves to scrapbook, paint, make linoprints and write novel study guides. In your spare time, check out her blog On Fire at: www.kristinacamp.blogspot.com
Music Window
October 29, 2009 by Rhodema
Have you ever wanted a window into your teenager’s heart? Try listening to music–their music.
Being raised in the 70’s, I remember the music battles. Most parents from my generation said at least ten times a week, “Turn that racket down!” I decided to take a different approach with my young adults.
Often, when we hop in the car, I ask my kids to pick the music. I can’t say I always enjoy their choices, but it is enlightening. What a person chooses to listen to is so many times a reflection of their thoughts and emotions.
Sometimes it’s the beat they love and, at other times, they are drawn to the lyrics. I keep my opinion and criticism to myself as I offer instead, my standard question, “What do you like about this song?” The most tight-lipped teen usually opens up, and what you hear from him or her, is very revealing.
If I am cautious to do more listening than speaking, I learn what my kids think about God, His message, and their responsibility as part of God’s mission to the world. We have some of our best theological discussions at these times.
What if I find a moral objection to my teenager’s choice of vocal artist or the words of a song? My question instead might be, “What do you know about the singer?” or perhaps, “What worldview comes through the song?”
If you feel clueless about some of their music selections, you can check them out at Focus on the Family’s popular entertainment review page: http://www.pluggedin.com/en/music.aspxhttp://.
One of the most important benefits to sharing music is seeing my kids smile and say, “Thanks for listening to my music.” As they are growing into individual adults with their own tastes, respect for their choices strengthens our relationship.
I think it is worth forgoing the music war to gain the music window.
Rhodema lives the parenting adventure with Calvin, her college sweetheart. They have two adult daughters and two teenagers still at home, a girl and a boy. Their homeschool style is eclectic with a great love of living history books. Rhodema teaches women’s Bible studies and is a MOPS speaker. Her blog for moms is Herding Worms.
Fun with Photography Featuring Lightroom 2
Fun with Photography Featuring Lightroom 2: Adjustment Brushes and Basic Sliders
[Refer to this post for information about Adobe Lightroom 2 software and to apply for the academic discount you qualify for as a homeschooler.]
To download this article with step-by-step photo instructions, click here.
Are you having fun with Lightroom yet? This time weʼre going to talk about the adjustment brushes and Basic sliders, which can be found at the top right column when youʼre in the development Module (press D on your keyboard, and make sure the word “Develop” is highlighted on the bar showing the five modules.)
Before you do anything else, go straight to Matt Kloskowskiʼs Lightroom Killer Tips blog and download this set of adjustment brushes, which will give you four more brushes: brightening/whitening teeth, whiten eyes, red lips, and iris enhance. Follow his installation instructions carefully and be sure to restart Lightroom when youʼre finished.
Iʼm going to take a photo of my daughter and show how you can use those brushes and
sliders. First, weʼll start with the original.
It has potential, but can easily be improved with some minor tweaks. Remember, you must be in the Develop Module to edit the photo. Look at the panel on the right and access the adjustment brush by clicking on its icon (circled in white).
To download this article with further step-by-step photo instructions, click here.
First we’ll use the Brighten/Whiten Teeth brush. Click the arrows in the middle column, to the right of “Effect,” to open the drop-down menu. Make your brush the right size (big enough to cover the teeth, but not the lips) and start painting on this effect. You can change the size of your brush either via the brush size slider or by scrolling with the wheel on top of your mouse. You can move the Exposure or Brightness sliders to adjust the whiteness of the teeth, just be careful not to make it look fake. I used the skin softening brush over the bruise on her forehead and the scratch on her arm (kids always have some sort of bruise or scratch).
Next, I clicked “New” and then selected the Brighten Eyes brush to lighten the whites of her eyes. There will be little dots on the picture representing each brush; if you mouse over them, you’ll see where that brush was used (this shows the skin softening brush). If you decide to edit one of the brushes—say I want to make her teeth whiter—just click the dot for that brush and you can adjust the sliders on the right again.
We’ve edited the photo, but it still looks a little blah, so last, but not least, I’m going to make some tweaks to the Basic sliders. I think they’ll really make the picture pop. We want to make sure the adjustment brush dialogue is closed and that we’re editing the picture as a whole, and tweaking the sliders for one of the brushes. Click the adjustment brush icon to close it. You’ll know that it’s closed when it looks like this, with the Basic tab underneath (which may or may not be open, depending on whether the triangle next to it’s name has been clicked).
These next adjustments are very simple, but make a world of difference in our final image. To lighten and brighten the photo, I’ll drag the Exposure slider to the right until it reads +1.00 (default is 0.00). To keep from washing it out too much, we’ll drag the Blacks slider slightly to the right. I set it at +2.00. Then I nudged the Fill Light over to 18 to add some more light to her face and on her eyes. Really, you can just nudge those sliders around to your heart’s content until you get the effect you want.
Finally, we’ll “frame” the photo by adding vignetting around the edges. Go to the bottom of the Develop settings on the right until you get to the Vignettes. I drug the Amount slider to the left until it said -29.
Once you start playing with those brushes and sliders, you’ll become more familiar with what they do and see how easy it is to tweak your photos. Happy editing!
Questions? Comments? Feedback? Suggestions for future columns? Email me at dawn@heartofthemattermagazine.com
Recommended Resources:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby
(http://www.kelbytraining.com/product/adobe-photoshop-lightroom-20-book-fordigital-
photographers.html)
Dawn has been homeschooling her eight children–ages pre-K to college–since 1993. Her interests include photography, and both graphic and web design. She is the owner of Barefoot Blog Designs, and also blogs at My Home Sweet Home, her photoblog and The Homeschool Post.
Hearing Music in Nature
September 22, 2009 by Brenda
What’s your favorite sound from nature?
When I lead my children outdoors to observe nature, my attitude towards the outdoors can be contagious. If I stop suddenly to notice a lone flower or a quirky bird song, my children soon become nature-loving private eyes. Their excitement and curiosity can easily come from my leadership. Sometimes, they even beat me to it and I become infected with the beauty of the nature around me.
Just the other day we were outside and we heard the peckity-peck-peck of a woodpecker. It was like a tom-tom drumming to its own beat. It occurred to me to talk about the sounds of nature that our great composer created for us.
Genesis 1: 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
I want to take some time looking for and listening to the music of nature with my children. I’ve made a list inside my nature journal so I do not forget to listen for the music:
- crunching leaves
- buzzing of bees
- water rushing through a stream
- ocean waves
- grasshoppers
- thunder
- owls hooting
- croaking frogs
- seagulls
- fire crackling
- ducks quacking
- rain falling
- wind blowing leaves
- morning doves
Brenda is a homeschooling mother of 5, who has a wonderful husband encouraging her to be the best woman that God has created her to be. Together they are very intentional about spending time together as a family. She considers her daily life with her children as her ministry and has found many avenues to encourage others to live a lifestyle of learning. She is the founder of an online homeschool community, Our Lifestyle of Learning and a curriculum review site authored by a group of well-known homeschool bloggers, Curriculum Choice. She blogs about their homeschool journey and family traditions at Tie That Binds Us.
Listening with Purpose, Part II
September 11, 2009 by Christine
“Mom, I don’t like this song!” my 6-year-old shouts from the back seat of the van.
“Why not?” I answer.
“Because it makes me feel sad, like I’m at a friend’s house and I have to leave,” comes the reply.
Music has such power– power over our emotions, our ability to focus (for good or bad), and our energy level. The song my daughter didn’t like had a soulful oboe solo, a gently wailing melody in a minor key that had a hint of sadness in it. She heard, responded, and decided that she didn’t like how it made her feel. Children intuitively sense differences in music, even small ones, and though they don’t know the terminology, they need to be given the opportunity to express their feelings as they listen.
In this part of the Listening with Purpose series (the first of which can be found here) we will focus on the styles of classical music and how to incorporate them into your homeschool.
This will not be a post of details. I’ll throw in a little history here and there to tie it all together, but for the most part, beyond introductions to specific aspects of classical music, we’ll look at ways to gently, and without much fuss, sneak in some extra-musical flair to your homeschool week. Non-musicians often let intimidation get in the way of some beautiful additions to their week, and it doesn’t have to be that way.
The word “style” in classical music is rather vague. It can apply to time periods in history and the music that was written within them; the area of the world in which the music originated; sub-categories within a specific genre (like vocal music); or even the way the instruments articulate their parts. For the purpose of this post, I will be focusing on time periods and the characteristics that shape the classical music of those times. We have great opportunities as homeschoolers to shape the aural environment in our homes in order to match what we are studying in other parts of our learning experience.
Classical music from 1400 AD falls into these basic historical periods. They overlap in some cases so the years listed are not completely firm:
• Renaissance: 1400-1600AD (with music from Palestrina, Victoria, and Gabrieli)
• Baroque: 1600-1750 (think Bach, Vivaldi and Handel)
• Classical: 1750- ca. 1840 (Mozart is king here, but Haydn and a couple of others are in the mix too)
• Romantic: ca. 1840-1930 (luscious stuff by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Berlioz, for example)
• Contemporary: ca. 1930- present (this music can get very academic and sometimes weird, but there are many gems here by the likes of Stravinsky, Glass and others. It’s actually my favorite time period.)
First and foremost, we need to hear music, really listen to it with an uncritical ear, to even form an opinion about it. Children are blank slates when it comes to the arts, and have no preconceived notions about what “should” be. Music that they’ve heard before becomes theirs quickly, so that when they hear the same piece as background for a commercial, in an elevator, or at a concert they have a sense of ownership.
The same thing can happen with history, literature and art when it is tied to music of the period you are studying. Doesn’t music “bring you back” to certain times of your life, whether it is high school, band camp, or a wedding you attended? We can bring learning to life when we make a small effort to provide music as the glue in our lessons.
Here are a handful of ideas to take this enormous span of music and narrow it to suit a normal day-in-the-life of a typical homeschooler:
- During reading time, play some Palestrina choral music, such as this CD. Palestrina has an ethereal and calming quality that fits perfectly in down times. We have been known to have “Palestrina parties” (my husband’s invention) when all of the kids have to conduct what they hear. Of course, for them it simply means waving their arms to the beat and the shape of the music.
- While flipping through a book of art by Monet, Degas, Renoir or Cassatt, play Debussy, who wrote music in the impressionistic style that paralleled the same movement in the art world.
- During the Christmas season, while decorating the tree or wrapping presents, play some Giovanni Gabrieli brass music or Handel’s Messiah. The story behind the Messiah is an inspiring one.
- While learning about kings and queens of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, listen to Handel’s Water Music and Fire Music suites. If you’re feeling up to it, learn some Baroque Dance moves.
- Watch Fantasia with your children. The music from the video includes Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, and Dukas.
- While learning about Napoleon and his time, listen to Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. Beethoven wrote it as a tribute to Napoleon, but then rescinded that dedication when Napoleon betrayed the people. Check out this book from the library.
- Listen to the entire Mozart Requiem and have your children come up with 5 adjectives for each movement. The movements are so diverse and beg for discussion. The story behind the Requiem is fascinating as well, as it was unfinished at Mozart’s death. Mystery, intrigue, illness all figure in to the end of Mozart’s life.
- Many pieces have a specific story that they illustrate (think “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in Fantasia) or a something that they represent. Listen to “Peter and the Wolf” by Prokofiev, Saint Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals”, or Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition. Get a book on the subject to look through and then have the kids draw or write about what they are hearing.
- Mike Venezia’s books on composer’s are favorites in our home. They give interesting and easily readable life stories of many of the well-known composers I have mentioned. They are cheap too!
- Have fun at this website trying to put the composers in their time periods once you’ve explored some of their music in the activities above.
Music need not be a difficult “Do I have to??” addition to your homeschool. Five to ten minutes of planning and web surfing per week could allow you one great lesson. Or, better yet, let the music speak for itself as you play it around the house or in the car. Make the choice to include it, and you and your children will be blessed.
Christine is a Christian, homeschooling mom to three boys and a girl, ranging in age from 9 to 2 years old. She is a musician by trade, eclectic in homeschool style, and continues to grow and learn along with her children in this journey of life and discipleship at home. Visit her blog at Fruit in Season.
Art Museum Scavenger Hunt
September 6, 2009 by Christine
There is something magical about a child’s first up-close-and-personal experience with fine art. The richness of the subject matter, the variety of styles, genres and time periods, the range of emotions and colors, all combine to make lasting memories and mental pictures that will influence our children’s perception of art for their entire lives.
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
I myself remember each time I have been to a new art museum – from the Rijksmuseum in Holland, to the Children’s Book Illustrator exhibit on our trip to Maine – and each experience has filled me with a sense of beauty that can’t be replaced. No child is too young to take part in the expressions of beauty displayed in your local art museum.
Of course, without proper focus and direction, children can become overwhelmed and come away with nothing specific for their memory to retain. That is why, as with anything else in our homeschooling adventure, it is our job to prepare them for the journey with a well-planned “prelude” of expectations, questions and guidelines for looking at, and seeing, what is before them. Some museums have children’s activities and exhibits to start them off, but don’t be afraid to bring them to see the regular exhibits as well. Giving them specific concepts, subjects, and styles to look for will make for an exciting hour or two lost in the world of art! The anticipation is killing me, so let’s get started!
Here is a list of just a handful of ideas for the search:
- a portrait of a child
- a traditional still life (like this one or this one)
- a cubist still life such as this one
- a painting made only with dots (pointillism)
- a painting primarily in warm colors
- a painting primarily in cool colors
- a painting primarily in black and white
- a sculpture made of metal
- a painting with lots of shadows (such as this one. The term for this kind of painting is chiaroscuro meaning “bright-dark”)
- a painting of a celebration
- a sculpture of an animal
- a painting using mostly geometric shapes
- an impressionist painting (in the style of Monet)
- a painting using thick globs of paint
- a painting with a feeling of sadness
- a painting of a battle
- a painting or sculture using symbols (such as an olive branch, dove, etc.)
- a sculpture that is broken
- a landscape with people only included in the background, or not at all
- a portrait that looks almost like a photograph
- a portrait that is completely unrealistic
- a piece of art that doesn’t seem to you like a piece of art
- a painting of a specific place (Paris, London, George Washington crossing the Delaware, etc.)
- a painting with a lot of your favorite color in it
- a painting of a snow scene
- a painting of Mary and Jesus (there are so many styles to find with the Holy Family as subject that a lot of discussion can take place about what is different and the same- expressions, use of light, shape of face, colors, etc.)
Download this list to print and use on your next scavenger hunt.
I could go on forever! Use this list as a jumping off point for your scavenger hunt and adjust it according to the ages of your children. Have the older ones choose two to compare and contrast, or choose a style that they particularly like and write a report. Younger ones can simply find a picture in an art book and recreate it with art supplies. If you are not near an art museum have the children search in a large coffee table book on art from your local library.
The sky is the limit and the possibilities for discovery are endless! I hope you enjoy taking your family on this search-and-find mission!
Christine is a Christian, homeschooling mom to three boys and a girl, ranging in age from 9 to 2 years old. She is a musician by trade, eclectic in homeschool style, and continues to grow and learn along with her children in this journey of life and discipleship at home. Visit her blog at Fruit in Season.
