Navigating the homeschool world is wild. There are so many philosophies and pedagogues, and it can get overwhelming quickly. I am a teacher by trade, I have a masters degree in education and I have 6 years of classroom experience, so I wasn’t overly worried. I knew I could figure it out, and that my schooling would give me a leg up in this area, but I also didn’t realize how much fun it was to truly teach without rules. For the things we are required to teach, I follow a curriculum and stick to the assigned tasks, but for the fun stuff…we go all out. I have so much fun creating homeschool lessons that my kids love, and really taking their interests and just going for it. When we got our feet under us this year, I finally took the time to get creative and, the second semester of school has really blossomed into something fun. One of those fun things has been a homeschool art lesson, that includes a study of modern artists.
Why did you choose modern art?
We started learning about modern art because my kids love to craft. They go through more art supplies than a good portion of the kids their age. Its a hobby they have consistently enjoyed, and never complained about. So when learning was difficult, and they didn’t want to step out of their comfort zone, I said, “Scoot over I’m coming in!” So instead of trying to force them to learn about something else I played to their strengths. I knew I could add learning to their art creations and they would think it was really cool. Taking your child’s interest into account when you are homeschooling your kids is one of the best parts of homeschooling. You can learn about something simply because it interests your child.
I also have no knowledge of modern art. I was learning along side them, and when I can do that it sparks my creativity too. I don’t get as snippy with them with something doesn’t instantly click. I don’t have the knowledge or the skills to do these things, so we are all learning slowly together and that makes the adventure even more fun. I highly recommend trying to learn alongside your child so you can experience it together.
This idea also builds lots of skills. When we have a subject that the whole family can learn from it is great when it can address other skills too. My oldest (6) was learning about composition, shapes, colors, blending, and just practicing her art skills. My middle child (3) was learning how to hold a pencil, how to use scissors, how to use watercolors. They were completing the same project, but learning very different things from it. My youngest (9months) just really liked the stories and watching her sisters.
We also plan to turn this activity into a really fun opportunity to go and see some real life examples of this art. We are planning a trip to a museum that houses several pieces from the various artists we learned about and that really adds to the fun of the whole thing. Getting to actually go and see the art. It’s easier to find modern art vs the more formal and older stuff!
How did you do it?
With any subject I am teaching completely on my own I did some research. I wanted to find some artists who had easy artwork to understand. Things with subject matter they would recognize and could recreate with ease. Then I took that list and cross referenced it with our local library. I knew I didn’t want to purchase books about these artists, and I didn’t want to get screens involved. So I relied on my library to help provide some child appropriate information to present to them. This is the list of artists I started with:
- Claude Monet
- Henri Matisse
- Piet Mondarian
- Georgia O’Keffee
- Frida Kahlo
- Van Gogh
- Andy Warhol
- Jackson Pollock
- Picasso
From that list my library unfortunately had a limited selection of books. I searched around for some more options, but ultimately came up short. So my final list looked like this:
- Claude Monet
- Henri Matisse
- Georgia O’Keffee
- Van Gogh
- Jackson Pollock
After we got our list of artists and we figured out which books we would be using we got to work planning out what art we wanted to recreate. For Claude Monet we did water lilies and a field of poppies. For Jackson Pollock we did platter art! For Georgia O’Keffee we did big flowers with oil pastels. For Henri Matisse we used scissors to make cool creations, and so on. I wanted to keep everything short and sweet so we didn’t get bogged down by creating something completely out of our depth. I knew the girls would struggle with anything overly detailed or difficult, so we used broad interpretations to make out projects. Then we decided we would do this every thursday alongside our tea time!
Then I planned our art supplies around the artists we picked. We have a big collection of art supplies for our kids, so we didn’t need much, but I wanted to throw in some new things too. We decided to try out oil pastels, painting on canvas, and using different type of paint for our projects. The girls really enjoyed learning about a new type of art medium and it helped grow our art supplies.
What do I want my kids to learn from this homeschool lesson?
I focused on my kids learning about the artist and what they were known for. My kids know that Claude Monet liked to paint from his boat, and would paint various times of day in his paintings. They know that Jackson Pollock was a free thinker and famous for abstract art. They know that most of these artists suffer from illness and had a rough upbringing. I wanted them to have a general understanding of the artist, what they painted, and then I wanted them to analyze the different pieces. We would look at a variety of art from each author and then talk about we thought it meant. How it made us feel. If we liked it or not. We would also point out colors and different things we noticed in each piece of art.
Ultimately, the girls loved this activity and to extend the project we are going to plan a trip to go see the artists work in person, this summer. Then we are going to hold an art show for our family to come and see their work and talk about what they learned. One thing I want to attempt to recreate from traditional schooling is that I want my kids to be able to have events for family to come and be proud of them at. Art shows, school plays, presentations, and performances are really fun for a kid, and although different in homeschooling, can still be a fun opportunity to share your learning with your family.
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