I hear from a lot of people that teaching art and music appreciation intimidates them. I try to explain that it really is not a big deal, because if you could see how I personally go about doing that in our home I am positive you would boldly say that it wasn’t as difficult as it sounded, and you could do that too! Really! I just follow some simple rules, and it is totally manageable even in a busy household.
Rule #1 – It should take minimal preparation on my part.
Like the rest of you I have very limited time. I have 5 kids, from a busy 18-month old, to a 12 year old, a large property that requires much care, dairy goats, a husband who wants lots of kisses (hmm…looks like hubby edited this when I wasn’t looking), chickens, a breeding Yorkshire Terrier, besides all the normal household duties of a mother. I am sure you are busy as well with your own life, and when we talk about introducing something new it needs to be simple.
Rule #2 – Enthusiasm is key.
Remember the “shining eyes” from the last posts? If you want your children’s eyes to be shining, your eyes need to be shining. Learning is fun and exciting, new and interesting and I try to make sure that the kids believe that I believe what I am bringing to them is something really worth their attention.
Rule #3 – I need a plan.
I need to have a systematic, ordered way of presenting material to the children, or I just won’t get around to it. Along with Classical Conversations, I use the Ambleside Online curriculum. Every year they have a list of suggested composers and their pieces, artists and their works to study. This is the list I use.
Rule #4 – There are no more rules allowed. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of how we get this done!
Some people like to use the SQUILT (Sit Quietly and Listen) worksheets. For me that’s too much trouble (plus I break out in a cold sweat when someone mentions worksheets), so we simply listen and then talk about what we thought of the piece at the end: what we liked, what drifted into our mind’s eye while we listened, what type of instruments were used or how it compared to other pieces we have heard before.
Having this type of familiarity with the music makes it really fun for the kids when we are listening to the local classical station and “their” song comes on the radio. You should see their eyes light up when they recognize a song. Granted, this is the goal, but it doesn’t always happen and that is okay too.
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| Looking at the Louvre Up Close (a library book) |
When the kids were younger I used books like the Come Look With Me series. These are wonderful at guiding you in how to look at the pictures with your children and what type of questions to ask. We also like Lucy Micklethwait’s books. The I Spy series is especially fun for the younger kids.
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| Come Look With Me: Enjoying Art with Children |
*Note: I always preview art books before I give them to the kids because while some people may believe nude art is appropriate for children, we do not. Our kids understand the importance of modesty, and even though I have tried to explain to them how many people consider nudity to be okay when it is in “art” form, they don’t understand that reasoning, and I am not about to cause them to stumble by forcing them to look at it. I totally understand that some people see it differently, but that’s something for you to work out in your own family. From my experience though, most kids can’t handle it. They will either laugh and giggle or be embarrassed, so I choose just not to go there.
Looking at art in random art books is certainly beneficial, especially with the younger ones, but I have found it immensely helpful to focus on one artist per term to really become familiar with that artist and his style.
So, again, as with music, I default to Ambleside’s list of artists every year. There is a yahoo group you can join to get the files in PDF form. I send PDFs of the pictures to an office store to have them printed on card stock for about 80 cents a page. In the beginning we were just looking at them on the computer, but I find the kids engage better when they can hold the art in their hands to look at it. If it is too much trouble for you to get them printed then just look at them on your computer! It is also helpful to set that term’s pictures as your screen saver on your computer.
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| Term 1 – Renoir |
Once or twice a week I will pull out the pictures. When I first introduce the artist I will lay all the pictures out on the floor so we can look at them all at once and make comparisons. I may also look up a few facts on Wikipedia about that particular artist, but it would take no more than 5 minutes. Then for the rest of the 12-weeks we will look at one piece per week and really study it. I will pull out one picture, tell the children the name of the painting and when it was painted, and then ask them to each look at it individually and tell me one thing they noticed in the painting that they think other people might not notice. They really have fun with that and will point out things like the woman’s funny hat in Les Grands Boulevards or the boat in the background in The Two Sisters, On the Terrace. Finding the little details like that really helps them take ownership of the painting and encourages them to really study the details.
Another time I may ask them how they think the artist was able to achieve the effect of light dancing on the water or what type of brush strokes they used to paint the trees the way they did. I really just ask whatever questions come to mind, but this is not about a lesson or quiz on my part. I really just want to help them learn to observe and pay attention to the details.
As the kids are getting older and I am learning more about worldview and art history through reading Saving Leonardo by Nancey Pearcey (highly recomended!) I may talk to them a little bit about why the artist painted the way they did and what else was going on during that time period in history. If you don’t know, don’t worry about it. Just try to think of some other things that were happening during that period from your own home-school studies.
Again, like with music, at the end of the term I would like the kids to be able to know the name of the painting and the artist and a general time period when they painted at the end of the term. I will flip through the paintings like flash cards and they shout out the names, trying to be the first one. It seems like it may be a bit of a stretch to remember the names in French or Dutch, but my kids think it is fun to try to pronounce some of the funny words like Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede, and they will try to race each other to see who can say it the fastest.
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The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede 1670 Ruisdael
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*A word about art museums: While art museums can be very beneficial to enhance your studies, I want to be very careful that I do not burn the kids out on them. Therefore, when we went to the Philly Art Museum to see Rembrandt a couple years ago, we only saw the Rembrandt exhibit and did not tour the rest of the building as much as I was tempted to maximize our time there. Charlotte Mason was really on to something when she emphasized short lessons. You want to leave the kids wanting more. My guys also enjoy the smaller museums like the charming Brandywine River Arts Museum. We purchased a membership here one year and the kids found it quite delightful. They say their legs get weary at the big museums, and the smaller museums are less overwhelming.
Now you can choose to fit this in any time of the day that works best for your family, but I choose to fit this in to our morning routine. We have what we call “morning time” where we do our bible reading, memorization, poetry reading and memorization, folk songs (another Ambleside suggestion), hymns, music, art and a read-aloud. This should all, in theory, take about an hour, and it is the kids’ favorite part of the day. They really miss it when we have a busy day and don’t get to it. It is a delightful way to start our day, giving us inspiration and feeding our souls, training us to look for truth, goodness and beauty in everything we study.
This post ended up being a lot longer than I wanted it to be, but I am hoping I was able to give you enough resources without overwhelming you. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment here.
Thanks so much to Christy for sharing so much with us!
This entire series (and particularly this post practically speaking) is incredibly helpful to me! Christy, thanks for the time and effort that you put into this series. Beth, thanks for hosting the series. I’m excited to implement much of this into our upcoming school year!
thanks, sarah! i’m so grateful to christy for the time & hard work she put into sharing this with all of us . : )
Thanks for this Christy! Lots of great stuff! I have this post bookmarked and all those books added to my wishlist 😛 Hoping to be able to incorporate a lot of these things this coming year!