I am a huge believer in art education! Art is fantastic for building fine motor skills and visual perception while developing creative expression. Sadly, art is often relegated to the bottom of school budgets. Growing up, I never got the opportunity to take art in any of the many schools I attended. Art was offered in my high school, but you had to choose between art and choir. I picked choir. My children’s school has an art program that is funded by generous parent donations, but it is not a school district subject, and doesn’t receive the type of attention more “academic” subjects receive. Thankfully their teachers frequently supplement their curriculum with art projects. When I was offered to try out a series of art classes for homeschoolers, I jumped at the chance! Even if your children go to school (like mine), the Home Art Studio series is a great way to provide at-home art enrichment. This is a great art curriculum for elementary school aged children (primary school for my UK friends).
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Art Classes for Homeschoolers or as Enrichment at Home: Home Art Studio Review
What You'll Find on This Page
We were sent the first grade curriculum to try out. I can definitely see how the two CDs of material that we received target first graders, but as you can tell all four of my children find the classes highly engaging. We watch the day’s art class upstairs and then come downstairs for the art project.
Aboriginal Art Project for Kids
My kids loved this art project inspired by Australian Aboriginal art. You can actually watch this lesson through the Home Art Studio free lessons page.
I was fascinated to see how my different children interpreted the lesson. Six-year-old Lily focused on the hand print and dots. Eight-year-old Johnny re-interpreted the swirl pattern as a wave. Ten-year-old Emma stayed pretty close to the example shown by the teacher. Three-year-old Anna interpreted the spirals as concentric circles. She got frustrated with trying to trace her hand, so opted out of that and stuck with dots.
Space Themed Art for Kids
My kids got really creative with this space themed art project! They loved using pastels on black paper, and the mixed media element with the marker spaceship created a neat effect.
I was thrilled to see each child put their own spin on this project. Ten-year-old Emma’s astronaut (featured above) is headed to Mars. They must use very compact fuel, since there is a lot more food being stored in their space ship than fuel.
Eight-year-old Johnny wanted a nice skin tone for his astronauts, so he cut them out of a cardboard cereal box. I thought that was a great creative solution! His space ship is closest to the teacher’s for this activity, but he still gave it his own twist.
Six-year-old Lily adores all things miniature. She was very proud of her little baby spaceship with a baby docking station. Her spaceships fly between space and planet earth.
Three-year-old Anna made two astronaut fairies and one astronaut bunny. Then she ran around our condo courtyard, taking them on a fantastic space exploration.
We have 16 art lessons to go, and if the kids have their way we will be doing one a day every day we are in California this summer! I’m happy to invest in the other curriculum CDs. I am thrilled with the creativity my kids have put into these project, and very happy to see them developing some new art techniques as well!
Looking for more art ideas? Check out my art for kids Pinterest board!
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I’ve seen it and it certainly looks very interesting. This may or may not post, we’ll see.
I’ve seen it and it certainly looks very interesting.
The teacher does a great job of teaching concepts and techniques without saying, “This is exactly what your art should look like”.
Oh I like that
It shocks me that art is cut from your elementary school’s curriculum! That’s really a shame! I’m glad you are doing it at home.
I am very grateful that my children’s teachers work to fill the gap. My son’s teacher this past year even worked in a lot of time making things out of clay – a personal hobby of hers.
The projects look amazing! I wish our schools devoted more time to art too. I am actually curious to see how art will be incorporated next year into STEAM curriculum of our new school.
There is talk of a maker space at my children’s school, but so far they are very reluctant to make art a part of it. I’m hoping to change that, because I think that understanding art is part of being a good engineer.
This is wonderful! I was wondering what we might do next for art and I will definitely be looking into this. I saw right away before I read your text that your kids (particularly Anna) had created their own aboriginal art. Beautiful!
I think your family would really enjoy this art curriculum! They are working on getting the videos streaming, too.