Art in the Cabinet!

Can't get art done? Part 5 of 6 - Art in the cabinet! This is the fifth of a series of interviews with real home school moms on how they integrate art into their week?

Have you ever started something, like that perfect vocabulary curriculum with the magnet board and all of the cool letter blocks...fill in your own item here... You start with nothing but high expectations then it happens! 

Life...

Life is what happens after you make plans and the perfect vocabulary tool retires to the closet of "Good Intentions" due to the lack of consistent execution? I am sure it is just me that struggles with this right!

So how do we climb this mountain of consistency?  Easy...One step at a time!

Here is a tip to help start you journey to a more consistant school week.


Make a Plan...Before the week begins!
Taking a little time to plan out your week before the week begins can go a long way to help you achieve all that you want to achieve in the week. Don't go overboard with this...I'm talking to you over achiving moms that think they can get more done in less time than the average superhero! You know who you are....Plan the major things and leave room for life in between.

Here is a great way to look at your week. I call it the 1-19-80. This follows the 80/20 principal. This principal says that we spend 20 percent of our time doing things that gain us 80 percent of our results and 80 percent of our time on things that only get us 20 percent of our results. So logic says we should spend more time on the 20 percent and less on the 80 right?  Well how do we do that?

First make a list of all that needs to be done or you would like to do or accomplish next week. Then identify the 20 percent items on this list. These are the items that if you could only do these you would have a successful week. By the way...cleaning the dust our from under the couch is probably not a 20 percent item!

Now that you have identified the 20 percent items pick the one item that must get done each day (the 1 percent). This is the biggest return on your time that one thing that MUST GET DONE! Now you are ready to start laying out your week. Make sure you carve out a slot for the 1 percent items first. Then fill in the 20 percent items. REMEMBER to put more time than you think it will take...making room to that life thing! Now your done. Don't put those other things on your schedule. They are not important in the grand view of life. As you go through the day keep your eye on the 1 and 20 percent items. If you have time in between to do some of the others than great if not then you will still have a very successful week!

Try it and let me know if it works for you! Do you have any other tips on managing your schedule? If so share them here. The rest of us would love to hear about it!

If you are struggling to fit art into your week check out the Fine Art Experience Lessons. Let a professional artist teach your children to paint and while they are painting your can...clean out the dust under the couch!

Is your art curriculum too complicated?

View the video above

Do you do art? - Part 4 of 6 - Is your art curriculum too complicated! - This is the fourth of a series of interviews with real home school moms on how they integrate art into their week?


Have you ever had that “I Don’t Get It” feeling? I know I certainly have. There is so much information out there on art that it is difficult to make sense of it all.

Your homeschool week is hard enough. Don’t complicate it more with an art program that is difficult to understand! Evaluate what your goals are for adding art to your week. Make sure the lessons you choose meet your goals and are simple to execute.
KEEP IT SIMPLE! I cannot stress this enough. If you do not understand the lessons your children won’t either.

If you are looking for a solution for your weekly art lessons, Fine Art Experience can help. We provide interactive online painting lessons for the home school family. Come check out how we can help you simplify your art lessons and increase the results. How does a self-directed art lesson sound to you?

So here is a question for you, what are your goals for art in your week? What results do you desire?

Post your responses here and let’s talk about it!

P.S. And I guess I am a consistent misspeller! In my haste to get these videos done I failed to catch that college is misspelled as "collage". I guess that is why I am teaching Art and not English!

Do you need to have natural talent to learn to paint?

There is a common assumption that most people take on learning to paint or draw. The assumption is that you must have a “natural talent” to be good at art. Let’s take a deeper look at this assumption and see if we can get to the truth of the matter.

If you walk into a room with a group of 3-5 year old children and you ask them “How many of you can draw?” most of the hands will go up. But, if you ask this same question to a room full of adults not many will raise their hands. What happened?

Our society does not put much weight on creativity in education. We are trained out of our creativity. We are taught that we must learn reading, writing, arithmetic and how to follow the rules but never taught how to think. Thinking is creative by nature. To arrive at an original thought you have to set aside the accepted rules and creatively question the norm.

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day. She was taking a painting class at the local college and her instructor said “Only people with natural talent can learn to be good painters and I can not teach talent”. Well, do you think this is true?

I firmly disagree with this assumption! Painting is a technical art and ANYONE can learn to paint well. All that is needed is a desire, clear instruction on the foundational elements of painting and practice. Now this being said, not everyone will be a professional artist! There is one addition element that is needed to go pro…PASSION!

Learning how to paint is simply learning how to think and question yourself on what you are observing (Critical Thinking Skills). When you have asked the appropriate questions and arrived at their answers, putting the correct color in the correct place is easy.

So if you find yourself believing that only the naturally talented children can learn to paint you might want to rethink your position.

Before

After

If you need a resource to help you build critical thinking skills in your children through art, Fine Art Experience can help. Click here to find out how…

Is your Child an Artist?

Do you do art? - Part 3 of 6 - Is your child an artist! - This is the first of a series of interviews with real home school moms on how they integrate art into their week?

As parents we can get caught in the trap of trying to fit our children into a mold. This mold is established in our subconscious through our experiences and education. We all know our children need reading, writing and arithmetic, why, because that is how we were taught.

We are home schooling our children for a reason. We believe the system (public school) is broken and we want a better education for our children. We must be careful not to turn our home school days into a carbon copy of a public school class.

Home schooling give us a wonderful opportunity to give our children exposure to many different things. Through this opportunity we can better understand the special gifts, talents and passions God has given our children and help to mold their education to prepare them to live a life doing what God made them to do.


Is your child and artist? A friend of mine posted a wonderful blog about his appreciation for his mother. Here is a little taste.

"Today, is my mother’s 72nd birthday. I woke up this morning thinking about how great she was when I was a kid.

When I was about five a friend of my parents, Ruth Holmstrom, a home-ec teacher, was over for dinner with her husband Chuck. Mrs. Holmstrom pulled me aside and showed me how to draw a swan starting with the number 2. She told my mother that I had some artistic ability, and within a few weeks mom enrolled me in an after-school art class.

I took about 10 years of private art lessons at the encouragement of my mother. She was always gracious when I came in and asked if I could try something new, not thinking about the expense of new supplies and what a burden it may have been.

As the “art” years added up I came to realize that I didn’t have the talent or drive to flourish as a studio artist, and one day when turning in illustrations for my freshman school yearbook the teacher asked if I would get some pictures of the homecoming parade. I rushed in and rummaged around, then asked my mother where the camera was (it was a weird Minolta 110 camera with a zoom lens). I was hooked! I could be creative and “capture” a moment for everyone to see for all time"

You can read the rest of the post here. John Faught's Blog

Are we preparing our children to live the life God intended or are we training them to just be another employee?

If you would like to give your children the opportunity to experience fine art in their school week Fine Art Experience can help. Click here get your FREE painting lessons and to find out more about our program...

 

Are your art lessons right for you?

Do you do art? - Part 2 of 6 - Does it fit me! - This is the first of a series of interviews with real home school moms on how they integrate art into their week?

Being a home educator, your life is undergoing constant change and adjustment. Things that worked when your children were four and five may not work now that they are 11 and 12. It is important to recognize who you are and who your family is this year and make adjustments to align your school days with current needs.


Art is one of the subjects that you need to evaluate. Ask yourself these questions:

- Are you artistic?
- Do you enjoy doing projects with your children?
- Is your house setup to facilitate these projects?
- Are you so afraid of the mess that you don't do art?

Be honest with your answers. Avoiding art is not a solution. Understanding yourself and your family is key to your home school success!

Her are a few tips to make sure your art is in alignment with you and your families needs.

1) Do you and your children understand?

Pick age appropriate lessons. This will help your child execute a successful project and be proud of their work. If you don’t understand it they won’t either!

2) Are you organized?

The biggest reason I see for unsuccessful art lessons is a lack of organization. Let’s face it, if it is a huge hassle to setup and clean up you won’t do it! Get organized and art can be FUN!

3) Do you want to lead the lesson or be led?

You must think about how involved you want to be in the lessons. Some mothers want to get dirty with the children. Other moms want to have a self lead lesson, giving mom some freedom to focus on other things providing only a little oversight. Make sure the lessons you pick fit your needs.

4) Does your art lesson fit your schedule?

When will you do art and how long will it take? This is a huge one. If you only have 45 minutes and the lessons you pick take 2 hours…Houston, we have a problem. My bet is you never do art! Consider your schedule as you pick your art lessons, it will give you a solid foundation for success.

What ever you do don’t blow off art. The impact that art will have on your children will last a lifetime!

We are here to help you provide high quality art lessons to your children. Click here to find out more about the Fine Art Experience lesson.

5 Ways To Ease The Art Mess

by Nikki Nixon

Yes, I am a messaphobic!  The thought of having to clean up messes scares me.  I seem to be cleaning messes all day long with 5 active children in the house. 



Do you do art? - Part 1 of 6 - The Mess! - This is the first of a series of interviews with real home school moms on how they integrate art into their week. How do you deal with the mess?

Proverbs 14:4 says, "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox."   This nugget of wisdom is useful in so many situations.

I like to say, "Where no art projects are, the house is clean; But much increase comes from allowing the children to be creative!"

Here's five ways I've found to lessen the mess so we can all enjoy being creative.

1. Set the expectations.

- Teach the children how to set up and take down for each lesson. 

2. Understand how to care for the supplies.
-  Watch the Understanding Your Supplies videos on FineArtExperience.com.

3. Keep things organized.

-  Store supplies in buckets on bookshelves.

4. Make clean up easy.

-  Cover workspace with a shower liner.  When the lesson is done, fold it up and put it in the bucket.
-  Have the children wear paint shirts.  Store the shirts in the bucket.

5. Put it on the calendar.

-  Do art once a week.  Decide the day and time and stick to it. When the children want to do art at other times, remind them that art will be done at the scheduled time.

For more ideas and pictures join the FREE Fine Art Experience Community at FineArtExperience.ning.com