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

All New Pricing!

Great News! After hearing from many home school families about the trying times they are having in today's economy I have decided to lower the price!

I want all families to enjoy the benefits of art in their children s lives!

Now you can get the first month for only $9.95! WOW!

And each additional month is now only $29.95.

This is incredible! You will not find a better deal in high quality art lessons ANYWHERE! Sign Up TODAY!

Spread the news to all of your home school friends. They too can add art to their home school week without breaking the budget!

And if that was not enough there is more...

I am now opening up the Fine Art Experience Community for FREE! Yes, you heard...ur...read that right, FREE!

Now you and all of your home school friends can join the Fine Art Experience Community and interact with me and other home school families about how to get art into your school week! There is a wealth of information available to you and I look forward to getting to know you as we all depart on our "Journey Through Art" as home educators. Join Today for FREE! Are you already a member? If so click here to login.

Feel free to share this link with all of your home school friends so we can build the best home school art community ever!

I look forward to meeting you in the Fine Art Experience Community!

Brandon Nixon

Artist and Home Educator

Drama in the Sky

This is a quick video of a great sky!


Amazing Drama in the Sky.
This is a short video of an amazing sky one evening!

To learn more about how you or your children can learn the techiniques to capture a sky like this in a painting check out www.fineartexperience.com

Now Accepting Members!

I'm so excited to announce Fine Art Experience is here and now accepting members! It has been a lot of hard work but it has been worth it to insure your children get the fine art lessons they deserve.

So, what do you want or need to start including fine art lessons into your home school day? After talking with many homeschool families this is what I learned.

- You want fine art to be part of your children's curriculum because it is a foundational part of a classical education.

- You want to teach your children art but you don't know anything about it! With FAE you don't need to know anything about art. You will have a professional artist teach your children all of the concepts professional artist use every day.

- You also want to be provided high quality art lessons that fit your family's budget! FAE is a monthly membership site that normally costs $49.95/month which is a great savings over normal art lessons, but that just isn't good enoough! Now you can get it for only $39.95/month! And to make it even better you will get a 30 day trial membership for only $29.95! Wow, that is less than it costs me to buy two large pizzas for my family last week!

- You don't want to taxi your children all over town to get to art lessons. Fine Art Experience brings the artist's studio to you! You can access the lesson directly from your home computer and all you need is a high speed internet connection.

- You want the lessons to work with your schedule. Your art lessons will always fit into your schedule because you control when you do art! Your lessons are just a few clicks away.

- And finally, you and your children want access to the art instructor. With your membership to Fine Art Experience you get access to the Fine Art Experience Community. This is an online community where you can ask questions and interact with the me and other students. It is also a place to communicate with and other home school parents that have figured out creative ways to organize and manage art lesson at home. The Fine Art Experience Community also contains an online student art gallery where you can post you student's work and enjoy other student's paintings as well. This is a premium feature you get absolutely FREE for being one of our charter members!

There's no reason to delay! Signup and start your children's art education Today!

Click here to read more about FIne Art Experience and how you can get started TODAY!

Free Lessons Posted

I have been working hard here at Fine Art Experience and the first fruits of that are now available. The first of the free lessons have been posted to the site. There are also some videos that will help you understand some of the basics about art supplies. Check them out!



Free Lessons

New Member to the Nixon Family

There was a new member added to the Nixon family this weekend! Noah Nixon arrived Sunday at 3:55 p.m. at a light 9 lbs. 11 oz. Wow! Everyone is health and doing great. Needless to say not much has happened as far as lesson production this week but should get back into action in the next week or so.

Now I am going to go take a nap!

Are Schools Killing Our Childrens Creativity?

“Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status” -- Ken Robinson

I watched a very interesting video by Ken Robinson on how our children are loosing their creativity. This is one of the reasons we decide to home school our children, to give them an intentional education. But I think we need to be careful as home school parents not to fall into some of the same traps as public schools.

“Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.”

Preparing Our Children To Change The World - Visual Arts Training Is Key

“Let them learn to build a slingshot and they will learn to think through the science and math required to execute the project. Let them learn to bake a cake and they will learn to use logical processes and apply math skills. Let them learn to paint a picture and they will learn to see the world differently, to make critical judgments, and to solve problems.” -- Brandon Nixon



My wife and I are constantly asking ourselves the question, “Are we preparing our children to live a life that positively impacts our world?”

As I observe adults I interact with daily, there are two distinct groups: those whose minds are engaged in energetic, profound and thoughtful activity, and those whose minds are filled with complacent, lethargic, and surface activity. The results that these two groups achieve are undeniably different. When given an outcome to accomplish, those that have the initiative and thinking skills to “figure it out” excel in life!

We do not want our children to fall into the shallow thinking category. So we ask, “What can we do to prepare them to be deep thinking, logical, problem solving adults, able to lead our nation and change the world?”

“Learning through the arts promotes the idea that there is more than one solution to a problem, or more than one answer to a question,” said Elliot Eisner, a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University.

In my art class, for example, students are taught to look through a viewfinder with one eye, so that they lose their depth perception and see the world as if it were a two-dimensional picture with flat lines, shapes and colors. Ultimately, the exercise enables students to grasp alternative ways of seeing.

“Students who study the arts seriously are taught to see better, to envision, to persist, to be playful and learn from mistakes, to make critical judgments and justify such judgments,” conclude Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland, authors of the book Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education.

Training our children to be creative builds deep thinking skills. The process of creating things is invaluable in deepening the child’s ability to logically think. Let them learn to build a slingshot and they will learn to think through the science and math required to execute the project. Let them learn to bake a cake and they will learn to use logical processes and apply math skills. Let them learn to paint a picture and they will learn to see the world differently, to make critical judgments, and to solve problems.

Training in visual arts engages the mind and teaches the children to ask better questions. These questions are the key to critical thinking. When we ask better questions, we arrive at better solutions.

What are you doing to build these skills in your children? Will your children be prepared to change the world?

Fine Art Experience can help in this process by providing fine art lessons targeted to build critical thinking skills in your children. Click here to find out more.