A Work of Art

I'm a believer in encouraging my children to follow their interests.

As a parent that often means paying extra close attention to what they say and do. Even more importantly, especially at this young stage of life, I find it means not pushing them into things I would like for them to do but for which they have expressed no desire to be a part of.

Jack loves to draw and do art at home. The challenge can sometimes be finding a quality outlet in which to help him express himself artistically.

Lucky for us we live in a community that places a high premium on both education and a commitment to artistic endeavors. This has translated well for many homeschooling families because the local arts association offers an art class for homeschoolers every quarter.

Jack's teacher homeschooled her children, both of whom are in college now, and is familiar with the style of education so many of us parents are seeking for our own children. I am constantly amazed at the true artistic nature of the class.

Ms. Amy, the teacher, breaks the two-hour class into a variety of learning objectives which include a book that illustrates elements of the lesson she is trying to teach that day, a story about an artist whose work correlates with what was learned during the reading of the story and then the children, or young artists as she often refers to them, replicate a specific piece, painting, drawing, etc. of the artist.

Last week, for the final day of the class, she hosted an art show where all of the works were on display. Beside each collection was a description of the lesson and how the children went about creating their art work.The description also included an art concept , a list of techniques/mediums, art vocabulary and a literature connection.

Here's just a snippet from the explanation of each week's lesson that she sent to all the parents the day of the show:

 "Our theme this quarter was “Trees, Leaves, and Branching Out.” During the eight weeks we studied the work of several individual artists and explored fun techniques like tearing newspaper, burnishing foil, masking with painter’s tape, and using spray paint. Paying attention to texture and utilizing texture in art is a natural way of exploring leaves, so texture was one of the art elements developed in most of the projects this quarter."

And without further ado, here are the masterpieces: