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Donna Marie
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| Posted: June 30 2008 at 7:05pm | IP Logged
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This nesting mom has a question...
I was just at Alice's lovely blog and found this lovely blog
it got me to thinking about how others might plan on integrating fine arts...especially music ...into their day...
care to share ideas and favorite resources??!
God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 7dc +one more due 10/08!
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God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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SylviaB
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I was thinking of getting the music master CDs (recommended in Design Your Own Classical Curriculum). My kids are very young, so think I will just use them as background music while they play and during some quiet/snuggle time
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Mackfam
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This year, I'm doing a Fine Arts Friday.
We'll be reading about 6 composers throughout the next year (using books like this along with the accompanying study guides), and as we read about them we'll be playing that composer's pieces during the days.
Art study in our house usually revolves around the liturgical year, but during some of ordinary time, I study a particular artist or two. This year, we'll be doing some study of art in ancient egypt to coordinate with history studies. All reading is again done on Fine Arts Friday.
Nature Sketches will be encouraged/completed on Fridays after our Nature Walks on Thursday.
Sketching lessons and art projects will also be done on Fine Arts Fridays.
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Jen Mackintosh
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MarilynW
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The timing of this is wonderful. I am trying to plan art and music today - we usually start off the school year with lots of fine arts - but by the end of the winter we have lost our momentum - it is the first thing to be dropped when life gets crazy. I am going to have a detailed plan for the year this time.
I am going to designate one morning to be fine arts morning - not sure which. My provisional plans are:
Music - use the Story of the Orchestra with cd as a base - it covers instruments and composers. We will focus on a different composer each week - I have the Masters of Classical Music cds and the Top 100 Masterpieces of Classical Music - so we will play works from these. I take Classical Kids out of the library - my older kids have listened for years - my 4 year old will enjoy them. I am going to try and pick some pieces from How to Introduce Your Child to Classical Music too. A great website is Classics for Kids
I am in the process of making a picture book list for composers and orchestra - I will post when done.
I have the Good News planner - and Jenn has written an awesome post to help me out on Requiem mass and Gregorian chant - so November this will be our music plan.
For Art:
I have the Teach Art at Home curriculum - we used it last year (for too short a time  ) - but I may just keep it simple and do some lessons from the Drawing Textbook.
We do a lot of art related to the Liturgical Year. But I will plan for the study of several artists - not sure yet on frequency - but I will do Charlotte Mason style - and we live about 45 minutes from the National Gallery so will have Sunday visits there. I use the National Gallery site to select works - so that we can go and see the pictures we have selected. I will have picture books and if available dvds on the artist (last year we watched some excellent dvds on Mary Cassatt and Winslow Homer - and there are also the Mike Venezia dvds)
I want to put more links above - but I have baby boy who needs me (is just cutting his first tooth !!)
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Elizabeth
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We're planning lots for fine arts from K-`12 at Serendipity this coming year. I'm going to cut and paste from this post, so it's here,but I don't think the links will come through, so click if you want to see the books.
A fine arts block will use M is for Melody as a spine and introduce some Montessori three part cards and the Music Masters CDs, along with Mike Venezia's biographies.
In addition to Music Study, we'll use picture books, the Venezia biographies and M is for Masterpiece to study great art and artists and art terminology.
Poetry will have pride of place this year. Using R is for Rhyme as a spine, we'll learn terms and try our hand at writing poetry, while studying the great works of the masters. We'll use the Poetry for Young People series as we go.
We're going to focus on Charlotte Mason-style Nature Study in one big block a week, along with intensive seasonal study in April. Our "Spring term" will be devoted to intensive nature study (also known as "Easter and Bluebell Break) and a Shakespeare block. The Handbook of Nature Study will be our spine along with Keeping a Nature Journal, Nature Drawing and Animals Alive!. (Shakespeare booklist still to come:-) I see nature study as a way to focus on drawing and painting as well as photography.
We've started to load the books into the lefthand sidebar at Serendipity. A preview of the first week's plan should be ready for your perusal by the end of the week, God willing.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Maria B.
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You all are incredible! I can't wait!
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MarilynW
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Forgot to add:
I am aiming for a monthly Shakespeare day - or at least one each term
Poetry - part of our memorization and copywork - the children have poetry notebooks which they use for copywork and illustrating. Last fall we really enjoyed our "poetry teas" - but sadly they stopped after Advent - I need to reinstate.
There is a great post that Alice did - last year or the one before - I will see if I can find it - about making time for the arts - treating them with the same importance as math etc. It really inspired me last year - but unfortunately due to illness etc we ended up being less organized with arts.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: July 01 2008 at 10:33am | IP Logged
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I forgot to mention a few other things we're studying on Fine Arts Fridays that other posts reminded me of...
I'm also studying Shakespeare through picture books (a'la Cay - I'd link her blog, but I'm in a hurry to get to laundry) - I'm terribly excited about this as we've never really studied Shakespeare before.
And I'm focusing a bit more on poetry following the seasons with the Flower Fairies and poetry from Favorite Poems Old and New and several Christina Rosetti and Robert Frost favorites and others...
And, as Marilyn is doing...a study of the orchestra and musical instruments using picture books, a coloring book, a sticker book, and several musical pieces selected for listening.
Ok...those are my Fine Arts studies for now...I hope I'm not forgetting something else.
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folklaur
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For Music, we really like Themes to Remember.
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MarilynW
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| Posted: July 01 2008 at 11:26am | IP Logged
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This is the post by Alice - not just on fine arts - but I always read it when planning school
A New Beginning
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JennGM
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What I'm pondering is how to making the connection from "fine arts" to personally made art? While I'm incorporating poetry, classical music, study of art in our daily lives, how do you connect it to the child so it's an integral seam?
My plans have art both studying and doing. We are learning about the great works of art and artists, but also hands on art. We will be learning great music and composers, but also learning to make music on instruments and our voices.
But how do you connect the two so that they are more seamless? How do you help make it not compartmentalized learning but breathing, living art in their lives? Does this inspire and flow out to make your child want to "DO" it?
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MarilynW
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JennGM wrote:
What I'm pondering is how to making the connection from "fine arts" to personally made art? While I'm incorporating poetry, classical music, study of art in our daily lives, how do you connect it to the child so it's an integral seam?
My plans have art both studying and doing. We are learning about the great works of art and artists, but also hands on art. We will be learning great music and composers, but also learning to make music on instruments and our voices.
But how do you connect the two so that they are more seamless? How do you help make it not compartmentalized learning but breathing, living art in their lives? Does this inspire and flow out to make your child want to "DO" it? |
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Jenn
For art - how about the suggestion from Elizabeth's book about studying a work of art and then creating your version of it. We did this last year - I chose works that were in the National Gallery - we studied 3 or 4 paintings for one artist - and of these we usually did reproductions of one - it was amazing what the children could produce - I did it too ane it was fun. Mary Cassatt was the hardest for me as drawing people is tough for me. The book Discovering Great Artists has good ideas to create for various artists.
For music - playing is harder with the littler ones - my older ones love to play pieces by composers that we are studying. We have a selection of the classics that range from beginner to advanced piano - so they have played from 5 years old - eg Nick played Eine Kleine Nachtmusic for his first recital when he was 5, and Andrew played Peer Gynt. Another option is to go to concerts - we do Fairfax Symphony (there is a homeschool option - call the coordinator in advance, kids are free and you only pay for adults), Arts in the Parks, or any free/low cost performances we can go to
Hope this helps a little
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MarilynW
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The free e-book at CurrClick this week is Teaching Children to Love Great Art
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Marilyn
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cvbmom
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We enjoy these, too! It's amazing how much the kids retain just listening to the CDs 
God bless,
Christine
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SylviaB
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Laura,
I just looked at "Themes to Remember." I think it looks great, thanks!
Sylvia
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MarilynW
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| Posted: July 02 2008 at 5:23pm | IP Logged
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I just posted our music plan:
Music for the Soul
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mooreboyz
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Jennifer- thank you for the Fine Arts Friday idea. I plan on focusing on Fine Arts and Geography this year with the boys (I think this will give them needed balance with their strong math/logic interests); but, until now wasn't sure how to fit in the fine arts. Whenever I tried to incorporate art in the day it always seemed to get pushed to the end of the day and then was either rushed or just skipped all together. Giving it its own day where I can put on my "artistic hat" right away in the morning and keep the groove going all day will be so much fun. And so I declare for our next school year Fine Arts and Fun Fridays. I'm so excited! My mind was racing about it last night in bed and so I jotted down the following ideas:
- get and use Story of the Orchestra
- Begin day with readings about Composer over breakfast and listen to his works throughout the day.
- Introduce new instruments and listen to samples on-line
- Copy a poem for handwriting work
- Use this website for more info on composer:
classics for kids
- Read about Artist for the week/month and discuss the techniques used by him/her
- Make art using the their techniques in some way (like Seurat and Pointillism)
- use this website to get biographical info on artist and fun activities as well as coloring pages:
artist study
- watch videos occasionally on artist/composer
-continue using The drawing Textbook as the kids love it
for the fun part:
- work from fun math books/do montessori math activities
- do a Top Secret geography packet or play Geography game
- take spelling tests (yes, this is fun here)
I'd also like to either make breakfast or snack that goes with the time of the composer/artist we're studying. I'm not really sure what I'll do here, but I'll find something to make it exciting. Maybe even costumes or something and a tea party snack while we listen to our composer.
I'll have to think about the best way to schedule the day with having a 1 1/2 year old in the mix. I will probably keep the art doing for nap time so I can relax and do it along with them.
The 3 older boys take piano lessons and I've already talked with their wonderful teacher about incorporating some pieces with the composers they are studying.
One thing I am not sure on is whether to study a new artist and composer each week or each month. I see a lot of you are saying weekly in your posts. I'm wondering if it would be better to study only one a month and learn a bit more about them and do more activities/etc. What do you think???
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Mackfam
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Jackie - I'm spreading 6 composers out throughout our year. I like to spend lots of time focusing on them - the history of the period in which they were composing, the context of the pieces. I've found I like to really take my time both learning about the composer and listening to his pieces. We may add one or two more in to our study depending on time and interest, but as it stands now, I plan on studying orchestra and musical instruments for the first month, with a new composer for each month (sometimes I spread one composer study out over two short months).
Art study is a smidge different for us. I'll be following the liturgical year and the children's lead more than anything else. I have plenty of art to incorporate into our days. I love to set out art with the liturgical year and also following the seasons - so a lovely Monet with waterlilies comes out in spring along with springtime poems for memorization and we always, always listen to the Anne of Green Gables soundtrack in the spring - it just *is* spring to me!
I don't know if that sort of answers your question too, Jenn - about how to coordinate all of the fine arts to integrate. I find I do this best when we move with the rhythm of the liturgical year or the seasons as our guide.
I second Marilyn's suggestion of Discovering Great Artists! It is perfectly suited to the integration of art and artist study! I can't remember if I saw it on Kim's blog or Elizabeth's blog first - so I'll just hat tip them both.  Great book - fun ideas!
I posted just what a Fine Arts Friday looks like on my blog. Take a look Jackie if it helps you and gives you some more ideas to run with for yours! It is soooo exciting when a day in the plans finally clicks and comes together isn't it!
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Jen Mackintosh
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mooreboyz
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That is just beautiful, Jennifer. I feel silly with my scribbled notes on scratch paper. You have inspired me to type my plans up nice. I think having all together will help me feel that I've actually completed something too. Thank you for sharing.
I think I will do a different artist and composer each month going in time order. I wonder if I could plan it out to have an artist and a composer from the same general time. It might help give the kids a historical feeling of the time and see how the periods influenced the artists/composers.
I love the discovering great artists book too. I'll have to pick it up.
I'm considering putting together an Art binder for the kids with sections for each artist with maybe same bio facts, a coloring page, and then some blank heavy stock pages for them to do their artwork on. I thought it would be nice to keep it all together like this and then we could look back through it. Whst do you think?
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PLEASE don't feel silly, Jackie! I just figured out how to pull my plans together in a pretty way! As in just a couple of days ago! Before that it was all hand scribbling - time consuming and laborious! I must admit it is inspiring and generally spirit lifting to see my little bouquet of monthly plans printed and added to my notebook.
I like your idea of coordinating artist and composer chronologically. I'm a big fan of moving chronologically when you are able.
And I love the notebook idea! Think I'm gonna borrow that one! I think it would be nice to set up a Fine Arts notebook. My kids could put their art work in there, as well as the coloring pages from our orchestra and instrument study, poems for recitation, copywork and all of my neat Shakespeare printables I downloaded for them...and...and...and!  Yay Thanks for the idea! 
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Jen Mackintosh
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4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday
Topic: How do you plan on adding fine arts?
