Art and Music Appreciation

For art lessons we have used a unit study approach. We study the art as it arises in history or literature.

Australian Book Traveller has an art appreciation and art lessons as part of every picture book studied..

Visual Arts: Art is taught in our homeshool by providing children with various opportunities to explore different art mediums. We are working towards less quantity and more quality but also giving opportunities for various style arts activities.

Our focus is on observational art (nature study), painting, drawing, print making, clay modelling, lino carving and computer generated art.

The children also express themselves artistically in their notebooks.

Art Appreciation

"Drawing is generally so well taught now that we need do no more than emphasize one or two special points in our work, such as the definite study of pictures and the illustrations of Nature Note Books.

We do what is possible to introduce children to Architecture; and we practise clay-modelling and the various artistic handicrafts, but there is nothing unusual in our work in these directions." Charlotte Mason.

Here are some more quotes from Charlotte Mason on picture study.

Here are two free resourses for Australian artist picture Study

The library is a great place to get those lovely coffee table art books. Emma Serl also made picture study part of her English curriculum incorporating it into Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons.

A web resource with puzzels and games using famous works of art is Garden of Praise

Here are some good ones we have found for Australian artists.

Golden Summers Heidelberg and Beyond. This gives short biographies of a few artists of that era plus the history behind each painting. Roberts, McCubbin, Streeton are all covered.

A Treasury of Australian Painting by William Splatt and Barbara Burton. Of course you do not need to limit yourself to Australian artists. There are many great art works!

Here are two Australian picture study resources I have put together.

Joseph Lycett Picture Study

Fredrick McCubbin & Tom Roberts Picture Study

Picture Study and Art Appreciation in Our Home

I am just an amateur at picture study but we have started doing it.

You could choose any artist and study different works.

For example last year we studied Fredrick McCubbin. We chose 6 of his works. The first picture was Lost.

Each week we would just spend some time on this topic.

1. Week One: To start we looked at the picture 3-5mins then had a go at describing it. Next time I do it I will ask the older children to write out as a narration. Then I read the beginning of Dot and the Kangaroo. The first chapter about a little girl getting lost in the bush.
2. Week Two: We read a bit about Fredrick McCubbin.
3. Week Three: Then this week we studied the picture and they tried to do a pencil sketch of the work. It went well.
4. Week Four: They wrote their own story about the picture.The younger ones narrated the story to me.

I found Penny Gardner's book an inspiration on this method. She reassured me that I didn't need to worry about line texture bla-bla-bla. Apparently Charlotte Mason didn't start teaching the in's and out's of the arts until the child was about 14. Up until then she just wanted the kids to love the picture and appreciate it. I thought I can do that and all it involves is me getting my hands on the pictures plus 5-10 mins a week. Easy!

Performing Arts

The performing arts are appreciated via plays, pantomimes and concerts. Opportunity for concert performance can be given but are not compulsory. The decision can be left up to the individual child. Expression in drama is encouraged when reading and some play acting is also required.

For two years we have organised a poetry recital and high tea with our local homeschooling group. This has been very popular. We also got a some homeschool families together for a term and we did a play which they performed for the a small audience after about 8 weeks practice.

Music Appreciation

"Musical Appreciation, of course, has nothing to do with playing the piano. It used to be thought that 'learning music' must mean this, and it was supposed that children who had no talent for playing were unmusical and would not like concerts. But Musical Appreciation had no more to do with playing an instrument than acting had to do with an appreciation of Shakespeare, or painting with enjoyment of pictures. I think that all children should take Musical Appreciation and not only the musical ones, for it has been proved that only three per cent of children are what is called 'tone-deaf'; and if they are taken at an early age it is astonishing how children who appear to be without ear, develop it and are able to enjoy listening to music with understanding." PNEU (From Charlotte Mason Series Volume 6)

How We Do Music Appreciation

We introduce music into our homeschool day in various ways. Music is a part of our family and we enjoy a wide variety of music.

Music Ace is a good computer program that we have found useful.

Classic for Kids is another excellent web radio show that has been extensively used by us.

Formal Music Lessons are commenced when they are ready up until then music appreciation is our goal.

We study two composers per term. We listen to their music and read a short biography the composer for example Bach and we make an entry in our notebooks.

Free Download of The Story of Bach and Schubert