Calvin wants to do more art history next year and I hope to follow that enthusiasm

[Laura Corin]

What should I drop/reduce? I don't want to lose any of it but I feel that his days are pretty loaded. The subjects I have for him are:

English 5x
Maths 5x
Mandarin 5x
Latin 2x plus two memorisation sessions
history 2x
science 2x
PE 5x
recorder 2x plus two practices
art 1x
study skills 1x (to prepare him for an exam he's taking)
RE 1x
memorisation/poetry 1x
art history 1x.

Any creative ideas?

Thanks

Laura

[Beth in Central TX]

Can you fold the art history into his history work or art work, rather than having it as a separate subject? Do you know what book you plan to use yet?

[Dayle in Guatemala]

Wow, he is doing a lot! Is it possible to provide him with his own reading material and biographies so he can pursue it on his own?

Another suggestion is to plan an art day each month where you can study an artist, his/her work, and do a project based on their medium and method? It would be a good break during the month for each of you and it would help him get in more art history.

Good luck! I hope you figure out how to do it and still keep up with your other subjects.:001_smile:

[8FillTheHeart]

What are his goals in studying art history? And what is his attention span?

I ask b/c TC has some great art history dvds.
http://www.teach12.com/store/courses.asp?t=&sl=&s=904&sbj=Fine%20Arts%20and%20Music&fMode=s
We have Art Across the Ages and Museum Masterpieces: the Louvre.

If you have never purchased from TC before, all of their dvds cycle through on sale.

The lectures are geared toward adults, though. So, I am not sure this is something that would appeal to him next yr or not. My kids are hit and miss as to which ones they like or don't. However, since I am a card carrying member of the Mean Mom Club.....they watch them regardless. ;)

[Jenny in Atl]

We study art and music history as a part of our overall history. I try not to set either aside on their own, but blend them into our studies. I have a number of great bks, all of which have been mentioned on the boards, which we use.

We also will play music from the period or culture in which we are studying, during the day or in the evening as background music. I also have the girls look up what artists were productive during that time. We rent dvds (movies about the artists/musicians as well as general art/music appreciation) on to watch as after "school" extras.



hth's

[Audrey]

Here's what I do. My ds is younger than yours, so you'd want to beef this up a bit, but...

Get a copy of Gardner's Art Through the Ages. My copy is a well-worn one from my university days. This is THE standard for art history survey. Then, as you are studying your (plain ol' boring) political history, find the corresponding section in Gardner's. There will be at least a few entries and plates to peruse. Art is a reflection of its times, and I believe it should be treated as such, instead of as a separate subject.

When we hit a major era, or major movement, I will supplement with books on specific artists/movements from the library. Talk about how the art reflects the politics, culture, trends of the period. You can often see obvious comments in the art upon its times. Gardner's will also have commentary which you can read to your son, or have him read himself. It isn't written for children, though, so might need some mom-interpretation at times.

We do the same kind of thing with music history, incorporating into political history and discussing its significance, major composers, etc. For that I just pull from my CD collection mostly, but also www.classicsforkids.com (http://www.classicsforkids.com) and those Classical Kids tapes/CD's.

[Jenny in Atl]

Thanks for the link! I will add this to my resources.

Cheers!

[Nan in Mass]

At that about age, we did Draw Squad daily (took less than 10 minutes) and then did Artistic Pursuits (junior high) once a week (took about an hour). But that was just the beginning. Whenever we went anywhere, I took paper and told them to draw when they got bored. I still have them draw instead of write for some of their literature and history assignments. They drew daily for years keeping nature journals. I got the book Watercolour for the Artistically Undiscovered (or something like that - it is in TWTM - GREAT book for getting your children painting) and we did it daily one summer as a summer project. A few years later, I got Paint Yourself Happy and we took two weeks and did that instead of our normal school in the morning. I moved math and foreign languages and piano practice to the afternoon and we skipped everything else. I found that intensively focusing on art for a few weeks at a time made it easier to go through one of the art books (except Artistic Pursuits, which is made for homeschoolers). We could leave the art materials out for the week or two we were working on it. Much easier. We also enjoyed the break. By the way, my 17yo just did a cool panel for Dante's Inferno. We read the book aloud together, and I told him to make a picture with all the circles of hell in it. He spent 8-10 hours going back through the book and making notes (!!!), then made rough sketches until he decided how he wanted to organize the drawing, and then made a panel 1'x3.5', drawing it first in pencil and then filling it in with watercolours. This is not the first time that I have watched him use the same process I taught him for writing a paper in order to produce a piece of artwork for a book. My 13yo decided to do one picture per canto (easier to organize). That also required going back through the entire book and digesting it. One of my smaller homeschooling goals was to teach my children to draw - not well, necessarily, but adequately. I think it is a shame that the drawing that most children love when they are little loses its appeal when the child gets a bit older and more self-critical. The simple things I did seem to have worked, because both of mine still draw for fun as teenagers, or when they want to show someone something that is hard to describe in words.

HTH
-Nan

[Nan in Mass]

Oops! Sorry! Now I see it says art HISTORY. That's what I get for trying to type and make chicken and rice at the same time. Makes making supper more interesting, though GRIN.

[Lorna]

I studied almost exclusively science at school and then continued on to study Fine Art at university. This meant I had to learn my history completely through a study of the art of each period.
Two books which I found very useful were:

Art and Civilization by Edward Lucie-Smith (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Civilization-Edward-Lucie-Smith/dp/0810919249/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205878302&sr=8-1)

and

THE STORY OF ART by E.H. GOMBRICH (http://www.amazon.com/STORY-ART-E-H-GOMBRICH/dp/0714825840/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205920160&sr=1-2)

The former would be a wonderful reference book for Calvin. He could use it alongside any Western history study he is doing. Each chapter has a brief discussion of the connections between architecture, painting, sculpture, literature, philosophy and music of each epoch. It is a great way of connecting what is happening in thought, art, politics and music.


The latter could be used as a spine, or a reference book or simply as a good read on its own. It really is the book for a beginning art historian and is used in most universities in the first couple of years.

When I was studying Art History it was really important to understand, not simply art appreciation, but the politics, philosophy, social conditions, religion and literature of the time. It also helped to listen to music to get a real feel for an era. A parallel study would be perfect in my view.

The 'In Our Time' series on BBC Radio 4 really captures the type of studies we followed at university.

[Laura Corin]

I'll look into both those books.

Laura