Encounters with Art

It was our first year of homeschooling. I had no idea what I was doing. Did any of us really? It's mostly a blur. What I do remember is feeling quite stressed about all the subjects and projects I "should" be doing. How will I have time to cover the basics and build that detailed diorama of ancient Egypt with the kids? We did build a medieval castle made of cereal and melted marshmallows. It was time consuming, and messy, and I think I cried a little.
I'm just not that lady. I have dear friends who excel at elaborate science experiments and art projects and it's one of the things I admire about them. I have learned to embrace, however, the fact that those things are not going to happen in my house. I've learned to embrace it, and in fact love it.
There are a million resources out there and it took me some time to find the ones that didn't point me to the cake made to look like a plant cell (I'm also not a great baker) or the life sized dough skeleton. I finally found some simple yet wonderful resources and today I'll share just one.

I knew I wanted my kids to have a better understanding of and appreciation of art. But I was not sure how to fit that into our day or how I would teach it. Enter Enrichment Studies.  If I ever meet Erica in person I may hug her and weep. I hope she won't find that too weird.  She offers the most amazing fine arts pages and my whole family loves them.  I first joined when she was giving away a freebie. Women artists of the Renassaince.  I downloaded the file and thought to myself, "Now what? I still don't know how to teach this." Then, I read her instructions. For some reason I never seem to tackle that step first. Here comes the brilliant part...

I don't teach it. I just stick it up on the wall. It sounds too easy, I know. But it works. Erica said to do it, so I gave it a try. And it works.

I put the artwork in a page protector and put it up on the kids bathroom cabinet. So every day they have an encounter with a piece of art. I leave each artwork up for one week. My kids are in the bathroom no less than 100 times a day so they are getting a ton of exposure to different artists and their work. It's perfection. When the kids first saw the picture on the wall I was met with confusion and possibly some eye rolling from my 12 year old. But as time went on, I heard groans when it was time to rotate a piece out that someone loved, I received reminders anytime I forgot to put in new artwork, and there began to be lots of unprompted sharing about who the artist was, the materials used, and where a particular piece could be seen.

And this was all without me doing a thing.

Every lesson does not need to be an hour long to have impact. There are so many things I want my kids to encounter in my home. Art, poetry, science. Some days we will dive in and go deep, but not every day. Every day they will get a bite of something. Enough to chew on. And it will be enough.

Enrichment Studies has so many great packages. It doesn't end with art. You can learn about composers, inventors and scientists, jazz, presidents and so much more. Go do it. You'll thank me. Or you'll thank Erica. You're welcome.