Art in Our 5th Grade Homeschool

Last year while homeschooling H we focused on things a bit differently, to get her used to this homeschooling thing. We made sure we got math, english, and science done first. I didn't even have an art curriculum. I did this knowing fully that H wouldn't miss out on art. H and I are both artist at heart. We can be found breaking out art supplies any day of the week, on any scrap of paper, drawing anything we can think of. Since we accomplished our goals of last year, this year we are stepping it up. We are making sure we get all of our priorities done and more!

I have designed an art curriculum. It is basic. We get together once a week for a short lesson. These lessons vary, but we are going to be looking at several artists over the year. Our first was John James Audubon. Ever heard of Audubon Field Guides, that's because of this guy. H has expressed interest in becoming a Scientist and an Artist. She would like to "discover new species and draw them for the world to see." She doesn't think we should study them in a lab only in their natural habitat. So this was a perfect lesson to start with.

We introduce the lesson, answer any questions H has, then she has all week to do her art project. Our first week was learn about the artist, and do a simple sketch with pencil on paper of a bird/tree of our choice. H decided she wasn't going to do only a pencil sketch so you will see she did a pencil sketch (not in her sketchbook) and then she did a colored pencil version. She chose to do the common Flamingo. She included the Flamingos habitat by including the water and some rocks in the distance.

H pencil sketch of Flamingo

H colored pencil sketch of Flamingo

Ok, this is the perk of being an artist and a homeschool Mom. H now has inspired me to do artwork on at least a weekly basis. I've been terrible at doing any art because I make everything else a priority. I will be doing most art projects with her this year though. So you can see here I sketched a Red Kite, which is a bird of prey found in Europe.

Red Kite and young in the nest sketch by A

H will be putting up a blog post soon. I have wrote two other posts that I haven't typed and put on here, so I will be getting caught up on those soon as well. We plan to get you a lot more blog posts on our adventures this year.

Thanks for stopping by, 

-A