Homeschooling Middle & High School Fine Arts

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We’ve made it to Day 5 of the iHomeschool Network’s Winter Hopscotch 2014. Today’s topic is homeschooling middle & high school fine arts.

Strategies for Homeschooling Middle & High School Fine Arts

Fine Art is likely some of our kids’ least favorite subject as a teacher, but our 8th grader is a lovely creative soul who challenges and delights us in this area of our homeschool. We use a variety of methods to teach fine arts.

• Homeschool Co-op Our family participates in a co-op that meets for two hours for 10 Mondays during the fall and spring semesters. It’s a low key co-op which focuses on the extras over the academics. So, we have art and music classes offered there quite a bit. Below are some examples of classes my kids have taken at co-op.
• Choir– We have a homeschool choir that meets through co-op and our 8th grader joined my husband in our adult church choir. It’s a four part + choir which meets weekly and presents challenging music.
• Guitar– Our 10th grader took a beginning guitar class at co-op last semester and has taken video courses at home.
• Dulcimer– Our 6th grader made a dulcimer last fall and plays it. Such a great class taught by our pastor at homeschool co-op. Click the link (in the text or picture below) to see I11 play his dulcimer.
• Art Classes– There is always an art class offered by talented parents.
• Offering Supplies– We keep our supplies topped off and make ample time available for their use. They get used a lot, but mostly by our daughter who loves to try out things and learn new techniques.

While co-op does not meet enough to meet the requirement by itself, the classes enhance what we do at home to round things out. At home we offer basic music theory and art lessons. For high school graduation only one credit of fine arts is required and our 10th grader is opting for art to fill the requirement and we’ll do that over the four years in high school- about a 1/4 per year.

Our Favorite Curriculum & Resources for Middle & High School Fine Arts

We have some great resources for teaching fine arts at home. Some are long time favorites and others are new to us.

• Five in a Row– Literature unit study program which has lovely, very accessible art lessons.
• Harmony Fine Arts– We use everything from Barb’s tutorials and blog posts to her curriculum for various ages and stages. What makes it all the more special is that we’ve met Barb and our daughter adored their time together. We still talk about how much they had in common in the art and nature world!
• HodgePodge– Of course we love Tricia and Nana’s chalk tutorials! Accessible and fun and a soothing part of the day any time you pull them out.
• Artistic Pursuits– We have one of the middle school years and I like to use them with Harmony Fine Art units.
• Craftsy, YouTube– And other websites like blogs which offer tutorials are places where our kids will go to learn a new skill. My 13yo loves to read for this sort of information and try it out.

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Join other iHN bloggers to see how they approach fine arts instruction in their homeschools.