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I originally wrote this post in April of 2015 as part of a blog hop. I am making some adaptations as it’s now more than 4 years later.
Learning how to create art in my household took some figuring, it was harder than I thought to have my lad do art with me. Real life art for us has always needed to involve a story. Let me expand upon that, maybe your children are the same. 🙂 Maybe they too, need to see how art tells a story.
I don’t know about you but I have a creative child. He draws, writes, story tells and creates. He plays minecraft and creates these little worlds that are very specific in their purpose. “DAD! Don’t do that in this world. That’s not supposed to happen!” This is a frequent cry in the afternoon. He still plays minecraft and when he plays with his friends it’s in worlds he has created with a story line in mind. Wouldn’t it be fun mom to live in an ice world where you need to stay within ___ feet of heat in order to survive? Imagine how hard it would be to find or create resources!
It’s rather fascinating at times with what he creates. One of my desires it to create more often with my child. Therefore, I would come up with marvelous ideas that I think might tickle his fancy.
Any thoughts on how often I am successful?
Well…absolutely NONE! I’ve needed to realize this truth: If I can’t sell the art as a way to tell a story, we have no art. No story no art. It’s just the way it rolls.
Finding the Story
If I can find a story, I can create the art with my lad. Not finding the story means going through the art form without actually doing art. It has no significance for him, and therefore is a meaningless exercise. Finding the story… even if it’s from a poem… and Voila! We have art.
In the found these marvellous books at the library called “imagine a day”. I would read the poem of the day to my lad. I read it without showing him the picture. I’d cover up the page as much as I could so I wouldn’t be influenced. We would then each sit down and draw a picture of what the story told us. We had SO MUCH fun with these books. When we were done we would compare our pictures with the picture in the book. Sometimes we were quite similar to the book and to each other and other times we had good discussions on what we did and why. It was such a fun time together learning, thinking, and drawing together, letting our imaginations soar.
An example of finding the story
Another example would be the day we worked with doing a fresca. Here I didn’t stop to think and merely followed the instructions given. Draw lines of colour to get used to drawing with fresca. I was met with a complaining child “what’s the point of this mom?” Then I turned it into a story. What do you think might happen if we did a boat that would capsize? How about we have a clan cat hunting for a mouse? Suddenly my story-telling lad was full of ideas and colours he could use.
It’s taken us time to learn something really important. Art is story. It’s not always a readily seen story, but it always tells a story of some sort. The colours, depth, humour, lighting, solemnity, shading etc… it all tells a story.Â
Use the story to create the art, let the art tell the story. Â
I was recently watching a glass-blowing competition and one of the participants always had to come up with a reason, or a story, for any piece that she did. Did she want to tell the story of her first ever cupcake, or tell of the struggle of women in the glass-blowing world, or the lost child. What story could she tell through her glass work? This was her focus. She did some amazing pieces. 🙂
So tell me something, how do you do art in your homeschool?  Do your children happily engage in any art opportunities that you offer them? Or are they more like my creative one… needing a story freeing them up to explore?
Hey! Follow The crew through this Annual Not Going Back to School homeschool blog hop! Links of participants below
CREW @ Homeschool Review Crew – 2019 Annual Not Back to School Homeschool Blog Hop Â
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses – ABC of Homeschooling
Dawn @ Schoolin’ Swag – Adding Fun to Your Homeschool Day
Erin @ For Him and My Family – Large Family HomeschoolingÂ
Lori @ At Home Where Life Happens – Learning Life Skills
Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling – Homeschooling the High School Years
Monique D. @ Early Learning Mom – Homeschooling With Autism
Yvie @ Homeschool On the Range – 5 Days of Upper Grades Homeschooling
Abby @ Making Room 4 One More – Time Management for Homeschool MomsÂ
Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool – 5 Days of Homeschool Questions
Amy @ the WRITE Balance – Year-Round SchoolingÂ
Annette @ A Net in Time – Homeschooling.Â
Betty @ Lets Get Real – Homeschooling High SchoolÂ
Cassandra @ My Blessed Mess – Eclectic Homeschooling
Kimberley @ Vintage Blue Suitcase – Roadschooling with a Teenager
My younger children draw whatever inspires them…often telling a story as they go along. Our teen…doesn’t draw as much as he used to. He is more into photography now.
funny how teens can change eh? The lad used to draw ALL THE TIME, but now his art has taken different form in the builds he does.
Great post, thank you for sharing.
thank you.
Interesting – my girls prefer to do whatever strikes their fancy. There is no way to induce them to create art if it isn’t on their terms and in their choices. Which is fine, as they are often creating and imagining.
funny how we’ll all different eh when it comes to doing art. I don’t need a story, but the lad did. Some other younglin’s might be like him, if so.. an encouragement. 🙂
That’s so true Annette. That is one aspect of art I always forget to consider thank you for the reminder. Those books sound interesting.
those books are great. we had so much fun with them. 🙂
My daughter is creative and I would say her artwork most often expresses her thoughts and feelings. Which often have stories attached to them, even though the artwork doesn’t necessarily “tell” them.
the story doesn’t always show in MY work, but in the lad’s it used to all the time. 🙂
I have 2 that want step by step art lessons and one that wants to draw whatever is on his mind. Funny how they are all different that way.
oh I know… kids are so individual in their approach to art.