design your homeschool: putting components together (art and music)

The fine arts as it were Arden music. I mean some people forget about art and music but to me it was something that was very important when I was talking about history I mean it just naturally comes up. Art from prehistory to current times what triggered those changes the different types of abstract art the concrete art the impressionism all of that. How could you neglect art and music. Some people forget about art and music because they can't find an art class or they can't find a music program or they think that because they homeschool their children that is completely off the table altogether. It's not for me knowing that aren't in music are critical in understanding the beauty and the ugliness of the world I came up with this concept of how I would approach art and music. Considering that art and music were introduced in theory through history or social studies as it were if we want to use the proper terms for things. I came up with a three-step process. Charlotte Mason brought up the concept of art appreciation. I also learned that concept of art appreciation through my art class at my private school. before we learned how to do certain things like impressionist art or whatever type of genre of art we were studying we would look at a piece of art. We would study that artwork and we would then learn about the artist. Of course I always wanted to dive deeper into the psychology and the sociology and all of that other stuff that goes around the artist because what inspired them what was going on around them to make them paint that. I always love starry night because for me it was imperfect my mind when it comes to art is not as solid as the you know the what is I can't even think of the genre of art that is so technical well I guess I could call it technical art considering that I'm engineer and I had to do a lot of technical drawings that's what comes to mind in my mind but when I come to the appreciation of certain things I had to think about what inspired something like starry night. Anyway so my point is that even with music when introduced to a new woodwind brass instrument the piano which I fell in love with because I can hear the different tones and sounds and things and I loved how a piano was made and I can play by ear but I can't read music it's just that once you learn about an instrument it's good to know what inspired its creation and use. I wanted to find a curriculum that introduced the three step process that I had created but it didn't exist. There are several art programs and music programs for homeschoolers but they don't quite grasp everything that I was looking for. So I went outside of my home I found an art program at the library called artsparks that teaches the theory and a little bit of appreciation for art. Then I found a music program called joyful noise a non-profit outside the home that taught the practice and theory behind music. And my overall fine arts curriculum it has to have three parts. Theory appreciation and practice. The theory of an art form or a music concept is important because it introduces I guess the why it exists in the first place and how it was created in the first place. Charlotte Mason has plenty of things on art appreciation but not very many things on music appreciation. There are a few YouTube channels that allow you to hear the music and different genres of music but there is no curriculum that brings all of those things together. I'm very intrigued about music and tone and vibration because I understand that everything is a vibration. But that's kind of going into a spiritual realm. So I'm not going to go there for this right now but I had also learned in history about social tones and Gregorian chants. And those were supposed to be the purest forms of sound. Don't quote me on that I'm not quite sure but this is going into my memory so I can't remember exactly how it piece together all I know is that I wanted to make sure that I taught them to appreciate what sound what music sounded like before we had T-Pain and Auto tuning. And I wanted them to appreciate art in its earliest form before we came up with bananas duct tape to drywall. How early artists saw colors made their own paints and all of those things it was so important. And I'm happy that I did that because my oldest son really loves art he loves it as a way to express himself in a nonverbal manner. My middle child took that into the musical realm he enjoys different instruments and sounds and how they work together. So I want to say that I did a good job in making them learn the different genres of music and art so that they could figure out how to make their own. I was not allowed to be that creative because I had to be practical but now in this era kids are allowed to be both practical and creative at the same time. I went in the engineering particularly in building houses because I loved creating homes building homes making them look beautiful and putting a feminine touch on a masculine thing. Because in history we learned that men were the ones that build houses they made sure that they were sturdy all kind of look like boxes honestly. So I wanted my children to have a different way to express themselves in so I can't do anything that they can do I can draw and mean technical drawing I can play music by ear but I can't write my own music. I wanted my children to be able to express themselves in a way that I could not and although I learned theory which just intrigues me to this day and I appreciate all that is good and beautiful in the world such as how Charlotte Mason expressed life should be and I learned how to practice art and music. I can play a piano I can paint I can draw I can sculpt I can weld I can would work do a lot of things with my hands I can play the drums I can play the piano I tried to play the violin I'm not very good at it wouldn't recommend it my oldest son is better at it but the point of this whole post was just simply state that when going into art and music in the homeschool try not to forget to introduce the theory of each thing get some pieces to appreciate them in their original form and then you can teach your children about how they evolved and then find pieces that have those original elements in them and then practice making those pieces your own be it in art or music. And when trying to find your homeschool program don't forget about the library don't forget about nonprofits don't forget about finding free art and music programs where you can get the practice they do exist just have to find them and I'm sure if you look they're just a Google way or a trip to the library.