Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Fine Arts and Health

Fine Arts

Our Classical Conversations group will cover the Fine Arts each week in class and I will mainly supplement at home. Our CC group will spend six weeks on each of the following topics:

1. Drawing
2. Music Theory - enhanced with playing the tin whistle
3. Great Artists - this year is Great American Artists
4. Composers/Classical Music/Orchestra

What I intend to do at home in no particular order:

At home I am using, How to Teach Art to Children. I really like this book, as far as I can tell. The ideas are fun and the instructions are easy to follow. We are going to do a lesson each week from this guide, beginning with the chapter on "line".

We might plan a trip to an art museum, perhaps even the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.


The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has performances for homeschoolers and school trips. I'd like to make one of their events to enhance our study of the orchestra. And speaking of orchestra, Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!, is an awesome book. As each instrument is introduced the musicians increase in number from a solo to a duo then trio all the way up to a chamber group of ten. Love this book!

Drawing with Children is another resource I own. It isn't quite as colorful or simple as the other art book, so I haven't explored it as much yet. (yes, I like the easy to read and colorful...) So many people recommend it! I am sure there are gems in there and I will find them!

The Draw, Write, Now Series look like fun as K (age 5) develops some dexterity. There are a ton of books that seem to range in topic, not skill level. The book itself has a wide variety of skill levels. We have book five (pictured) because we are studying US History this year.

Classical Music for Dummies is a book I have to purchase for tutoring this year. I have a feeling I am going to need it and will use it at home as well.

Discovering Great Artists is another required resource for tutors and it looks great!

Health

Not much to say here. We are going to take a few ideas from the Five in a Row, Volume I guide as we pick titles each month. We'll also use our public school county guidelines for some ideas. I am sure we'll cover things such as germs, disease prevention, safety, and nutrition. I intend to do a topic about once a month with a few lessons.

1 comment:

Johanna said...

WE love DWN books. They are so fun!