"EARTH without ART is just EH" - anonymous
We have traditionally followed a "Waldorf Education" model with our homeschooling. The past two years we have branched out in a few areas. I have seen that not everything in that educational model fits with both of my school aged daughters. I am not capable of bringing everything to them in an awakened and true manner (such as Eurythmy!). Up until this year our art lessons have been mainly beeswax crayon drawings, block crayon drawings and loads of beautiful water color paintings.
While visiting LACMA this summer, my inquisitive 4 year old sat down and looked at a painting. She turned to me with a concerned look on her face and asked, "Mama...what makes art, ART?". It took longer than I expected to come up with a response. It's kind of a loaded question, right? I mean, what would you say? I think at the time I said something like, "Well, many different people have many different interpretations of art. What may be beautiful to some, may not be to others.". She looked at me again, and then skipped off to the next gallery. Later that night I wondered about my response. Did I truly answer her question?
I had no formal art training and always felt lost whenever I had to draw something. It seriously gave me anxiety. I gained much confidence after taking my first year of Waldorf Teacher Training, but I still did not understand the principles of creating a piece of art. I decided this year I wanted to do a bit more with our art lessons. I looked into art lessons online, but they were mostly about studying a specific artist, then having the children re-create their work. While I do believe that's an important aspect of studying art, at this age I wanted to keep the artwork their own. I happened to be browsing a thrift store bookshelf the next week and came across a 50 cent gem! So this year we are mainly using concepts and ideas found in that book as well as a few internet references.
October we focused on the line. Each week we did a short lesson and the children created some lovely pieces of art, completely their own.
Week 1: Line Dropping
Week 2: Foot Path
Week 3: Spiral Lines
Week 4: Negative Space Lines
November we delve into shapes. It aligns perfectly with my 4th graders science block "Finding Geometry in Nature".
