Sand Art

I mentioned in my last post that we actually completed an art project during our first week back to school. This may not seem like an accomplishment worth mentioning, but then you don't know me.

Or maybe you do.

Either way, I can tell you that A. I have a general aversion to "projects" that have a list of materials a mile long and B. I also have an aversion to cleaning up copious amounts of crafting materials. Unless of course they're my crafting materials, which is completely different.

Obviously.

What was I talking about?

Art! This is one of those subjects in homeschooling that can be the first to get eliminated in a busy week.  For several years, I sent my boys to an art class with other homeschool kids once a week and they really enjoyed it.  And I enjoyed checking "art"  off the subject to-do list each week with minimal effort on my part.

In years past when we have done art at home, we've used this book which works well for a variety of ages. We've also used this book, which is a wonderful way to follow the liturgical year (if you happen to be Catholic like us) with stories and related crafts.

This year we are using Art Year 1 Journey Through American Art by Catholic Schoolhouse. Honestly, this is an art program that anyone could use, though, Catholic or not.  In other words, there isn't anything particularly "Catholic" about the content - it's simply published by the Catholic Schoolhouse, which is similar to the Classical Conversations co-ops, but Catholic.  There's a group that meets not too far from us, but we were only able to get on the waiting list this year, since I didn't find out about it until the week before they started classes.  In the meantime, I thought we'd try out some of their materials and I loved that they offer an art curriculum that could be purchased and used separately.

Even though the Catholic Schoolhouse co-op is currently doing Year 2, I chose to do Year 1 for art because it fits in better with our continued study of American History this year.  The book starts with Native American Art, which is why our first project was sand painting.

So far I think this art curriculum will work well for us. The lessons are laid out well and easy to follow while the supply lists are short! We discussed Native Americans and the background of this art form as well as "shape" as an element of art in general.

The only supply I needed to purchase for this project was the colored sand and I was able to find that at the dollar store - score!

All of the boys seemed to enjoy this project.  Next we'll be working on some pottery using air-dry clay, which should be fun.  In the meantime, it's nice to have some new pieces of art displayed on the wall.

~ Dori