Homeschool Art and Music – For Culturally Illiterate Parents!

All I formally learned about music was “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge”…

I couldn’t hold a note, couldn’t even find middle C on the piano, couldn’t dance with a live (sober) human partner…

I could doodle stick figures a little bit but was so profoundly ignorant about art that the mere suggestion of spending time in an art museum – never mind an actual visit – would scare me to death (by boredom!).

My wife was a little more well-versed in the arts – but not much.

However we both wanted our kids to have a more solid foundation and a greater exposure to the finer things in life than we had.

I don’t think we ever even discussed it. It was a tacit mutual understanding.

Most parents profess to wanting more and better than they had for their children. But as homeschoolers we actually have the freedom to get really ambitious on this front.

Chrissy started with ballet from a young age and has kept with it – and even took a genuine ballet class in French while we lived in London! I ambitiously bought a guitar when they were younger – but they were simply too young. I had no idea how brutal guitar wires are on fingers! Like I said, I KNEW NOTHING.

I posted an ad on a homeschooling forum offering math tutelage (from me) in exchange for piano lessons. Another homeschool Dad took me up and our barter worked swimmingly for 1.5 years. One of my most memorable and proud moments was watching my kids perform, together only 13 months after we started:

What’s funny is how we assumed that John would hate it and Chrissy would love it….

Of course it worked out the other way. John fell in love with the ivory keys (well, the plastic ones on our quieter keyboard!) and Chrissy was a little more resistant.

Nevertheless we held firm and made her stick with it. Too many adults, like me(!), wish they could play the piano. And I even know a few who are flat out angry at their parents for not making them stick with the lessons .

Admittedly, it can be hard to get regular practice in when the kids are in school and inundated with homework.

It can be hard when the teacher is not flexible. Way too many teachers insist on perfection and assign dull music. My kids, and I make this clear to the teachers THAT I AM PAYING and they get to choose some pieces on their own. Chrissy was much more eager to practice when the songs were from the Frozen soundtrack!

And these days she’s moved on to Matilda:

Oh yeah, and she’s also begun using that guitar, finally. Her guitar teacher instructs via Skype – as does their piano teacher all the way from Spain! Check out Miss Tracy’s terrific online school – Music Lessons Anywhere.

And we, or THE KIDS themselves, keep ramping it up. Chrissy recently started with a lyrical/composition instructor and is now writing her own music for both the guitar and the piano. John has been composing piano music with a MIDI keyboard and online with Musescore (totally free!). Who knows where all this will lead next. I have heard of some homeschooled kids who play 7 or more instruments. How cool is that? And how much better and more well-rounded of an education are they getting than we got with 40 minutes of “school music” class, once per week!

Art…

This is a pretty easy one to outsource as well. Pottery classes, sewing classes, and organized art museum trips abound. There are also art lessons all over YouTube.

There are likely people in your social circles with an artistic bent. Put them to work when they are visiting! Hire an artistic babysitter on Friday date nights (when you go to Home Depot!)…

More informally you can just have lots of art supplies around the house and an area for them to make a mess with glue, paint, glitter, and permanent markers. (Just kidding about the latter!)

There’s a great book that all new homeschooling parents HAVE TO READ – Drawing With Children by Mona Brookes. I promise you it will change the way you think about art.

We also throw Ed Emberly books at my kids. We dedicate time to sitting and sketching informally and this is a great substitute for handing them electronic devices while waiting for food at a restaurant, in the dentist’s office, or even the backseat of the car on a long trip. Get lapdesks and leave them in your trunk.

One book that we have used for more formal instruction is Let’s Make Some Great Art.

If you want to go the digital route…

My kids started with Kerpoof.com (defunct now), then Pixton.com (cartooning), before moving on to graphic design….Canva.com (free!) and Photoshop (not free!). In fact, my son John is working his way through Adobe’s entire Creative Cloud. It’s not cheap at $50 a month but he’s learning marketable skills and using the parts of his brain that were dormant in my education.

There’s still so much more: woodworking (we’ve done a little), knitting (not yet), digital photography (soon?),…

The bonus of course is how much my wife and I are learning from being mere facilitators.

And that’s the key takeaway. You can be abysmally, culturally illiterate and still raise creative kids. Make sure you do it!

How do you encourage art and music in your homeschool?

[Dan1]