Homeschooling Young Children? Here Are 5 Key Benefits To Adding A Good Art Program

Homeschooling your children? I assume this means you want the best for your kids. An opportunity to give your children a rich multi sensory, personalized type of education.........Is art included in your curriculum?

If you want the best type of education for your children then ART must be included in your day to day curriculum activities

When I say good art I am not talking about the standard traditional arts and crafts that is done in so many preschool and kindergarten classrooms all over the world. That may be something you do do with your kids on a spur of the moment thought when a Holiday is coming up, or you need to make something for Grandma.

But that's not what I'm talking about.

Nope ,you left that. You left that along with the traditional world of education because you wanted something better for your kids, something that they cant get in most traditional classrooms with upwards of 20 kids.....

You probably spend quite a bit of time looking for curriculum on line for your homeschooling curriculum and that's great because you get to choose what and how your kids will be learning.

You do not however realize how necessary and valuable it is for your kids to make sure that there is a solid art program being integrated with the rest of your homeschooling curriculum.

Many parents have some kind of vague ideas about why we give our kids art and some of its benefits.

Oftentimes traditional preschool teachers have just as vague ideas and below are some of the reasons I've heard from some traditional educators, preschool teachers as to why they give their students arts and crafts

1. They need the children to remember their lessons and figure that an art project will help them do that
2. They want them to learn to follow directions so they give them step by step directions on how to follow cookie cutter art projects
3. They need to fill up time in the day, so what better way than an art project
4. They claim that this is what the Mothers want

So tell me Moms, you are some of the mothers they are talking about (well maybe you're not exactly really not since your kids are being home schooled) but is this really what you want?

Do you want your kids to follow cookie cutter instructions that turn them into little robots for them to make projects that look exactly like everyone elses?

No! I didn't think so.

But I do think that you may not know any alternatives and in working so hard trying to put together some good homeschooling curriculum for your children sometimes art gets lost in the shuffle and that's too bad.

That's too bad because art gives adds such depth to any curriculum that it would be a crying shame when you have the opportunity at home to give such great activities to have your children lose out on these experiences.

Art is not only fun, it's lifesaving and life building and I would like to share with you 5 reasons for you to include really good art into your homeschooling curriculum

1. Art helps build physical coordination. Art is good for both gross motor coordination AND fine motor coordination. Gross motor coordination, the development of large muscle is not only helped by things like ball playing and beam balancing but young children also use their arms during art with wide sweeping movements ans they paint and draw that help build those large muscle. Of course fine motor coordination is better understood as benefit ted from art.. Cutting, gluing, painting, drawing. Your child's small fingers are developing each time they use these art tools
2. Emotional development- There is no question that art can help a child through many difficult emotional experiences. If a child is jealous of a new baby sibling, she or he can pound on some clay and color furiously instead of pounding on the baby herself. Children also end to use art to work through issues that bother them such as a death in the family, a fire or other disturbing event. (I once taught little girl who had a fire in her home and for weeks that's all she talked and drew and painted about until she calmed down.)
3. Intellectual development (often known as cognitive development). Children learn to make sense of their world as they use art to count, classify, sort, make their own decisions and learn to follow directions without doing cookie cutter art.
4. Creativity...Of course children's creativity takes a flying leap if they are allowed to do art that allows them to create at their own level, which allows them to be creative in more ways than one
5. Integrating curriculum And last but not least art in a home schooling curriculum can help integrate the curriculum and help them learn. Children learn best through their senses and the more art is integrated with the homeschooling curriculum the more their learning will stay with them.

Author Info:

Don't let your children lose out...if you are homeschooling, then you should definitely be homeschooling with art.

Faige Kobre a former preschool teacher and director for many years is a graduate of Bank Street College Of Education probably the foremost graduate school in the area of progressive education. Aside from her teaching and directing experience she also runs workshops for teachers specializing in non crafts art for the preschool classroom She is also the creator of Creative Art Solutions for kids, teaching parents how to empower their children through art http://www.notcraftsforkids.com (She is also the proud mother of 6 and grandmother of 1)

99% of America's Parents Home-School

Yes, it is true. According to many other parents, and from personal experience, the average child in today's public schools brings home two to four hours of homework each day. Some teachers expect parents to go over the homework and make sure it is correct, before the children take it back to school. Now, of course, we need to be helping our children, but there is a big difference between helping them and walking them through their homework. Are we not schooling our children after school when we do this?

I schooled my son at home from kindergarten through second grade with a wonderful virtual academy and the K12 curriculum. For third grade, he was adamant about trying the local public school. My husband and I agreed to let him have the experience so it would not later be a 'what if' in the back of his mind.

The first day of school, he brought home a planner with daily calendars. The calendars listed the homework he should complete every night. He explained that his teacher said for me to initial beside each assignment to show that I saw him complete it. Sure, that sounded like a good idea to keep parents involved.

The second day of school he brought the previous day's homework back home. His teacher noted on one of his worksheets that I had missed a mistake he made. My first thought was, "How do you know where his weaknesses are if I am correcting his work?" My next thought was, "Isn't it part of his teacher's job to catch the mistakes?"

I decided to pay a surprise visit to the school and sit in on my son's class one morning. There was a large white board on the wall with the list of classes for each day. The mornings were three hours of language arts classes, and much of the afternoons were math classes. I wondered if this what they meant by "teaching to the test". Those are the subjects on the third grade standardized tests. It was obvious where the focus was in the classroom and why they were bringing home so much homework. Where were the science, history, and cursive writing lessons?

I have since been informed that if the school does not do well overall on the aptitude tests, it may not get the federal funding it needs and it may be put on academic probation. That status has to be reported and many parents opt to send their children to other, higher-ranking schools. We all know that the money follows the child.

I wonder what would happen if more public schools were to teach some test-taking skills and focus less on teaching to the test. Perhaps the teachers would have more time to actually teach the academics our students need to become successful adults. That would then cause less stress for our children and teachers. They might possibly have the attitude, "I'll just show what I know". Is that not what the exams were meant for in the first place?

For several reasons, we are back with our state's virtual academy. We did our state testing this spring, just as the public schools did. We recently received the report, "First scores are out and they are wonderful! Reading scores have been published and we rocked!" Guess what - it IS possible to just teach, and the students do well on the tests, and no stress. Also, since we have no evening homework, we have more time for family and extracurricular activities.

Now, the 99% figure makes more sense, does it not? I do not believe all public schools are poor or teach to the test, although it is happening more often each year. This issue is just one of many reasons why more and more parents are turning away from the public school system. They are searching and finding better alternatives to give their children a quality education and home life.

Author Info:

Anna Hodges has a passion for writing and has been an entrepreneur for many years. She is also an affiliate marketer. You can check out her blog and site here: http://annasversatilewriting.com While there, take a look at her blog roll for very interesting business resources, as well as healthy alternatives and other great links.

What Kind of Homeschool Teacher Are You?

Rosemary Vincent, probably in her fifties at the time, was my science teacher in the seventh and eighth grades. Although she made science interesting, at the time she was my not my favorite teacher. She made us "toe the line." It was no problem for her to handle our class of 34 students who eventually graduated from eighth grade. She demanded good behavior, insisted that we learn great quantities of facts and ideas, and quizzed and tested us constantly to make sure that we were learning what she told us to learn. Although not a Christian, she required that we bear the yoke and expected us to obey them that have the rule over you. Lam. 3:27 Heb. 13:17 Mrs. Vincent's attitude toward us was, "This is what we are doing, this is how we will do it, and this is what you will be required to know when we finish. There are no options given, no excuses allowed, and no arguments accepted."

Mrs. Vincent believed that the teacher was the expert, and she taught us what we were to learn. We didn't get to "discover and learn on our own." But, we were children, and even though this was back in the 60's and discipline was more severe, our foolishness was alive and well. A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself. Prov. 18:2 Acting the part of the fool, we had no delight in understanding, and we were experts at discovering ourselves- thinking of those things that just might please our fleshly nature. Somehow Mrs. Vincent figured us out every time. We couldn't eat in class, talk to each other, chew gum, go to the bathroom during class, pass notes, or slouch on our hard wooden seats (this really made us suffer, because most of us were very active outdoors and consequently a bit bony). Mrs. Vincent didn't even allow us to vote or voice our opinion on class procedure, to decide which textbook we would use, or to decide what area of science we wanted to study! The classroom wasn't set up as a "coffee house" so that it fit our young teenage desires and so that we felt welcome. Everything seemed against us - she thwarted our every move to make life in science class more bearable.

We actually thought she was unconcerned about us and that she only loved her subject. She was pleasant if we behaved ourselves, but she wasn't syrupy sweet, and she didn't even seem concerned about us if we got light-headed during a dissection (and she gave us no option to escape either). We didn't get to make any choices on our own, and we got nowhere if we went home and complained to our parents. You see, I'm sure we tried our best to twist the truth just a bit so that our parents would call our teacher and "straighten her out" in order to make life a little more bearable for us. Unfortunately, our parents were well pleased with her, and even if not, she was not to be manipulated in this way.

Worst of all, Mrs. Vincent didn't even make an attempt to soothe our tender little feelings by assuring us that, "It won't be hard. This will be fun!" She had no interest in the "sing-along science," which we would have enjoyed, and she had no use for the "slow and steady get me ready" style of material. She was actually rough on us- even forcing us to memorize masses of facts such as the chemical symbols for the elements on the periodic table. This was not a one time occurrence, but she forced us to work hard all year, and she even required science projects! Oh, how most of us hated to study and learn these things! How she tried our patience, denied us our comforts, and refused to let us be lazy!

As I look back, as your children will also do someday, Mrs. Vincent was the best teacher I had in Junior High. Mrs. Vincent, as I see now, was the teacher who loved us the most. It was her love for us which motivated her to prepare us for the difficult "other side of life"- the adult world. This was a life she knew all about, but we didn't have a clue about what was coming and what was to be expected of us as adults. She ran head on into our old nature, and she was victorious. We didn't know (and wouldn't have cared if we had known!) that she was building into us self-discipline, the ability to manage time (through homework and studying for tests), the work ethic (1 Tim. 5:8), study skills, determination, knowledge, and yes, a love for learning!

There is a false idea today that if children have fun while they learn then they will want to learn all their lives. What is wrong with this idea is that what is fun in childhood is usually left in the past. What a child is forced to do habitually is eventually what he enjoys doing as an adult! I've lived over a half century now, and still buy science magazines, get science books out of the library, research scientific topics on the internet, and love learning more about God's creation (although Mrs. Vincent did not tell us it was God's creation). Mrs. Vincent knew what we needed, and although she understood that we would not enjoy it, she knew that forcing us to fight against our own personal "good feelings" was what would make us stronger and more prepared for the adult life.

Today we think it almost cruel to make children learn facts, but that idea is playing right into the devil's court. Those who are ignorant in the area of science (as many Christian adults are) are those who see very little of the power and ability of God through the creation. A dumbed-down population easily falls for the idea of evolution! A dumbed-down population knows so little it must follow someone who "appears" to be wise, like the devil - and someday the world will gladly welcome the rule of the anti-Christ who will seem to have ability, power, and intelligence. (Rev. 13)

Mrs. Vincent helped to prepared me for high school and six years of college. When chemistry came along in high school, I was ready for this advanced learning because I knew the symbols for the important chemical elements and knew some characteristics about them. Without that I would have "gone under." In addition, thanks to my other Junior High teachers, algebra wasn't a desperate struggle because I had been forced to learn all of the multiplication tables (and we didn't even get to use calculators - they hadn't been invented yet). English was bearable because I had already been forced to learn hundreds of rules of grammar. All of the public schools of today promote the religion of humanism (mankind is the god), so education becomes man-centered instead of Christ-centered. The child is a little "god," and his feelings are considered first at the expense of behavior, the teacher, and the things that need to be learned. Hopefully this does not exist in the Christ-centered homeschool!

Copied from ANCIENT LANDMARKS by Gary Maldaner.

Author Info:

For more articles and for books to help children and parents please see our web site. http://www.plainpath.org Gary Maldaner is the Director of Plain Path Publishers, a non-profit ministry established in 1985. His past experience includes teaching for three years in a public school, twelve years in Christian Schools, and homeschooling for ten years. He is the author of Christian Manhood, Christian Character, Christian Leadership, Polite Moments, Ancient Landmarks, What Saith the Scripture, and The Prodigal Son and His Elder Brother.

College and the Home School Report Card

Despite the success of homeschooling programs in recent years, many parents remain concerned about future opportunities for their children who are home schooled. Among the most common questions asked by parents who are considering homeschooling, the possibility of attending college remains a primary concern.

Many people who have not looked extensively into homeschooling are surprised to learn that homeschooling children have done very well in recent years. Many perform better than the average public school student, and some have even attended the most prestigious schools in the country.

With this success in mind, parents should not be afraid that their children will not be admitted into college. Nevertheless, it would be wise for parents to investigate college requirements long before the child is ready to graduate from high school. Most colleges require a transcript, and at first glance this may seem like a difficult task for a home schooler.

However, if the homeschool program you follow has a good structure, it shouldn't be too difficult to record grades and form some sort of transcript record to use with college admission applications. In addition, all students are able to take standardized tests such as the SAT, and homeschooled students typically do better than the average student taking these tests.

In addition to transcripts and standardized test scores, the personal essay allows a student to demonstrate his writing ability along with what areas of study the student may be interested in. Taking advanced placement courses is another way to demonstrate the student,s potential. The standardized test scores, along with the personal essay and any advanced placement scores, help to independently verify the students' achievement in the homeschool program.

Despite the challenges, parents should not shy away from the possibility of homeschooling because of fear for their child's future. If they take adequate steps, their children's education will undoubtedly be enriched, not devalued, through homeschooling.

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If you would like more information about college and the homeschool report card as well as general information on homeschooling, please visit http://homeschoolingbasics.info