Artful Homeschooling

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We have been having lots of fun with art the past few days. I really love all the creativity and the happiness I see on the girls faces. This has really factored into my schooling planning for the year. In the book, the Artful Parent, she talks about how she makes art a part of her home life with her kids. She calls it artful parenting. I am thinking that we are not only going to do that,  but take it a step further and become Artful Homeschoolers! Art is important to me girls and I love it too. I read about the Project Based Homeschooling and I loved the idea of it. However, that is based on what the child chooses to study. While I love doing that, I have the issue that my girls are going to need to do certain things in their school work, even if they don’t want to. So instead of waiting for them to choose something to work on and dig in, I am going to make the art a part of the school plan for the lessons that I am going to give. If we are learning about Africa, then they can create a map or an animal that they are learning about. If we are learning about Space, then they can create planets  and solar systems. The possibilities are endless and they can even create with their math and language work. Make puppets to go with their story or make fractions out of clay. You see the more I think about this, the more I realized that they need to create to learn thing on a deeper level. They cant just read about it or hear me talk about it.  They need to discover it on their own. As Maria Montessori said, “Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment”. Their work is so important. The work of their hands is really what is going to help them learn. I can see Bunny and Pup both moving away from a lot of materials. It makes me sad, but at the same time I am proud that they are mastering so much. However, their need to work with their hands hasn’t gone away! So I see some of their work this year becoming more artful. As they make things they will need to know the information to do it well. So our Montessori journey has led us to be artful homeschoolers! My goal for their education is that it inspire them to want to know more about the world around them! I want them to dig really deep into the things that mean a lot to them and to know how to find the information. So I think that our path is changing and I am excited to see where its going!

Do you see a new path for your school plan this year? What new ideas are you thinking about?