making lately: art history lessons for kids

I know all of us homeschooling-by-default parents have been inundated with online resources in the last few weeks; while there's tons of great stuff out there, I have to believe I'm also not alone in being totally overwhelmed by navigating it. So I'm here to admit first of all that mostly I just hand Hendrik his assignments from his teacher (plus a bunch of extra math sheets that I print out from here, because he finishes his work wayyyy too fast), and I'm pretty hands-off about the rest, given that I also need to work. And that I am not a teacher. Mostly I feel no guilt about that, partly because I decided I'd pick one or two areas where I would be hands-on, ones that I'm personally interested in, and then we'll call it good on just handing him worksheets for the rest...

One of those areas: art history! Hendrik actually requested this early on, in place of his art "special" that he'd usually have on Wednesday afternoons at school, because he was interested in learning about more artists. Do the internet and I cobbled together some background information about a few artists, along with a hands-on fun project inspired by that artist. I was a double major in college with English and Art History, and those textbooks that I hung on to for like 15 years are actually coming in handy, as a tangible item to page through and look at works of art, but there are good lessons online as well as some great kids' art history books (love this series). We're keeping it quite simple, but you might enjoy these projects too!

Our first one was Gustav Klimt, a great place to learn about pattern and decorative art. We used this lesson to learn a little about him and his work, and to make a collage inspired by The Kiss. This lesson inspired by his Tree of Life painting that I came across as well would probably be great for young kids.

Next up, Henri Matisse, a very favorite of mine. We mostly just paged through my art history books (or you could Google image search him) to notice the abstract shapes, vibrant colors, and bold lines. We talked a little about how this was a departure from the realism of painting at the time. And then we got out some oil pastels (fun art supplies are a joy for both of us!) and used him as our inspiration to use bright colors and organic shapes.

And this week we did a Pablo Picasso lesson thanks to a link that a reader shared with me. The chart of Picasso-inspired facial features to pick from was a fun way to give a self-portrait a la Picasso a try. It was also fun to talk about how you might see something in this Cubist style and immediately peg it as a Picasso, but then to compare his early, more realistic, works from my art history textbook as a way to talk about the evolution of an artist's style and think about how people grow and change over time in their creativity.

Some supplies and books that are good resources for these simple projects:

Now I'm on the hunt for a good Van Gogh inspired project, because picking artists whose work just brings me visual joy is bringing me homeschool joy too. What area are you most excited to homeschool in? Maybe you'll have some inspiration for me to get interested in interacting with science or math alongside my kid... Meanwhile I'm getting some good relaxation out of creating art here!