10 Easy Ways to Incorporate Art into
Your Homeschool Day

There are many easy, fun, and engaging ways to incorporate art into your homeschool day. Take a look at the ideas and suggestions below and choose those that will work for the ages and interests of your children as well as fit your schedule for the day.

Take a Virtual Tour or Field Trip

The availability of virtual tours of museums and galleries makes this a great opportunity to incorporate art into your homeschool day. First, decide what period of art you and your children would like to take a tour or field trip in: Renaissance art, modern art, or Impressionist Art. Once you make a decision, search for museums and galleries which have those art collections and then set aside a day and time for the virtual tour or field trip.

Read Biographies of Artists

Learning about the lives of artists can add art to your homeschool day. For this option, you can select artist biographies of the province (or state) where you live to learn about artists local to your area. Or you can learn about artists from other countries (France, Germany, or England) and other centuries.

Alternate Art Days

Alternate art days with other creative days. For example, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, your children might do music and then Tuesday and Thursday will be art days. This will help you to look forward to and prepare for days when art is scheduled. Or perhaps Friday is your fine arts day, but which form of the arts you do will vary by the week.

Design and Plant a Garden

At first, this may not seem like art-related learning. However, designing and planning a garden involves learning about color, planning the use of available space, and knowing the size of the plants.

In learning about color, children can discover the many colors that flowers come in and develop knowledge of color theory such as complementary colors and analogous colors. Before planting a garden, children and teens can learn about how much space they have available for plants, the size plants grow to, how much light or shade plants need, and how much space is needed between plants.

Create an Art Journal

Select an unlined notebook for your child or let them select their own, and designate that their art journal. This can be something they draw in while you are doing your read alouds. They can draw what you are reading in the book. They can also bring their art journal with them when you do fun outings and on the way home can draw about something that they did. Perhaps you’d even want to let them glue things in, like a leaf from a walk through the woods. If you don’t want to glue it in, maybe they could do a leaf rubbing or just trace and colour.

This can also be a nice keepsake to look back on in years to come to show different things you did and read during that school year.

Find Materials in Nature to Use for Art

Spend some time outside to find materials in nature that can be used to make art. For example, rocks can be used to paint on and create rock art. Bark and other similar materials can be used as textures, either to place a paper on the bark or other material and capture it on paper or to incorporate into art in some other way.

Be Encouraged and Equipped

The Virtual Family Retreat is available for free all year long! See all four days of the recorded event and pick the segments that appeal to you. Time stops below every video. Go to www.virtualfamilyretreat.com

Spend Time Drawing, Painting, and Taking Photos Outside

Whether in your yard or at a nearby park, pack a few art materials (a sketchbook, pencils, erasers, pens, colored pencils) and capture on paper or in photographs what you see. Is there an interesting tree, a cozy home with nice architecture, or a park bench to draw? Or would you prefer to take photos of flowers in bloom? Enjoy time outside while practicing and honing art skills.

Hands On Learning: The Art Colouring Book

Go to an Art Show, Concert, Play in a Park

Do a search online and find out if there are any outdoor art shows, plays, or concerts in your neighborhood or elsewhere close by that would be of interest for your family to go to. Once you have found one, plan and prepare a picnic and enjoy a fun afternoon or evening viewing art, seeing a play, or listening to music. Afterwards, discuss what you liked or did not like and why, your thoughts on the costumes, the variety of subjects for artwork, and more.

Borrow Art Books

You can go to your local library and find books containing different works of art. Borrow some different varieties of art books and leave them in areas where your children are likely to look them up and browse through them. (for example, the coffee table or end table by the couch) Of course, you will want to preview these books first to check for appropriateness, but this is a fun way to expose kids to different types of paintings and artwork for no cost!

This may even lead to different learning trails you can follow if a child expresses interest in a certain artist or type of art!

Learn About Careers in Art and Music

If your children are in high school, set aside some time to learn about careers in art and music. Research the skills, education, and experience needed for the job that your child is interested in pursuing. Below are links to articles on The Canadian Schoolhouse about careers in art, music, photography, and writing.

From virtual tours and field trips to outdoor pursuits, there are many ways to incorporate art into your homeschool day. Enjoy the opportunity of developing knowledge and honing skills in art as well as appreciating art.

Another related article you may enjoy:

How Does Art & Music Fit in Your Home Learning?

This article has been written by homeschooling staff writers of The Canadian Schoolhouse (TCS). Enjoy more of our content from TCS contributors and staff writers by visiting our themes page that has a new theme topic added every month!