Art Day On Any Given Day in Homeschooling

Friday, June 26, 2015

A World Pool Without Water. Attika's watercolor on paper
Worrywart. Cole's oil pastel on paper

Do you go looking for inspiration or does it find you?

As a kid, I always looked forward to art day in school, which would always fall on a Friday. Friday was the best day of the week not only because it’s the last day of school, it was also that one grand day when I would be freed from the cataclysmic clutches of mathematics.

I wasn’t what you would call an artistic child, strangely, in a family of artists. Both my sisters are great sketch artists -- one is now enjoying a career as a tattoo artist. My late brother was a budding painter and inventor. Two of my maternal uncles are painters. Two of my cousins from different sides of the family are award-winning artists. 

On most Fridays of my life as a child, I celebrated convulsions of abstract expressionism—too abstract that no one, myself included, could explain nor interpret any of my artwork. It would be some sort of a "magical" experience for anyone looking at it. By magical I mean you could get lost looking at it, then you'd stay lost--that's it, just lost, stripped of all its poetic sense...for all eternity. But one day, I'm going to paint a cow. It's going to be so pretty it's going to look like a unicorn. 


I did paint a unicorn a few months ago. Both my children looked at it and struggled to guess what it was they were looking at. “It’s a cow!” our three-year old finally blurted out.  


One of my favorite spots at home
One of the questions people often ask us is “do you have art classes in homeschooling?” It is a question that to me is tantamount to “do you have Fridays?” Yes, we do have an art day, but which is not assigned to any day of the week. Art just happens and we let it.




Our thirteen-year-old has been too absorbed in his music since last year so he’d choose his guitar over paint brushes and charcoal blocks anytime. Our three-year-old, on the other hand, enjoys doing art and would suddenly stop from whatever she’s doing to declare, “I want to paint!”

Do we have formal art classes? Yes and no. Mr. Young (dad, boyfriend, sometimes husband, best friend, sous chef, carpenter, editor, so on and so forth) is an artist. Sometimes he’d teach the kids some techniques in painting and sketching, but they are not required to follow these techniques especially if they have something else in mind that they want to paint, draw or create. We have huge respect for self-expression when it comes to art. So a unicorn that turns into a cow is a well-respected work of art in our household.

This week, art day was Tuesday. On some weeks it’s everyday.


                      












cure for mondays is a top homeschooling philippine blog, best mommy blogger, top asia women's blog, best homeschool website, family issues blog, child stress, school work overload, sickly child, healthy diet for kids, manila mommy, art class, antipolo, oil pastel, watercolor

You Might Also Like

0 Comments

Tea Mates

Like us on Facebook

Subscribe