ABCs of Homeschooling With Grace
Week 1: A is for Art & Advice
I decided to post each week with two subjects: first I will share some teaching resources we love in our homeschool, and second some advice for mom.
This week is all about the letter A and I am highlighting Art resources for your homeschool and places to find Advice for mom…
Art Resources
Art History: Polite Sarcasm (with Sister Wendy)
Ideas & Fostering Creativity: Dancing Sculptures, Cookie Creations (painting & baking), Chaos Begats Creativity, Togetherness
Teaching Art: Awesome Color & Color Wheel Printables, Formula For Success (teaching art in your homeschool),
Free Resource for Homeschoolers: AwesomeArtists.com
Reviews of Art Supplies & Resources
Top Notch Video-based Fine Art Courses for Homeschoolers: Creating A Masterpiece With My Son – Reviewing A Homeschool Art Curriculum
Sculpting Clay: Rigid Wrap and CelluClay Quik-Sculpting Kit from ACTÍVA Products
Dry Paint Markers: Out of the Box Art With Thin Stix | A Review
Advice for Mom
We can all use a friend, someone to chat with and someone to look to for advice. This is generally pretty doable for most of us, but when it comes to looking for Homeschooling advice things can get a bit tricky.
There are so many interest groups and communities focused on all sorts of aspects of learning styles and worldviews that it can be pretty confusing to figure out where to turn for help. The more specialized the communities get, the more you end up with advice from an echo chamber. And that won’t really help you get answers you wouldn’t have thought of yourself.
The best place to look for advice when you are homeschooling is from people who are a bit out of your normal circles. Not so far out that their advice will conflict with your principles, though.
In general you don’t expect to get great advice from a Christian classical homeschooler if you are, say, an Atheist unschooler. But maybe you will. Maybe they will have a bit of advice about a wonderful book or a method to teach your child math. Contrary to the myths out there, the unschoolers I know have parents who actually teach them the basic subjects. (I think there are not many who leave their kids to completely ‘explore’ their way on their own through their school years.)
I think you need to find lots of people that you can tap for advice. It will not always be advice you will use. Perhaps some of it might not be comforting either. But comforting advice is actually pretty easy to find now that we have the Internet with filled with Forums and Facebook Groups galore.
To me it is kind of like high school was. My high school was absolutely gobsmacked with groups. We were an accumulation of non-interacting interest-based cliques. You probably had a similar experience as a teen. It is thankfully not an experience my children share. One of the beautiful parts of homeschooling is that kids learn to get along with everyone, no matter their age or interests.
We live in a geographic area that is frankly pretty devoid of people with the same worldview my husband and I share.
As a result, I have had to look for advice in places that were not exactly sources I would have considered on my own. And yet some of the best homeschooling advice came from people who were a lot different from me. And a lot of those people turned into great friends who really don’t care that we don’t share a worldview. What we share is a common desire to do the best we can for our children. And that is enough.
So here are some places I look for advice:
Homeschool playground groups (all kinds, any sort that your kids like going to). I hooked up with a number of these when my kids were little. One group even had a “new homeschooling moms” bench that was “staffed” by veteran homeschooling moms who answered our questions.
The parents bench (on homeschool day at the trampoline place, the swimming pool, or the gymnastics studio). Some of the best advice I have gotten came from moms I met while our kids were hopping on trampolines every week.
Do you have a favorite spot to find advice that keeps you sane?