Art: Playing with Charcoal

I’ve heard it said that homeschooled kids don’t get exposed to real art instruction or making a mess with real art supplies unless those things are outsourced, because moms and dads don’t want to deal with the clean up. 

Don’t be afraid to make messes.  Life is messy and so is learning!  When we make mistakes (or happy accidents, depending upon how you look at them), we learn.  We grow in the making and the cleaning up. 

Besides, if I were afraid of cleaning up messes, I’d have to outlaw pencils and erasers.  Those little rubber doobers get everywhere and it seems at least one kid always has a graphite blackened hand, which can easily leave a find handprint on a wall.  So today we dabbled in charcoal.  

Emma (age 5):  Our family and

a polar bear at the north pole with an igloo and a rainbow

 

Peter (age 9):  some kind of a weird demon thing with invisible tentacles

 

Mary (age 11):  a cave

 

David (age 14):  a banana

You can see how the older kids are applying what they’ve learned in their own artwork.

We’ll be doing this again, soon.

What art are you doing in your homeschool?