How to Homeschool Art

Art has always been a huge part of our homeschool because I am an artist. I love making art, I love teaching art, and I love watching children create art! After we began homeschooling, I realized that a lot of families did not regularly incorporate art into homeschool. These were the most common reasons I heard:

• I don’t have an artistic bone in my body; I could never teach art.
• It costs too much money to send them to art lessons.
• My kids are not artistic.
• It’s too hard to get all of that out and clean it up.
• I don’t have the bandwidth to add one more thing to all that I’m teaching.
• Art and music are not as important as reading, writing, arithmetic, and science.

If this sounds familiar, here are some great ways to bring art into your homeschool this year.

1. You don’t have to be artistic to teach art; you only have to be willing. That’s your first step! There are some truly amazing homeschool art resources if you are willing to step out of your comfort zone and learn with your children. (For what it’s worth, I didn’t know I had any mathematical bones until we successfully conquered Algebra!)
2. The second way to incorporate art is to explore and see what’s out there. From online instruction via YouTube, to subscription boxes, or homeschool co-ops that meet via Zoom, there are lots of ways to learn art together inexpensively or for free.
3. If your child lacks an interest in making art, that doesn’t mean there is no room to appreciate iconic paintings, sculpture, artifacts, and architecture. Learning about art—even without creating it—will give your children a great art education. Studying art history by using flash cards is a great way to bring art into the homeschool classroom.
4. If you are annoyed by the mess, that doesn’t mean that you have to give up on art. Opt for drawing with pencils & colored pencils in a sketchbook. It has zero mess, may be taken anywhere, and is completely self-contained (not to mention affordable.)
5. Stop thinking about art as its own subject, and start thinking of art as an extension of other subjects—like history or writing. Every culture has always had art! Sketching can be incorporated into whatever you’re doing in your core curriculum (reading, writing, science, and math.)
6. Art has always been the perfect arena for experimentation that leads to discovery in other academic disciplines. Leonardo DaVinci. Benjamin Franklin, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein are prime examples of well-rounded students whose education included equal emphasis on humanities and sciences. Science and math are incredibly artistic!

What are your favorite ways to incorporate art in your homeschool classroom? Tell us in the comment section below.