Art Appreciation, Art Instruction

What to Draw and How to Draw It!

What to Draw & How to Draw it by E. G. Lutz (PDF ebook)

A wonderful “how to” drawing book originally published in 1913, which shows young artists, step-by-step, how to create all sorts of characters, animals, buildings & other fanciful cartoons & designs. It is a delight, and many of you will have to pry your kids away from this one. Check it out!

To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer

Art Appreciation, Language Arts, Pratical Skills

Old Time Proverbs to Think About Today

Old Time Proverbs to Think About Today

illustrated by Honor B. Appleton

Do your children know what a proverb is? A “proverb” is a short, simple saying that expresses a truth or piece of advice based on common sense or practical experience.

Here’s a wonderful collection of old-fashioned proverbs, illustrated with some delightful full color cartoons of children that dramatize one application of the saying.

But that’s just a beginning. Go one step further, and this little book becomes a great discussion starter for parent and child. As you go through these proverbs, ask your little readers:
What is the meaning of this old proverb? How does this picture demonstrate this old proverb? What are some other ways that this proverb could be illustrated? Is there any lesson in this old proverb that we should remember?

Just try it with your young readers. You’ll love this colorful, fanciful little collection! Highly recommended!

To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and then “save link” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key then click the link and save to your mac.

Art Appreciation, Critical Thinking

Stories Pictures Tell

Stories Pictures Tell (Book One) by Flora L. Carpenter

Our friends at Living Books Curriculum have provided today’s freebie – a unique guide to using examples of classic artwork in your homeschool.

While it is fairly easy to find information about an artist, often very little is available about their pictures. The simple step-by-step lessons in this guide lead children to think critically about the picture they are viewing and consider what the artist was conveying, and what the story behind the picture might be. This is a wonderful resource for art appreciation.

To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key then click the link and save to your mac.

Art Appreciation

Classic Art Appreciation

Here’s a wonderful page that’s chock full of art appreciation lessons, art activities and downloads from Nadene Esterhuizen at PracticalPages. Of particular interest are the excellent resources about famous artists & their work, and an extensive art era timeline.

As Nadene writes in her introduction, these follow the Charlotte Mason method of study:

“Children should learn pictures, line by line, group by group, reading, not books, but pictures themselves … After a short story of the artist’s life … the pictures are studied one at a time. Children learn not merely to see a picture but to look at it, taking in every detail.”

These are excellent art history/appreciation tools for all ages!

CLICK HERE to go to the download page

Art Appreciation, Arts & Crafts

The Art Zone

The National Gallery of Art has a great interactive art  site called THE ART ZONE – an amazing array of art project activities for kids to create their  own works of art online.  Create portraits, animated scenes and landscape paintings in the style of American primitive artists… and much, much more! Loads of mind-boggling computer art fun here.

Download the Art Zone or NGAkids App applications to your Macintosh or Windows-based computer, or order the free CDs. There is also an iOS version of the NGAkids App for iPad. These interactives are not available for online play.

Click here to go to the site!