Keeping up with the Arts

When we decided to homeschool Leah I knew it would be challenging to keep the arts alive in our curriculum. She came from a performing arts school so I wanted to continue to educate her at the same level that she had been learning at with her school. But lets be honest, I am not the most artistic person in the world. Even my stick people need help. I am probably the least crafty person I know and as for my musical talents...well I can't really say too much about those either. I can remember fighting my mom every day on the way to piano lessons as a kid. I hated them! I played flute as a teen and I continue to play my flute whenever my husband dusts it off so I have a basic understanding of music but I am definately not a natural talent. Thank goodness I have such a wonderful mother who knows my strengths and weaknesses and urged me to get Leah into lessons. She also bought Leah a keyboard on her last visit. Now she has begun taking lessons from a real expert (not me!) and she is loving it! Thanks mom! (Notice Dillon singing in the background. These kids definately have McKee genes!)

We also study a different artist every Friday and then recreate his painting. Last Friday we learned about a famous Russian artist named Kandinsky. He was the first artist to create abstract art. We learned about different colours and how they work together and how they make you feel. This is Leah interpretation of Kandinsky's piece.

This is Kandinsky's painting. I think Leah did a pretty good job. Dillon did one too but unfortunately his ended up in the garbage as do most of his things. He is kind of going through a destructive phase as I am sure you have figured out from my other posts!