Art enriches children's lives and their learning. Whether they are experiencing the joy of creating their own unique work or are learning about artists, children build skills and knowledge from having artistic opportunities.
Homeschool families have the opportunity to explore art in so many ways. You can encourage your kids to:
- Make art for art's sake—so they can experience creating!
- Make art as a way to learn about other subjects
- Make art as a lead-in to building handwriting skill
- Learn to use common art techniques in their own artwork
- Learn about artists, media, techniques, art history, and the current art world—"art appreciation!"
Homeschool Art Activities
Try these ideas to incorporate more art into your homeschooling:
- Make art together. Practice basic art techniques alongside your children, and sit down with them to create art at the same table together. For example, this video has three fun and easy watercolor techniques to try with kids. Watch the video, gather some basic art supplies, and set aside time to create with the kids.
- Add drawing to read-alouds. When you read aloud, encourage the kids to draw a scene based on what you're reading. Or you can all listen to an audiobook, and you can draw a scene, too. This practice builds comprehension and attention to detail, and it keeps hands busy during read-alouds. It might even be an early precursor to "taking notes." Consider giving each child a sketchbook just for their read-aloud sketches—think of all those book drawings in one place! (These are great to share with an evaluator if annual assessments are required in your state, too).
- Add art to other subjects.
- History:
- Encourage kids to create drawings or other art pieces to go with history lessons.
- Help kids learn about an artist who lived during a historic time period you are studying. They could even learn about artists' depictions of historical events.
- Create a history timeline, and have kids add drawings to the timeline to illustrate the history.
- Study the folk art and crafts of the historic time period you are learning about with the kids.
- Explore an event or period through its art. Picturing America from PBS LearningMedia explores seven periods of American history through art.
- Geography:
- Ask your kids to create colorful maps for the places they are learning about.
- Learn together about the artists and artistic traditions of specific countries and regions around the world.
- Science: Help your kids learn about the practice of nature journaling and begin spending more time outdoors with them, chronicling observations together.
- Math: Do math-related art projects, such as those suggested by What Do We Do All Day? Tessellations, patterns, symmetry, fractals, and Möbius strips can all be both mathy and artistic!
- History:
- Visit art exhibits and meet artists. Art museums and galleries can be a revelation to children. Museums might arrange a discount for your homeschool group. Have kids take their sketchbooks in case they want to try to sketch some of the artwork they see displayed. Take your kids to talk and listen to local artists, artists who are in residence at a university, and artists who may be exhibiting their work nearby.
- Look for art. Where is art displayed that it might not be expected? Help your kids take note of street sculptures, artwork in libraries and medical offices, and downtown murals. Is graffiti art? Are screen-printed tee shirts art? Talk about it!
- Do picture study. Educator Charlotte Mason advocated that homeschooling families do "picture study" of various artists to become familiar with their work. Simply Charlotte Mason has an informative video on how to do picture study with your family.
- Make books together. When pre-literate children tell a story, write the story down and have them draw pictures to illustrate. Bind the pages together into a little book. As children become interested in letters and words, allow them to copy or write portions of the words to go with the pictures.
- Encourage digital art. Consider purchasing digital art software for a tablet or computer so your kids and teens can create digital drawings, paintings, and more.
- Consider the impact of AI. Teens and some tweens enjoy learning about current events and controversy around most any topic. Ask them to research the impact of AI on artists and to propose a policy that would meet artists' concerns about AI-produced art.
Tips for success:
- Get the art supplies. Provide kids with good art materials and tools. Do some research if you're not sure what is good enough quality. Visiting an art supply store can help get you started. It's easier to stay on a budget if you get materials and tools for one medium at a time. Keep art supplies in reach and have a place for kids to work.
- Get the craft supplies. You'll also want to keep craft supplies on hand. Don't forget your kids can up-cycle many around-the-house items and create crafts with them. Your kids may be able to create with milk cartons, paper towel rolls, cereal boxes, and paper bags, as described in this article about up-cycling activities from PBS kids.
- Show interest rather than approval. When your child is creating art, focus on noticing details more than on making evaluative remarks. For example, you could say, "I see you used two different colors for the wings" rather than "good job on the wings." Even positive praise can have a surprisingly negative impact on creativity, as a child learns to wait on your approval rather than responding to your interest and curiosity.
- Go beyond visual arts. As you and your children explore what we typically think of as "art," also point out other types of art and discuss them. Include fashion, film, music, fiber arts, architecture, theater, creative writing, photography, and more.
- Don't overvalue representational art. When kids make art during their earliest years, they are not typically sensitive about whether their artwork is "realistic." Parents and non-artists, though, are frequently excited about art that depicts reality accurately. They may heap on the praise for how "real" a drawing looks. As kids get older and become more aware of any inability to render art work that "looks real," they may become discouraged and even quit drawing. Remember to value the originality of the creation.
- Frame and display. Show off your kids' and teens' artwork in your home!
- Y—Young (PreK-3rd)
- M—Middle (4th-6th)
- O—Older (7th-12th)
- T—Teacher Resources
Free Art Curriculum & Lesson Plans
Julianna Kunstler Comprehensive Art Curriculum
Julianna Kunstler is a high school art teacher who has generously made her curriculum available online for free. You can find lessons, slides, handouts, exercises, and step-by-step tutorials covering the elements of art and design (line, shape, color, balance, contrast, perspective, etc.) - and skill-building for specific art media (painting and drawing, digital art, ceramics, sculpture, digital photography, mixed media, and printmaking). Also included are a comprehensive art history class, complete with worksheets and slides, and a special needs art class collection of resources. The courses are designed for multi-year study.
Visual Arts Comprehensive I
This full online curriculum from Georgia Virtual Learning covers What is Art?; Elements and Principles of Arts; Drawing What You See; Aesthetics, Art Criticism and Art History; From 2D to 3D; and Color as Communication.
AP Art History
This is a full online curriculum from Georgia Virtual Learning.
Drawing I and Drawing II
These are full online curricula from Georgia Virtual Learning.
Photography I
This is a full online curriculum from Georgia Virtual Learning.
Arty Factory Lessons and Tutorials
Arty Factory offers design theory lessons and a broad range of illustrated, step-by-step tutorials for Aboriginal Art, African Masks, Ancient Egyptian Art, Still Life, Pencil, Colored Pencil, Charcoal, Painting, Perspective, Pen and Ink, and more. Also included are comprehensive Art Appreciation educational pages covering various time periods and styles of artwork.
Composition in Painting
In this four-lesson curriculum unit from EDSITEment, students are introduced to composition in the visual arts, including design principles, such as balance, symmetry, and repetition, as well as one of the formal elements: line.
Getty Museum Curricula and Teaching Guides
This robust collection contains multi-lesson curricula on a wide range of art and art history subjects.
Free Udemy Art Lessons
Choose from several free art lessons on the Udemy platform.
Allegory in Painting
"Although your students probably associate the word allegory with works of literature, such as Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen or George Orwell's Animal Farm, they may be less familiar with the application of allegory to the visual arts. This lesson plan introduces students to allegory in the visual arts through the works of a number of well-known artists, including Thomas Cole and Caravaggio." From EDSITEment
Horse of a Different Color: Introduction to Color in the Visual Arts
"In this curriculum unit students will be introduced to the importance and effect of color in the visual arts. Why do artists use particular colors in their compositions? The activities in this lesson will guide students towards a greater understanding of the ways in which color can focus the viewer's attention, give the illusion of depth in a two-dimensional medium, and affect the tone and mood of an artwork." From EDSITEment
Blick Art Supply Lesson Plans
Dozens of lesson plans using a variety of media and techniques
Video Playlist: Elements of Art Unit
This playlist from Miacademy with 26 videos from 10-15 minutes each covers the basic elements of art and includes a culminating project.
Videos: Creative Cricket
Creative Cricket makes fun, educational art videos for kids. Each video is designed to teach and inspire young artists to draw, illustrate, and think critically. Creative Cricket lessons strengthen children's minds and spark a life-long love of art. Videos feature loosely instructional steps on how to draw, color, illustrate. Each lesson comes packed with useful fun-facts and dialogue for the whole family. Great for all types of learners.
Art Museum Resources
Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture is collaboration of various museums, universities, and other cultural institutions. You can take virtual tours of museums around the world, find digital exhibitions on just about any topic, play games, take quizzes, find coloring pages, and tons more.
Museum of Modern Art Teacher Resources
MoMA offers online courses designed for K-12 classroom teachers and any other educators who want to learn about modern and contemporary art and develop their pedagogical skills. The site provides short lesson plans on different types of art styles, audio clips discussing different art collections, videos, a glossary of art terms, and more. Topics covered include: Art & Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies for Your Classroom, Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies for Engaging with Art, and Art & Ideas: Teaching with Themes.
Museum of International Folk Art Lesson Plans
The Museum of International Folk Art offers lessons based on folk art from Africa, Indonesia, India, Japan, Latin America, and more. Some of the lessons are offered in both English and Spanish. For grades K-12.
Museum of International Folk Art DIY Projects
A collection of DIY art projects based on world cultures from the Museum of International Folk Art.
The Kennedy Center Resource Library
The Kennedy Center offers students and educators a broad range of educational resources. You can find lessons, activities, talks, performances, and more covering music, dance, media art, performance art, theater, visual arts, women in the arts, indigenous arts, world arts, and much more.
National Gallery of Art Learning Resources
The National Gallery of Art offers teaching guides, unit studies, lessons, activities, videos, handouts and digital interactives for students of all ages. Topics cover specific artists, arts from various cultures, various styles of art, art history, the elements of art, and introductions to different art media, including drawing, photography, sculpture, and printmaking.
Victoria and Albert Museum Art, Craft, and Design Resources
The Victoria and Albert Museum has a large collection of lesson plans for students ages 11-18, covering calligraphy, architecture, fashion, textile art, photography, and jewelry, as well as arts from around the world.
San Jose Museum of Art Resources
The San Jose Museum of Art offers a large collection of video tutorials, lessons, activities, talks, and a virtual tours for students, parents, and art educators.
San Diego Museum of Art Tutorials
“SDMA Art Tutorials are a series of instructional videos that demonstrate a new art skill, technique, or material inspired by works of art in the Museum’s permanent collection. Whether you’re a beginner or a master artist, come learn from Museum educators with SDMA Art Tutorials!” Covers optical illusions, meditation drawing, pattern, etching, still life, calligraphy, and more.
Met Museum Lesson Plans
The Met Museum offers a range of art history lessons from around the world that look at various types of art – from ancient armor and architecture to sculpture and textiles.
The MET Kids
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an educational kids website where students can take a virtual tour of the Museum, explore the museum’s collection of art by time period, style, or media, and find a large collection of kid-friendly videos featuring talks and tutorials. Tutorials include carving, mosaic, stained glass, ceramics, weaving, printmaking, animation, fashion design, and more.
National Gallery of Art Teacher Resources
The National Gallery of Art's Division of Education offers online teaching units, digital teaching packets, and an additional library of teaching packets that can be borrowed.
Museum Coloring Pages
For adults and teens (preview for suitability), these coloring pages feature items from collections of various art museums, history museums, and libraries. From My Modern Met.
Exploratorium
The museum of science, art and human perception. Online since 1993, the Exploratorium was one of the first science museums to build a site on the World Wide Web. The site contains over 18 thousand award-winning Web pages, activities, and videos, exploring hundreds of different topics.
Vatican Museums Online
View the collections of dozens of museums on the MVSEI VATICANI website. Read about the artworks and Zoom into the details of paintings, frescoes and artworks from different eras of the Italian Peninsula from the Romans to the Renaissance.
Art History Curriculum
Free Art History "Textbook"
Reframing Art History is an open-access multimedia art history "textbook" from SmartHistory. Chapters were developed by a group of more than 40 experts, and the course showcases art and history from the bottom up. The website has additional resources for educators, including syllabi submitted by other teachers using Reframing Art History as a textbook.
Khan Academy Art History Course
Full art history course covering prehistoric art through the art of today as well as themes in art history, art of world regions, and a special unit for At Risk Cultural Heritage Education Series (ARCHES). An AP/College Art History course is also available.
Video: Art Through Time: A Global View
From the Annenberg Learner, a series of video programs on art across the world, art through history, and more, covering a wide variety of styles and how art changes in different environments.
Video Playlist: Crash Course Art History
Learn about art history—the study of objects and images to understand their meaning and the people, places, and times they come from—in this 22-episode playlist. Sarah Urist Green will teaches how to analyze and evaluate art, draw connections between different cultures and time periods, and ask big questions about how history gets made. The playlist is partially based on the AP Art History curriculum and that of an introductory university-level course.
Crash Course Art History Preview
Art Projects
Tate Kids
“Play free games and quizzes, find art activities, explore homework help and share your art with Tate Kids. The best art website for kids.”
Artist Quest
This site provides an extensive database of artists with short biographies and images of their more famous works. Provides a question guide for students to answer to help retain knowledge about each artist.
LEGO® Madness
Want to motivate your kids to turn off the computer and television this summer? Send them to this website and their play area will be strewn with LEGO® pieces before you know it. Eric Harshbarger has created hundreds of sculptures and mosaics using LEGO® pieces. Photos of them (some with multiple views) are posted on his website, along with a detailed FAQ to satisfy the curiosity of inspired artists-to-be.
KinderArt
Despite its name, KinderArt is not just a resource for primary grades. Whether you are looking for drawing lessons for your middle schooler or multi-cultural holiday crafts for any age, KinderArt is the place to look. The site includes lesson plans and project ideas.
Teach Art at Home
An excellent resource by an art teacher includes a monthly newsletter, free online projects, lesson plans, articles on teaching methods, and more!
The Imagination Factory - Recycling Art Projects
Kids at Art is a website dedicated to teaching how to use recycling in art. In addition to many projects, the site includes an exploration of various artwork around the country.
Video Playlist: Art Class
This playlist from Miacademy contains 16 short (5-minute) videos with a variety of projects.
