Creative Pursuits - Virtual Curriculum Fair Week 5

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Welcome to "Seeking Beauty" and Week 5 of the 2017 Virtual Curriculum Fair, hosted by Homeschooling Hearts & Minds! This week's focus is on the Arts, and on all the things that bring beauty to our world and homeschool.

Although most of us think of art and music when we're discussing beautiful things in education, this could also include Bible studies and ministry projects, all kinds of handcrafts, nature study, and so much more! I think any elective type of study brings beauty, because they are so often the studies that we want to include because they spark our imagination or fuel our creativity. In my homeschool, I've got just one student now, and she does happen to be one that loves art and music, but that wasn't necessarily the case with my older kids, so we've got some experience in choosing electives that weren't particularly artsy!

Kennady earned two full credits for music study last year, and will earn another two this year. She is part of a Children's Chorus that provides a comprehensive music education and performance program. She is in the upper level chorus, and they learn and perform some pretty challenging pieces! They memorize almost all of their music, sing several different styles and in other languages.

a fuzzy picture of rehearsal for a Christmas concert performance

Kennady also studies an instrument - she takes guitar lessons every week and plays with the worship team every other week at church. She absolutely loves the ukulele too, and owns at least three, and she plays them all the time. (She actually strums the ukulele while reading sometimes, and it's not unusual to hear her playing ukulele when she should probably be giving her full attention to something like math. *ahem*)

During high school, we haven't been working on a specific art curriculum, but Kennady works on enough art projects that it's likely she'll earn at least a half credit for art again this year. Last year her art projects included some that related to her geography course, some that were just for fun, and one major project - designing and painting a large backdrop canvas for a kids play at church. This year she hasn't done as many school-related projects - yet - but she's done a few just for fun (like decorating old 78 records), and she designed another backdrop canvas, so I'll just have to see what her total output is by the time I need to award credits at the end of the year.

the finished backdrop from December 2016

The other elective she is completing this year is Phys.Ed. How much beauty Phys.Ed. brings to your world is somewhat dependent on how much you enjoy the class or the activities, I suppose! When I was in school, I liked exactly nothing about my Phys.Ed. class, so it was not at all beautiful to me. My kids, however, have always enjoyed the co-op gym class we've been a part of for many years, so to them, it has been a beautiful thing. Even if the beauty part of it is mostly found in the fun and social aspect of playing sports with their friends.

The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety. ~Felix Mendelssohn

Fine Arts curriculum and resources we've used and loved:

ARTistic Pursuits

Everyday Easels at SchoolhouseTeachers.com

Geography Through Art

Practical Drafting - Applied Engineering Graphics and Practical Graphic Design. both from Insight Technical Education

DrumsWithWillie

See my related posts:

Fine Arts Favorites

From the High School Lesson Book - Music Studies

Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them? ~Clara Schumann

What beautiful things do you linger over and enjoy in your homeschool? Leave a comment and let me know! Also, please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers as they share thoughts on "Seeking Beauty" in this week's Virtual Curriculum Fair.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair 2017. This year the Virtual Curriculum Fair is hosted by Susan at Homeschooling Hearts & Minds. Visit my fellow bloggers listed below and see how they are "Seeking Beauty" (all posts will be live by noon EST on January 30, 2017)!

Living & Loving Art by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Putting the Fun in School by Michele @ Family, Faith and Fridays

Art Fun In Our Homeschool by Amanda @Hopkins Homeschool

Fine Arts Is The Fun Part by Laura @ Four Little Penguins

Washing Dust Off Our Souls by Lisa @ Golden Grasses

Bringing Beauty Into Your Homeschool Through Poetry by Dana @ Roscommon Acres

Seeking out the beauty... by Kim @ Good Sweet Love

Joy in Home Education by Sarah @ Delivering Grace

Teaching Drawing (When You Can't Draw) by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home

Homeschool Art for the Artistically Challenged by Brittney @ Mom's Heart

Jesus, Peace, Freedom & Our Homeshool by Meghan W @ Quiet In The Chaos

Fine Arts Options in High School by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

Reluctant Artist? What do you do? by Annette @ A Net in Time

Making Fine Arts a Priority by Lisa @ McClanahan 7

Creative Pursuits by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Arts and Crafts in Our Homeschool by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed

Where Do You Find Beauty? by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens

Looping our Beauty Topics Saved our Homeschool by HillaryM @ Walking Fruitfully

Now it's your turn! We invite you to join in and share your posts about the things that bring beauty to your homeschool:

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