After the winter break, it's helpful to gently ease back into your homeschool routines.
We started by taking time for art and creating the painting shown here. Not only was the painting fun to do, but we created stories inspired by the painting.
Art incorporates many different skills: creative thinking, critical thinking, reasoning skills, compositional skills, experimentation, decision-making skills, self-expression, and more. These are important skills that can be applied to all areas of a person's life, regardless of age or ability.
Encourage your children to play with paint, create with crayons, make marks with markers, as a way to express themselves. Sketch the views from windows, inside restaurants, or outdoors. Try keeping a Nature Journal or an Urban Sketchbook. Daily or weekly sketching can expand the mind in many ways and improve self-esteem.
Create stories from the art, too. Imagine scenarios that might be taking place within the artwork, and write a story about it. Writing is another form of self-expression, plus uses language skills, communication skills, spelling and vocabulary skills, boosting writing abilities and creativity.
Fearful that you won't be covering math, science, and social studies while creating art or writing stories? Art and writing include reasoning skills that math often requires, experimentation that science can require, critical thinking skills that social studies often requires.
Art and writing help to strengthen these skills. Your children can even compose "math stories" or "science stories" inspired by artwork, paintings, or illustrations they've created.
Have fun and enjoy experimenting! As always: When you enjoy what you're doing, the learning naturally occurs.
Happy homeschooling!
