Become educated on the home schooling requirements for a child to attend a home school that is recognized by the state of California to obtain a degree.
When it comes to education, it can be quite difficult to determine the best course of action for children given the options on the landscape. The public schools in the state of California vary from providing a quality education in some areas, to providing a less than satisfactory education in others. With the schools overpopulated and under funded it can leave parents with a very difficult choice.
The Cost of Private School
The cost of private school can now be equal to the cost of the collegiate experiences. When families are looking at incurring that additional expense, per child, per year, the cost of private school becomes prohibitive to the family unit. This leaves the alternative of home schooling which provides a quality education at a relatively cheap cost because schooling can be provided around the parental work schedule.
Requirements for California Home Schooling Registration
According to the Home Schooling Legal Defense Association, there are several ways in which a child may legally attend home school within the state of California. (more…)
For preteens and teens that enjoy art, a studio class gives them the opportunity to explore new media, develop their skills, and engage their social skills.
Parents can encourage the artistic expression of older children and teenagers in an open studio environment created at home. One parent can host each gathering or the meetings can move to different homes. One advantage to assembling a small group of homeschoolers for an art class is that the cost of materials can be spread to several families. Another benefit is the opportunity for teens to share an interest with similar-minded individuals and perhaps develop new friendships.
Structuring an Informal Art Series
If one individual is starting the class, he or she can determine how many weeks she’d like the class to continue, whether or not he’ll purchase all supplies beforehand, where and when the class will meet, and what the classes will focus on (just drawing, painting, or photography). Some of these factors will limit the number of students who can come into the class. Also consider if students must commit to a set number of classes or if a drop-in format will work.
If a couple of parents start the class with the intention of welcoming in other homeschoolers, they should still consider the advantages of presenting some degree of structure to others as the more people involved in the planning process the more difficult it can be to create a class. (more…)
Teaching Art to Kids, for Fun and for Profit
Children Art Classes LA, Draw and Paint, Fine Art Classes, Kid's Art Classesby Charlotte B. DeMolay
The title of this post, “Teaching Art to Kids, for Fun and for Profit” probably isn’t the kind of headline you’ve come expect in our current era of under-funded school systems and overloaded teachers.
Fortunately, I am not going to be talking about teaching in a public school system where—well—it’s under-funded and the teachers are overloaded.
Instead, I’m talking about using your own knowledge and skills to fund your art business, gain inspiration, or even earn enough supplement income to stay at home with your kids. I’ve been able to do all three of those things and, yes, I’ve had fun and profit along the way!
So is teaching kids an option for you? Let’s find out.
What it takes to teach art to kids:
First, make sure you know enough about art to teach it.
I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Fine Art and have been a practicing artist for over 14 years. If you don’t have an art degree, but you’ve been a practicing artist for several years you may still be able to teach.
Before sitting down with the kids, get some basic art books from a university bookstore or a well-stocked library. Read about the elements of art and the principles of design. Get comfortable with the vocabulary of art and always be exploring art history. All of this will be important for you as a teacher. (more…)
Why Children’s Art Lessons Are an Indispensable Part of Their Development
Children Art Classes LA, Draw and Paint, Fine Art ClassesBy Chris A. Harmen
Psychologists, anthropologists, and social scientists have long suspected that the development of a child’s creativity carries ancillary effects. While a painting or drawing that an adolescent creates may never make it further than the door of the family refrigerator, its value is often underestimated. Indeed, the process by which it was created plays a key role in many other areas in a young person’s life. Children’s art lessons can guide kids in the process they use to express their creativity.
In this article, we’ll discuss how the recent economy has affected the availability of children’s art lessons in public school. We’ll also explore the reasons why a kids art program is an essential part of their development.
The Budget Crunch Takes A Toll
Nearly every state has begun to struggle financially as the economy continues to shudder. Their growing need for additional funds has outstripped their limited coffers. As states wait for aid from the federal government, they’ve been forced to deploy aggressive cost-cutting measures in order to survive. The public school system has become a target. While math, history, reading, and the sciences are normally spared, classes that focus on music, painting, and other forms of artistic expression are the first on the chopping block.
This is an unfortunate circumstance of an economic reality. Sadly, even as an increasing number of schools are cutting such programs, experts are discovering new advantages that kids gain from them.
Unlocking A Child’s Potential
Long ago, a child’s ability to absorb new concepts and apply them was thought to be directly related to intelligence. Today, of course, we understand much more about the brain and how it develops. We know that young people begin learning new ideas earlier than was once thought. We also understand that creative expression plays an important role in the absorption and practical application of these ideas.
For example, parents have reported that their kids’ performance in “hard” subjects (i.e. math, science, etc.) has improved markedly after enrolling them in children’s art lessons. Given what experts have discovered about the brain’s development, this is not an unexpected result.
The Value Of Perseverance And Dedication
One of the most important benefits of children’s art lessons is the role they play in developing a young person’s perseverance. When an adolescent begins an art project, they tend to take personal ownership of it. When obstacles present themselves, a child will persist in finding a solution. Completing the task becomes a lesson in dedication.
Helping a young person develop a strong sense of perseverance and dedication in everything they do is critical for their lifelong success. Whether in their future business endeavors, personal relationships, or the pursuit of individual goals, these traits are essential ingredients to personal achievement. As Calvin Coolidge once said, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.”
Looking Outside The School System
As public schools continue to look for areas in which they can reduce their costs, “soft” subjects are increasingly vulnerable. Parents who want to give their kids an early advantage by enrolling them in children’s art lessons may soon be forced to look outside the public system.
This may be a blessing in disguise. Often, elementary school teachers who are responsible for educating their classes on a variety of subjects are ill-prepared to provide artistic direction. Kids need an encouraging environment. They need step-by-step instruction with the flexibility to explore their own creative process. Professional children’s art lessons are designed not only to ignite a child’s passion for artistic expression, but to engage them in a way that boosts their performance in other areas. Sometimes, it’s the key they require to unlock their own potential.
Christine O’Kelly is a writer for Young Rembrandts, an innovative provider of children’s art lessons. They encourage creativity and active participation by offering a kids art program that focuses on developing their artistic passion with a step-by-step approach.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_A._Harmen
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Childrens-Art-Lessons-Are-an-Indispensable-Part-of-Their-Development&id=2022683
This New Year instead of setting a resolution that feels like work and is destined to fail, try improving skills in an enjoyable way and take arts and crafts classes.
Each year, millions of people will set goals for themselves at the New Year. These New Year’s resolutions will frequently involve better themselves in some way, and in many cases will feel like sacrifice or work. These last factors account for why so many people fail to meet their New Year’s goals, and instead set the same goals for themselves year after year. (more…)
First Drawing Lessons for Children
Children Art Classes LA, Draw and Paint, Fine Art Classes, Kid's Art ClassesPart of the attraction of art, for many kids, is the freedom from restraint that it offers, so be sure that any formal lesson is well balanced by plenty of free time. Often ‘art lessons’ can be incidental to everyday activities, observing the shapes found in nature, tracing with fingers on foggy windows, or observing textures and colors of fabrics. Try these introductory drawing lessons for children:
Seeing Shapes: From around 5 years
What You’ll Need: a cylindrical object (a mug or can), a rectangular object (a box).
The purpose of this lesson is to discover that what we know about an object is different to what our eyes see at one time. Begin with a discussion. It should go something like this: Sitting beside junior, at their eye level, I hold up the cup, and ask what shape the top is. ‘A circle!’. ‘Good! Now, look closely at the circle.’ I tilt the mug slowly until it looks like a fairly thin ellipse. ‘Now what shape is it?’ ‘Hmmm.. a circle?’ ‘Is it? Really? Have another look. It is a circle, but see how it LOOKS thin and squashed.’ I draw the ellipse on the chalkboard. Do the same exercise with the box, observing how the rectangle becomes a rhombus when tilted.
Seeing Colors: From around 5 years
What You’ll Need: Simple, solid-colored objects and a directional light source (so that the object will have highlights and shadows).
Like the lesson above, this is essentially a discussion to investigate the difference between the known and the seen. Show the object to your child, and ask about its color. Is it the same color all over? The surface is (painted) the same all over, but it looks different depending on the light. Where does it look lighter and darker? Sketch the object and show how you can use shading to show the light and dark areas. (Keep it simple).
Observing Perspective: All Ages
When travelling in the car, or walking, look out for an area where you can observe a clear foreground, middle ground and background. Take the opportunity to point out:
· how much smaller distant objects look than closer ones
· how colors change from close to distant
· how distant objects look blurry (atmospheric perspective)
· how much detail you can observe in closer objects
See if you can find a reproduction of a painting of a similar scene, and see how the artist has handled these elements.
http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/perspective/a/kidsdrawing.htm
Encouraging Your Budding Artist
In a child’s life the first three years are so important! As your child begins discovering the world around him, help explore his blossoming creativity with these fun and simple projects. Welcome to the scribbling stage
Is your child a budding young artist? Take advantage of that creative energy and feed your child’s burning desire with some easy and fun art projects. Help to encourage your little ones’ creativity to soar!
Curiosity creates the arts
Would you like your child to draw more than stick figures? Then maybe it’s time to move on to elementary drawing, painting and modeling. Have fun with paint, crayons and clay while your kids create their own masterpieces. (more…)
While many supporters of the arts correctly believe that music, painting, sculpture, theater and other arts should be provided for their own sake, the new research reveals what many educators had known intuitively for years. Exposure to the arts help students build self-confidence, express their creativity, and perform better in math and reading.
·In 1997, the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies published the results of a national arts study that showed a positive relationship between standardized test scores, English grades, and other educational methods. The study revealed that students in eighth and 10th grade who had “high involvement” in the arts, in and out of class, consistently outscored those with low exposure to the arts. Students with high arts exposure were also less likely to drop out of school.
·University of California at Irvine researchers discovered, in a study beginning in 1993, that students who took piano lessons scored an average of 34 percent higher on tests of spatial-temporal ability, which educators consider a vital skill for understanding math and science. After only six months of playing the piano, three- to five-year-olds showed dramatic improvement in spatial reasoning tests. (more…)
The importance of art education for our children has never been so undermined as in today’s turbulent economy. Today’s global economic condition has prompted cutbacks, privately and publicly, and one of the most noticeable cut backs is in the arts in education, they are doing away with everything from music, visual arts to drama. Yet, did you know that studies done by top institutions on the arts show that involvement in “the arts” result in a student out performing the other students by virtually every measure. These are conclusive facts not fabrications or estimates. Also the arts even the playing field for those students that are less fortunate. Did you know that students that are involved in the arts have: 25% higher creativity, 14% higher fluency, 16% higher originality, 30% higher elaboration, 19% higher resistance to quitting or giving up, 28% higher expression, 26% higher risk taking and 27% higher imagination.
Now when all of these 8 categories are combined it gives a student 23.125% higher thinking capacity. This is why they would out perform other students by virtually every measure. Art is a smart and fun investment that everyone young and old deserves and guarantees a return.
Give yourself, your teen or your child the opportunity to draw and paint beautifully at Mission: Renaissance, The World’s Leader in Fine Art Instruction.
Benefits of art as concluded by the:
Champions of Change, The impact of the arts on learning
Edited by: Edward B. Fiske
Funded by:
The GE Fund & The John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation
When Mission: Renaissance first began in Hollywood mid 1975 it immediately began turning out talented artists well grounded on the basics of fine art, a front group for the basics the masters used to train their apprentices centuries ago. Founded in this traditional method, long forgotten by most educational institutions, Larry’s teaching activity garnished instant success and began to provide him and others with their dream job. Larry knew that anyone, if taught the skills correctly could learn, even without innate abilities, as long as they had the desire. Simply put anyone could learn to draw and paint beautifully regardless of prerequisite, past experience or lack there of. The biggest hurdle would be to overcome “The Talent Myth” that insidious belief that will crush the hopes of those who want or always wanted to draw and paint. This myth is what stops most from answering their call to creativity, they have been sucked into believing “I can’t draw a straight line,” or “I have no talent,” and because of this horror, they will never even try. If you would like to learn more about this artistic crippling myth visit http://www.LarryGluck.com. and read more about this malevolent theory that is so entrenched in society.
Art improves skills. Skills which are applicable to all subjects in one’s life. For example, studies have shown that in school art improves student understanding and grade point averages. Artistic and creative skills can be applied to improve study skills and life. Testimonials from students, young and old, extol positive changes in their lives when they pursued their interest in art. Moreover, in a specific vocation or a job, you can apply these art skills, such as: one adult student, a well-known reconstructive/cosmetic surgeon, who applies many of the principles he learned in class to the shaping of the human face. He admitted that this tech training made his job easier and helped him perfect the symmetry in his patient’s facial appearance in surgery and he himself stated: “who would’ve thought that in pursuing a personal artistic interest you could have such a result.” What you learn in art can be applied to everything that you do.
Because of today’s global economic condition everyone is extra careful in how they spend their money, privately and publicly. One of the most noticeable cut backs is in arts education. State administrators are doing away with everything from visual arts to music, from drama to photography. Yet, the same studies noted above, conducted by top institutions on the arts show that involvement in “the arts” result in a student out performing the other students by virtually every measure. These are conclusive facts not fabrications or estimates. The arts even the playing field for those students that are less fortunate. Did you know that students that are involved in the arts have: 25% higher creativity, 14% higher fluency, 16% higher originality, 30% higher elaboration, 19% higher resistance to quitting or giving up, 28% higher expression, 26% higher risk taking and 27% higher imagination. When all of these 8 categories are combined it gives a student 23.125% higher thinking capacity. This is why they out perform other students by virtually every measure. This makes art a smart investment.
THE GLUCK METHOD® is a step-by-step process of fine art instruction developed over the course of a quarter century by world-renowned artist and educator Larry Gluck. This sequence of steps is composed of information, demonstrations, exercises and goal-oriented assignments precisely arranged in order to build artistic talent from the bottom up. When followed exactly as given, the entire sequence can furnish an individual with a life-long foundation as a fine artist and the ability to draw and paint beautifully. There is no shortage of so-called "art instruction." Thousands of art schools, art departments, art classes and working artists, worldwide, advertise they teach fine art. Hundreds and hundreds of books and videos are available on the subject. The Gluck Method differs in that it is the only complete method of fine art instruction that presents the full complement of underlying principles for drawing and painting. It is also the only method to provide students with a means of acquiring all the talent needed to create competent representational drawings and paintings. The Method transforms someone without natural talent into someone who has the skills to create beautiful works of art. In addition, it fills in any gaps in the knowledge or skills of naturally talented individuals or those who have trained elsewhere but without real success. Thousands of “would-be” artists have studied in art schools and college or university art departments for years, without having received any workable instruction. The idea that anyone can actually learn to draw and paint beautifully, regardless of whether or not they have any “talent,” has been thought impossible. The whole idea is so new that most people have to experience it to believe it. The Gluck Method has been used exclusively by the World’s Largest Fine Art Program, Mission: Renaissance®, where tens of thousands who were previously unable to draw or paint have brought their dreams to life and can now express themselves as artists. With 18 fine art studios in Southern California, Mission: Renaissance currently teaches more than 3000 students, young and old, each week. Now, for the first time, The Method is being made available to one and all. With The Gluck Method Fine Art Instruction Series anyone can learn to draw and paint in the privacy of their own home. The Method is like the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz. A student needs only to follow it, and he or she will acquire the talents that lie behind the magical curtain of fine art.
