This morning I intended to write a review of a game that accompanies my newest geography book, Draw Africa. The game is one in a series of geography games by Out of the Box publishers (the same company that publishes Apples to Apples) called 10 Days in Africa. However, I looked it up on amazon.com…
ARTK12 Blog
Only Passionate Curiosity Reviews ARTK12
ARTK12’s American Art History Curriculum was recently reviewed at Only Passionate Curiosity: Life and Learning on the Homefront. Heather, a homeschooler and mother of 3, reviewed American Art History: Volume I and Drawing American Art: Volume I and gave it 5 stars in all four categories (ease of use, ease of prep, quality, effectiveness and fun…
How to Escape Education’s Death Valley
Lucy introduced me to Ken Robinson this week (alas, not personally, but through a Youtube video). According to Wikipedia: “Sir Kenneth Robinson (born 4 March 1950) is an English author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies. He was Director of The Arts in Schools Project…
Serious Fun Classes End Spring 2014
It’s been a wonderful year teaching ancient art to a fabulous group of students. We traveled across the globe from the Nazca civilization in South America to Egypt in Africa to the Shang and Han Dynasties in China. We also covered over 15,000 years of history from Ice Age caves to the fall of Rome.…
Mathematics as Art
“The first thing to understand,” says Paul Lockhart in A Mathematician’s Lament, “is that mathematics is an art.” He continues on to say that “Mathematics is the purest of the arts, as well as the most misunderstood.” The twenty-first-century mind has a very difficult time getting around this. Math as art? To us, math is…
A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart
While researching math books for my son this week on amazon.com, I came across a small volume by a mathematician named Paul Lockhart titled: A Mathematician’s Lament: How School Cheats us out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form. The title intrigued me and promised of good things within, so I (virtually) turned the…
Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Books?
Under normal circumstances I would emphatically say “no.” But recently I decided that I do not like the current format of my American art history curriculum. With four volumes of text, four volumes of drawing instruction and two bingo games it is both cumbersome and expensive. At the time I published it I did not…
Ancient History and Ancient Art
Two works of fiction that I highly recommend highlight eras in ancient history and highlight ancient works of art. It is a rare combination, but author Marjorie Cowley is a master at both engaging and teaching children. I use both these books in my art history classes and highly recommend them for any excursion into…
China’s Liangzhu Culture
This week in the Serious Fun class our 3rd – 8th graders studied neolithic China’s Liangzhu culture (ca. 3300-2200 BC) and the early artifacts they produced. The Liangzhu culture is noted for two very interesting pieces of art made out of jade: the cong and the bi. A Bi is a jade disc with a…
ARTK12 Publishes Draw the USA
Draw the USA, Kristin Draeger’s new book, is now available at Amazon.com for 19.95. The book teaches your students how to draw the United States from memory. Through simple, step-by-step instructions, students learn to draw each state as it connects to its neighbors and, with a little practice, will be able to draw the country…
Mary Cassatt by the Biographical Bard
For my fourth and final book in the American Art History Series I have once again enlisted the help of that wacky wordsmith, the biographic bard, to give us the outline of the life of Mary Cassatt. This time he has set the story to the tune of Oh! Susanna. Take it away, Bard! Born…
ARTK12 in Fast Motion
The White Cloud by George Catlin This new video is a time lapse of what a student would do after completing the drawing of a project. The drawings are simple to complete with step-by-step instructions with a good starting point for students. Kristin has found that students (particularly, young students) often get frustrated because when…
The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House At the end of my American Art History: Volume IV, we study two of Frank Lloyd Wright’s pieces of architecture, one of which is the Robie House, built in 1910 in Chicago near the University of Chicago. There are few children’s books on Wright, and really only one good one,…
The White House: Lego Architecture Series
In the third volume of my American Art series, I introduce James Hoban’s original drawing of the White House. Students learn about Hoban and the different architectural components of the White House, and complete a copy of Hoban’s drawing. Lego’s Architecture Series A fabulous accompaniment to this lesson is Lego’s White House in their Architecture…
Serious Fun: Homeschooling with Real Books Video
Kristin spoke to a group of homeschool parents on February 5, 2013 about homeschooling with real books…not textbooks. Over twenty parents attended and many purchased her book, Serious Fun: Homeschooling with Real Books. Watch the video of the event: Photos of the event can be seen here.
Read more about Serious Fun: Homeschooling with Real Books Video »
Serious Fun: Homeschooling with Real Books is Published
Kristin Draeger’s new book, Serious Fun: Homeschooling with Real Books, has just been published and is available in both paperback ($14.95) and Kindle editions ($6.99). Over 1,500 Books for K – 8th Grade Serious Fun has an opening essay chronicling how Kristin used real books (not textbooks) to homeschool her son from Kindergarten through the…
Read more about Serious Fun: Homeschooling with Real Books is Published »
Homeschooling with Real Books, Feb. 5, 6:00 – 7:30
I will be speaking at the Julian Charter School San Diego Learning Center on February 5th, 2013. Here’s my topic: Homeschooling Got You Down? Are you frustrated trying to teach school in a traditional way at home? Do your students have difficulty focusing and sitting still? Do you dread school time? Very early on I…
Read more about Homeschooling with Real Books, Feb. 5, 6:00 – 7:30 »
Dog’s Night by Meredith Hooper
Back in Print! A wonderful children’s book that highlights four famous works of art is now back in print. Dog’s Night, written by Meredith Hooper and illustrated by Allan Curless and Mark Burgess, is as entertaining as it is clever. Back Where Dogs Belong The plot involves four dogs in four works of art in…
Heritage of the Americas Museum at Cuyamaca College
After finishing the first volume of my American Art series, I recommend to my students here in San Diego that they go visit the Heritage of the Americas Museum at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon (a suburb of San Diego, see map of museum location). Impressive Collection This museum has one of the most impressive…
Read more about Heritage of the Americas Museum at Cuyamaca College »
A History of US by Joy Hakim
Textbooks that are both interesting and engaging are rare and I rarely recommend them, but if you absolutely need a textbook for American History, A History of US is the only choice. Written in a narrative style, A History of US tells the history of the United States, from prehistory to the present, thoroughly and…