“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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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,… Read more »
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… Read more »
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 the event can be seen here.
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 »
Create Bible Verse Cards: Volume I $11.95
Draw the World Book Bundle (7-9 Books) $109.49 – $139.49
American Art History, Full Year Book Bundle $125.49 – $165.49