This past week was arts education week, which I did not know until coming across it in the news feed of my Facebook. I had already decided to begin writing this post and found it to be a perfect tribute to arts education!
The arts are everywhere! Even rural communities!
When I was a child my mother homeschooled me and my two older sisters. We lived in a rural community and there were not many things in the way of arts available to us. Yet my mother found a way!
Our local college had concerts and ballets, plays and educational talks which we would attend all the time. I remember absolutely loving these and learning all these great new things as a child. Many of these outings and concerts and other arts related activities still stick with me today as fond memories.
My mother would also choose an artist each week to teach us about as well as an art form such as impressionism. I can remember growing more and more delighted with the idea of creating art and at a young age I knew I would be an artist one day.
Pandemic homeschool and the arts
During the pandemic, you may be homeschooling your child. You might want to be able to expose them to the arts while they are at home as well.
But how to do that when museums are closed as well as concert halls, art galleries and other arts related activities? There are a host of ways to help your child get arts exposure.
Virtual Arts
Museums are now offering virtual tours for you and your family where you can explore the galleries from the comfort of your own home.
The Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Smithsonian Museum of Art, and The Van Gogh Museum are all great museums to take a virtual tour through with your child.
YouTube is a great place to find music examples for your children or even to learn an instrument. Ballets and operas are also able to be seen through YouTube.
Get The Family Involved
Another great way to expose your children to the arts is to create a space in your home where you can center activities around art, music, creative writing, dance and more!
Each day, assign a task of creating a piece of artwork, learning a new song or instrument, learning a new dance form, reading poetry, fun creative writing prompts the whole family can do, create a useful craft such as paper mache bowls or bird feeders from pop bottles, or other fun and interesting crafts.
For those who love science as well as the arts there are various art projects that have a scientific basis as well. Check these out.
Discover New Favorites
A great way to help your child appreciate and learn more about the arts is to help them find an artist, a music artist, a favorite ballerina or dancer, a favorite photographer etc.
You can put up pictures done by these artists around their work area, play a new song from that particular musician each day, watch a ballet starring the favorite ballerina or dancer.
You can also have your child try the artform itself. Take your child out and do some great nature photography, challenge your budding artist to create a work similar to their favorite artist, learn a few new dance moves or ballet steps.
The Arts Matter
Immerse your child in the arts and they will become well rounded individuals with critical thinking skills, a broad horizon and a lifetime of fun memories to look back on.
With the virtual world at our fingertips, the possibilities are endless for you and your child to learn. Arts education matters because it creates a foundation of understanding, culture and the oppportunity for your child to understand beauty and creativity.
Even if your child never becomes an artist, dancer, musician or any other form of arts related career, they will still benefit from these experiences and carry them throughout their entire lives.
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