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How to Engage Your Kinesthetic Learner with Art

October 9, 2018 by Megan

teaching a kinesthetic learner with art
One of my daughters is a classic kinesthetic learner. She hops while practicing spelling words and taps her foot while doing math problems. She pretty much never stops moving.

Homeschooling a kinesthetic learner has been a bit of a challenge. For concepts to stick, she has to be physically involved in the learning process. BJU Press has been great for her because it incorporates a lot of hands-on, authentic learning. We use manipulatives to learn math concepts, and we do hands-on activities in science and heritage studies. But English and reading are a little more challenging. I’ve found that a great way to help my kinesthetic learner through these subjects is by incorporating one of her favorite activities—art.

Incorporating Art into Reading for Your Kinesthetic Learner

There are a lot of ways to integrate art into reading. Your child can draw story maps, make organizational charts, and illustrate scenes or vocabulary words. A few weeks ago, my daughter and I read a fictional selection in Reading 2 entitled “Owl Face,” which was about a girl who took care of a barn owl. After reading the story, my daughter created her own mixed-media illustration of the main character and the owl, clearly demonstrating her understanding of the text. During the “Look Again” lesson that covered the same selection, we watched a YouTube tutorial about how to draw owls, and we drew owls and wrote stories about them. That activity helped solidify a lot of what we had learned about owls, characters, and the sequencing of a story.

Incorporating Art into English for Your Kinesthetic Learner

There are also ways to blend English and art, especially during the writing process. I found out pretty early on that my daughter did a lot better organizing her thoughts when she drew pictures. So when she planned her personal narrative in English, I had her illustrate the different story details she wanted to write about, and then we put the pictures in order so she could refer to them as she wrote her first draft. That activity helped her organize her ideas and produce a coherent narrative.

I’m still learning about how to best teach my kinesthetic learner, but incorporating art has proven to be both motivational and effective. If you have other ideas for me, please share them in the comments below.

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: art, homeschool art, kinesthetic learning, types of learning

Art at Home: Creating an Art Station

November 3, 2015 by Megan

At a yard sale several months ago, I bought a worktable. It was mammoth—almost eight feet in length. It barely fit in our minivan. It was also incredibly heavy.  I really had no idea where I was going to put this monstrosity. I wasn’t even sure how we would get it inside the house. But I knew that this ten-dollar table was perfect for what I wanted it to be—an art station.

My older daughters, four and six years old, love doing art projects. I have encouraged their interest because I know that doing art projects helps young children learn about colors and shapes, boosts fine motor skills, and allows them opportunities to express their creativity.

But paints spill. Glitter is almost impossible to contain. Confetti-sized pieces of paper easily litter the floor. Add a toddler in the mix, and the mess just gets worse because suddenly that toddler is trying to eat all the crayons and pieces of paper. This scene repeated itself frequently at my house, so I knew we needed a space that would contain the mess and yet allow for the creativity. And I knew that there wasn’t much household budget for setting up an art station, so whatever I ended up doing, I needed to do it inexpensively.

If you want to set up a creative space for your kids, here are some ideas that worked really well for us when we set up our art station.

1. Providing a surface

You don’t need an eight-foot worktable in order to set up an art station. Use an old desk, a sewing table, or even an end table. Just make sure that whatever surface you choose is sturdy.

2. Displaying your kids’ artwork

I bought a four-pack of cork squares in the office supply section of a discount store. I mounted one on either side of the worktable so each of my two daughters could have a place to showcase her creations.

3. Making cleanup a breeze

Messes will happen, so making it easy to clean them up is key. My worktable has a laminated plastic top, so it’s really easy to wipe down. But if your surface is solid wood, you might want to consider covering it with a clear vinyl tablecloth to make cleanup easier. I bought a couple of small wastebaskets at the dollar store and placed one on either side of my table to make trash pickup easy. I also bought some very inexpensive cookie sheets (I found them for as low as $.88 each), which have been wonderful for containing glitter, colored sand, and other messy (but fun!) supplies. Small foil baking dishes can help contain paint and yet allow little ones to experiment with color mixing.

4. Stocking art supplies

I keep crayons, colored pencils, child-sized scissors, and white paper out at all times. I bought shower caddies at the dollar store, and they have helped keep everything neat and organized. Currently, our paper is stored in shallow boxes that we picked up at the grocery store for free. I also keep the following art supplies on hand, but my children have to ask to use them.

  • Markers
  • Glue sticks
  • Glue bottles
  • Clear tape
  • Glitter
  • Glitter glue
  • Stickers
  • Construction paper
  • Watercolor paper
  • Washable poster and watercolor paints (I highly recommend Crayola® paint because it comes off anything)

Another way to keep costs low but creativity high is by collecting a box of “junk” that your kids can use to create things with. Here’s a list of some things we have used, but the possibilities are limited only by your imagination!

  • Scraps of tin foil
  • Buttons
  • Coffee filters
  • Paper plates
  • Ribbon and fabric scraps
  • Plastic drinking straws
  • Empty oatmeal canisters
  • Small empty boxes
  • Scraps of wrapping paper

Our art station is set up along a wall in our dining room, and my kids spend hours there every week. They’ve created bookmarks, produced original drawings, engineered paper airplanes—they even made their own chore charts! Below are some pictures of our space that I hope will help inspire yours.

photo collage of art table and art supplies

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: activities, art, art projects, art supplies

Create—Communicate—Illustrate

January 23, 2015 by BJU Press Writer

We’re celebrating forty years of BJU Press art! An integral part of our products is the art our employees create to further communicate the meaning of the text that our authors write. Create, Communicate, Illuminate: The Art of BJU Press presents more than sixty pieces that show how the work of our employees in the department of art and design furthers our educational mission. Art media represented include colored pencil, watercolor, oil, acrylic, gouache, fiber, collage, digital, and polymer clay. If you’re in the Greenville area, come see the show in the exhibition corridor of the Sargent Art Building at Bob Jones University. It is on display until January 29. You can find directions here.

For those of you who are unable to attend, here are some photos of several pieces included in the show.

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Main entrance to the Sargent Art Building
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Entrance to the show Create, Communicate, Illuminate: The Art of BJU Press

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“Booker T. Washington” by Paula Cheadle from Book 4 of Take-Along Stories Set 2 from JourneyForth (watercolor)
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“Toucan” by Lynda Slattery from Science 5 (watercolor)

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“Drip Drop” by Cynthia Long from Reading 2 (fiber)

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From left to right “Heritage Studies 6 Cover,” “Heritage Studies 2 Cover,” and “Heritage Studies 3 Cover” by Ben Schipper (paper)

 

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“God’s Big Picture: Timelines” by Michael Asire and Del Thompson from Bible Truths B (digital)

 

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“Baseball” by Sandy Mehus from Math 3 (watercolor)

 

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“Old Ironsides” by Preston Gravely from American Republic (acrylic)

Images by David

What’s your favorite image from a BJU Press textbook or JourneyForth book?

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: art, art show, communication, create, design, illustration

Through the Eyes of an Illustrator

June 25, 2014 by BJU Press Writer

If I’ve learned anything through the years about homeschooling families, I’ve learned that they love books. When they hear that quote by Erasmus about not buying food and clothes until after he bought books, they laugh with everyone else, but they have to think about it first.

One weekend I was privileged to spend time with two homeschooling families. The conversation was frequently punctuated with trips to the bookcase. By the end of the evening, it was hard to find a place on the coffee table to set my teacup. These parents expressed regard for books on multiple levels. The quality of thought was important but so was a book’s spiritual trajectory. They even talked about the covers, the illustrations, and the paper. For them, books were to be received as rational, ethical, and sensory objects. In other words, their view of books reflected their view of man—a view that considers people as receptacles for the classical triad: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Put another way, we are most human when our thoughts (truth), actions (goodness), and feelings (beauty) speak with one voice.

We often divorce our thinking from our doing and feeling. Secularism tends to pit one against the other. Rationalism, Moralism, and Romanticism all battle with each other like gladiators in an arena. But this is not the Christian view, and it isn’t our view at BJU Press.

 

As an illustrator, I have a professional interest in our continued use of illustration. But let’s be honest: Illustrations are expensive to produce. They drive up printing costs. They delay the production of books. They take up real estate on the page that could be used for textual information. To compound the problem, many who crusade for illustration in education do it in a way that’s embarrassing. “Text is old-fashioned!” they say. “Images are the wave of the future.” These arguments are cringe-worthy and false.  I prefer a more balanced approach, in between the Rationalists and the Romantics, that clarifies why illustration is so important.

Let me explain with a story. When I was in elementary school, my family had an illustrated book about Vikings that included a panoramic illustration of a berserker with an enormous axe charging a group of men with spears. The drama of this image moved me. I looked at it over and over again. The berserker appeared fearless, but the crowd with spears seemed to be very afraid.

I think about this image because I experienced it isolated from the text. At the time I knew nothing about the unsavory motives of Vikings. I only experienced the emotional tingle from the depiction of the energy of a man who loved his cause more than he loved himself. When I later read about men like William Wilberforce, who fought the evils of slavery despite overwhelming odds and constant defeat, I pictured this Viking. When on the news I heard about Christians fighting for virtue despite the general consensus, I pictured this Viking. When I read about people who fought for what was right rather than for what was safe, I thought of this Viking. This image and thousands of others plowed furrows in my brain so that when rational arguments were sown, they had a place to take root and grow.

We want our books to reflect the student’s humanity. Because the student has a mind, our books are written by experts in their fields. Because the student has a conscience, our textbooks integrate a biblical worldview. Because the student has an imagination, we illustrate and design our books to appeal to the senses. Like the homeschooling parents we serve, we at BJU Press aim to do the good work of telling the truth beautifully. This is a worthy goal and one that makes it easy for me to come to work in the morning.

• • • • •

Zach is an illustrator who lives with his wife and daughters in Greenville, South Carolina. In addition to painting illustrations for BJU Press textbooks (such as English 1, Heritage 6, and Reading 5), Zach has done work for the Weekly Standard, Crossway, Disney-Hyperion, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, and Marvel. He also teaches classes in digital illustration at Furman University.

Filed Under: Simplified Homeschool Tagged With: art, illustration, philosophy

Celebrate Spring!

March 3, 2014 by Megan

I’m not a big fan of winter. There are some aspects that I enjoy—things like homemade soup and big mugs of hot chocolate. But I don’t enjoy activities such as having to bundle up to go outside to pick up my mail or having to shovel snow out of my driveway. I find myself looking forward to spring every year.

This year, spring officially begins on March 20. And even though it might not feel like spring on that Thursday where you live, you can still celebrate with some fun activities.

Have a Special Snack

The appearance of earthworms is a sign of the beginning of spring, so why not eat some “worms” for snack time? Try this delectable snack!

recipe for Worms
Ingredients

¼ cup of prepared chocolate instant pudding
2 chocolate sandwich cookies
Several gummy worms
1 resealable sandwich bag
A small disposable cup
A plastic spoon

Directions

Fill a small cup with the pudding. Put the cookies in the sandwich bag for the child to crush and pour into the paper cup. Then decorate with gummy worms. Yield: 1 serving

Read Some Books

Below are some great read-aloud books for young children:

  • Signs of Spring by Justine Fontes
  • Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms by Julia Rawlinson
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
  • Buttercup Hill by Eileen M. Berry
  • Everything Spring by Jill Esbaum

Make a Craft

Spring is also the time when you start to see blossoms on the trees. Make your own blossoming tree by following the directions below.

construction paper craft of a flowering tree
Materials Needed
  • Construction paper (blue, green, and brown; 8 ½ x 11 inches)
  • Tissue paper (white and pink)
  • Old pencils (either without an eraser or with “unusable” erasers)
  • Glue
Directions
  1. Cut the green construction paper into strips 3 inches tall and 8 ½ inches wide.
  2. Draw a tree shape on the brown construction paper and cut it out. (Tip: Tracing a child’s hand and forearm makes a great tree shape.)
  3. Glue your tree onto a full sheet of blue construction paper.
  4. Glue a strip of the green construction paper on the bottom to make “grass.”
  5. Cut the tissue paper into 1 inch squares.
  6. Fold a square of tissue paper over the eraser-end of a pencil to form a “blossom.” Put a dab of glue on the bottom of the “blossom” and stick it on one of the branches of the “tree.”

Go for a Walk

If the weather is favorable, go for a walk and look for some of the following signs of spring:

  • Tree blossoms
  • Flowers (especially daffodils and crocuses)
  • Birds
  • Earthworms
  • Butterflies
  • Caterpillars

What do you plan on doing to celebrate the first day of spring?

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: activities, art, homeschool, language arts, reading, spring

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