All children (and people) are creative in their own way. For my list today, I’m focusing on the child that is creative in an artistic way. That might be painting, dancing, music, or any number of other fine arts (although it likely may include several for a lot of artistically creative children).
In our home, my oldest is very creative when it comes to storytelling, but the arts (of any kind) just aren’t his cup of tea. He actually does take piano lessons and enjoys them, however. (It actually seems to come very naturally to him. In fact, he can’t name the notes, but just knows what to play by looking at the music.)
My middle son really enjoys art projects and music (he also plays piano), as well as sewing.
My daughter loves all things art. She’s crazy about any art endeavors (especially painting), loves music (she wants to start cello lesson), does ballet, and is up for anything artsy or having to do with crafts.
While this wasn’t our reasoning for homeschooling, I think their creativity has been able to grow (and continue) because of homeschooling.
(First, let me have a disclaimer here: Do I think that creative kids can keep being creative when they’re in public or private school? Absolutely. It can sometimes be harder to find the time, but it definitely is very possible. Just know that I’m not saying that homeschooling is the only way to foster it. It’s just one way.)
10 Reasons to Homeschool Your Creative Child
1. The arts are being cut in schools. As school budgets are shrinking (and testing requirements are growing), fine arts programs are being cut in many schools and fine arts teachers are often the ones whose jobs are on the chopping block.
2. The arts can be integrated throughout your curriculum. Painting to represent a historical event? Great! Make up their own play about what mold does to bread? Fabulous!
3. Children come by creativity in a very natural way. Then, as they grow, they start to be told by others that they’re not good enough, and then they eventually stop because they believe it. Homeschooling can sometimes help them to not feel pushed to stop.
4. Large groups, like in schools (and certainly in many other settings), seem to thrive on conformity. Conformity is not necessarily a friend of the creative child.
It makes me think of the lyrics from the song Typical Situation by Dave Matthews Band:
Everybody’s happy everybody’s free
Keep the big door open, everyone’ll come around
Why are you different, why are you that way
If you don’t get in line we’ll lock you away
5. You can supply them with good materials. I love to be able to splurge on some nice art supplies (which I usually share with the kids as well), and they love to be able to use real art supplies. Most schools also have great art supplies, but they can sometimes be in limited quantities or used sparingly. You can decide what kind are used and how often they’re used in your own home.
6. There’s more time for practice. If your child finds they excel at graphic design, photography, dance, singing, or just whatever — they can have more time to work on it.
While our daughter only goes to ballet once a week, we have friends at the same school that are older and now go three times a week. Those friends have multiple daughters all doing that. She says that she’s just not sure how that would be possible for them if their daughters were also in school all day. (Obviously, other people at the school do it. However, it’s easier when the three times a week lessons aren’t competing with time for homework.)
You can even make practice part of school. My boys have to practice piano every day as part of our school day. It makes it easier for us to make sure that they’re getting in their practice each day. (Even if they still should be practicing more than they do!)
7. They have time to turn their art into a business. Many teenage homeschoolers are also young entrepreneurs.
Etsy is another wonderful outlet for young artists who want to turn their passion into a business.
8. You make your own homeschool schedule. If your creative child hates one subject, you can adjust things so that you allow them some of their preferred creative activity as soon as they finish that disliked subject. Or, if it’s really extreme, you can even let them sandwich the non-preferred activity with some time for their preferred activity.
9. There’s time to learn about a variety of fine arts. Not only do you have time to try out lots of different types of fine arts, but you have more time to study fine arts (and artists/composers) as well!
10. There is more time to explore the arts independently. Of course, who are we kidding? There’s typically more time to explore whatever a child is interested in.
Do you have a creative or artistic child? What ways do you work to encourage them in the arts (no matter where they go to school)?
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Alright Angie, so you make me WANT to encourage my kids to be more creative and more artsy! lol! I DO want to encourage their creative interests, I just tend to let the creativity slide sometimes… I must work on this! Thanks!
This is interesting; it’s actually the area in which my kids would suffer the most of I homeschooled (which is always on my radar!). The art and music program at their school is incredible; it’s the other stuff I am not so crazy about 🙂 We live in a very art-ful community; every year there is a big event called ArtPrize and I always take my kids to see the public art, we have a great art museum and sculpture part – thank goodness for that, because this is an area of great deficit for me!!
What a fabulous list. I so agree – there’s more time for practice, splurge on real art supplies, make your own schedule. I think it gives even us mamas time to enjoy art!
I’m like Dawn. I have a tendency to let the creatvity and artsy stuff go by the wayside, especially on busy days. That’s why I’m trying to revolve my summer homeschooling curriculum to be more creative based; I hope anyway. Thanks for this list!
What a well though out list. I really enjoyed and was encouraged by your thoughts here. Makes me even more glad to be homeschooling!
Angie, we had the same slant on this topic. I wrote a post on the identical topic — homeschooling the creative child. Too funny. My daughter gave me the reasons, though.
Love this post! You can never spend too much time with your kids…doing creative things 🙂
I totally agree with this. I homeschooled for grades 1-12, and during my teen years, I spent my spare time writing novels. I wrote over six full novels between the time I was fourteen (when I printed my first novel for my family to read) and eighteen (when I started university and had much less time to write). We were usually done schoolwork by noon or two o’clock, so I had a lot of time to either read or write. 🙂
Aww, man. I meant to link up earlier today but my internet was down. Now I’m going back up to read your post and some more TTT-ers.
🙂
a
I really enjoyed this! I even included my list too! My kids loved being involved in the conversation and have loved seeing what other kids have to say too! Great top ten idea!
Great list, Angie! My younger daughter is an “artist” who enjoys drawing. Both of my girls are dancers and singers. We love the scheduling flexibility that homeschooling gives us!
Oh my goodness. You are so kind my friend to speak so kindly of me and my Hannah. I really am grateful and I know she’ll be incredibly humbled {she’s out of town shooting a wedding otherwise I’m sure she’d pop right on here}.
Hannah and I have chatted that if it wasn’t for her homeschooling and the freedom that she has received so that she can explore and delve into her passions that she probably wouldn’t have figured out that photography and graphic design are her gifts and passions.
Thank you, Angie. Always blessed by you.
Rachel
I’ve realized that it is not just the “artsy” creative child who benefits from homeschooling, but all children have unique learning styles and interests that homeschooling fosters and encourages (if done creatively). These children thrive at home whereas they would just “not fit the mould” at school. I’m grateful that homeschooling allows children to express themselves, discover their creativity, be unique, and find their passion and gifting.
Oh, I definitely agree, Nadene. I have at least one kiddo that is very creative, but definitely not in an artsy kind of way (at all!). My kids all thrive in homeschooling for some of the same reasons and also from very different ways from each other. 🙂