The Art of Teaching Art to Children: In School and at Home

This is a good book for beginning art teachers and homeschoolers, or parents wanting to provide their children with creative experiences. This gives a no-nonsense and logical alternative to hurried, force-to-finish art programs. Unfortunately, being an art teacher in my particular school system, I'm expected to present the most information and experiences possible in a one-year period. We have a lot of student turnover and this program may not work as well as it does in a pretty stable school environment. This author advocates lengthy exploration of a few materials, spread throughout the year, until the students have gained a full-working knowledge and are themselves ready to move on.

Easy to read with a lot of helpful hints. Straight forward approach including developmental stages.

This book made me think...the author has a wonderful way of viewing the art of teaching art. As a new art teacher, reading it has been very thought provoking and I am already applying some of her strategies in my class.

This book stands out as a resource for art teachers because it is more than just ideas and directions for projects and crafts. The author shares her experiences and lessons-learned from 25 years of teaching art. As a newly hired art teacher for a private school, charged with creating my own curriculum, this book has become my jewel. Ms. Beal presents a clearly focused method for teaching art to children with specific information about the developmental stages and abilities of elementary-aged children. She describes lessons and different types of media as they enable children to experience art. Her emphasis is on the experience, not the finished product. By controlling the environment through order and clearly defined limits, children can experience a process and master a technique without becoming confused or frustrated. She focuses on giving children the tools to make art a form of self-expression from the child outward, rather than from the adult in to the child. From her method of teaching, children understand basic concepts and learn that art has many layers -- art class is not just a bunch of arbitrary crafts or projects. This book has geat potential for adaptation to the Montessori classroom because of its hands-on approach and has children involved in every phase of art from the selection of materials to cleaning up. I already have a fair amount of experience with art and with some teaching, but this book is really good for grounding -- it makes art and art lessons relevant, age-appropriate, logical, and positive. You get the sense that real learning and creativity happen in her classroom, rather than the chaotic, messy, nagging, direction-oriented approach that many of us envision in home or school art classes.

I originally reviewed this book for my site and found it a wonderful tool in not just teaching but guiding my child to release some creativity - and mine too! I'm not an "artsy" parent by any means, but with this book giving you very easy explainations on tips, techniques, and use of art tools, setting the crayons and paper aside was much easier than I thought. That is one reason I chose this book, it captures both art teaching in school and at home, and allows the child to decide the project outcome based on his or her life instead of telling him or her to draw a yellow duck with a black outline; it tells your child anything is possible in art. The arthur, Nancy Beal, is great at giving parents tips on how to take the six basic art areas: collage, painting, drawing, printmaking, construction, and clay, and taking them from a school setting to a home "art corner".