How to use the Charlotte Mason Inspired High School Fine Arts course!

You will see three sections as part of the course.

This top section contains the FAQ and Printables needed to complete the course.

The second section contains all the lessons, divided up one month at a time. There are 9 months in total.

The third section contains some additional resources.

As you work on the course, it automatically keeps track of where you are. When finished with a lesson, click "Complete and Continue" to move on. You can always come back to past lessons, though.

You can keep track of what you've studied with this spreadsheet.

How does a student earn high school credit with this course?

There are nine months' worth of lessons in the course.

To earn a full credit in Fine Arts:

1. Spend about 5 hours a week working on the course for a full 9-month school year.

To earn 1/2 credit in Fine Arts, there are 2 options:

1. Spend about 5 hours a week working on the course for a full 18-week semester.

2. Spend about 2 1/2 hours a week working on the course for a full 9=month school year.

What exactly will the student be doing for those 5 (or 2 1/2) hours a week?

Each lesson has three parts to it: music appreciation, art appreciation, and poetry appreciation. Read the lessons, watch the videos, and work on the notebooking pages. Keep all your notebooking pages in a 3-ring Fine Arts Binder.

For music appreciation, fill out a Composer Sheet with information about the composer. Then, as you listen to each piece of music, fill out a Listening Sheet.

You have some freedom to pick and choose what to listen to. Students are encouraged to listen to each selection for at least a minute, but for some of the hour-long symphonies , etc., you can just listen to a portion if you choose. Also, on subsequent days during the month, you may listen to new selections or repeat those already heard. Both are beneficial for a music appreciation course, because repeated hearings of a piece of music will allow you to hear new things and maybe truly learn to appreciate and love it!

For art appreciation, read about the artist, look at the pictures of the artwork, watch any included videos, and fill out an Art Appreciation Page for each piece of art. The second box on the page is for drawing something from the art that you like. It could be a specific item, style, color palate, etc. There is also a blank Art Appreciation page if you'd like to study a different piece from the artist.

For poetry appreciation, read about the poet, read the poems, watch any included videos, and fill out a Poetry Appreciation Page for each poem. On the page you can write about the poet, copy the poem, and/or write about the poem.

Keep track of how much time is spent on the lesson with the Log of Hours sheet. An example sheet is included with the printables.

Additional activities that are optional, but encouraged:

• Read a music appreciation or art appreciation book along with the course to learn even more about the styles and composers. My favorites are listed in the Further Study section (see the very end of the course).
• Teach or narrate what you have learned to a parent, sibling, or friend.
• Read the Poem out loud. Film yourself dramatizing it. Maybe memorize it!
• Write a 5-paragraph essay, compare/contrast essay, or descriptive essay every week based on the lessons studied.
• Write a research paper based on a topic studied in the course
• Write a poem based on the style or form you studied in the course.
• Give a speech, using one of the essays or the research paper as a basis. Include a multi-media presentation, such as with Google Slides, if desired.
• Go to a concert, recital, opera, or musical to hear one of the composers or pieces studied in the course.
• Learn to play or sing something from the course.
• Go to an art museum or gallery to see art, hopefully from one of the artists in the course!
• Compose a musical piece based on a style you studied in the course.

What prep work should be done before beginning the course?

All that is needed is to print Composer Sheets, Music Listening Sheets (different versions depending on the musical era studying), Art Appreciation Sheets, Poetry Appreciation Sheets, Art and Poetry Appreciation lists of questions, and one Music Appreciation Log of Hours sheet.

Put those in a 3-ring binder with some loose-leaf paper (for taking notes to be used in essays), and you're ready to begin. This will be your Portfolio to show that you have completed the course.

How many of each sheet? It really depends on how much you do each week or even each day. Look through the course and count up to get an estimate.

Other Questions

What makes this a high school course?

I wrote the lessons and chose the music, art, and poetry to fit a high school level student. The course is meant to be independently taken by the high school student and used for high school credit.

Why not middle or elementary?

The course can absolutely be used by a homeschool mom or other teacher to teach fine arts to younger students. Please listen to, view, and read everything before teaching it to determine if everything is appropriate for your particular students or class. I did do my best to not include anything that is sensual or sexual, and trust me, that was a challenge! It is possible I missed something, so that's why I give this caveat.

How do you define a full credit?

Typically in the United States, a school year is thought of as 9 months or 36 weeks or 180 days. If a high school class is meant to be studied for an hour a day, then a full credit class would be 180 hours. However, this is the MAXIMUM hours needed for a full credit. Depending on where you research, you'll find that some say 120 hours is sufficient, and others say 150 hours is sufficient. I'll leave it up to the homeschool parent or teacher to make the determination. Divide the hours in half for a half-credit course.

How many hours could or should this take?

See above and decide ahead of time how much time you want it to take. There is enough content for 5 hours a week for 9 full months.

Do you have a syllabus or rubric?

The "Syllabus" is in the week divisions for each month's lessons. It tells you what to do each day. But, feel free to adjust it and write up your own to fit your needs.

There is no rubric for grading. Each student will complete a "portfolio" of notebooking pages to show their work in the class.

Can I use the course with multiple children? Concurrently or consecutively?

Absolutely. You may use with all students in your home. If they are doing it concurrently and don't stay exactly in the same place, you may use a notebook or notes app to keep track of where you ended each day.

You have lifetime access to the course, so you may use it in the future as well.

How many copies can I make?

Photocopies of lessons and notebooking pages may be made for only one household or classroom of children.

(A great company to get inexpensive printing is The Homeschool Printing Company.)

Can I use the course to teach at a school or co-op?

Purchase of the course is only for one classroom at a school or one family in a household. To obtain a license to use in multiple classes at school or a homeschool co-op, contact Gena Mayo at [email protected].

What do I do if a link is broken or video is no longer available?

Simply leave a comment right there at the lesson or email Gena at [email protected], and I'll get it fixed ASAP! Thank you for your help and taking the extra time to let me know about them.

What to do if you are seeing inappropriate ads with the YouTube videos

We are thankful for the "free" resource of YouTube, but we do occasionally have to let their ads run. If you are noticing that you are seeing some inappropriate ads, see this link which will give you ways to block advertisers. You might also need to clear your cookies/history. And be sure YouTube is set to restricted mode. https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662850?hl=e...

What is the Copyright information?

© 2016-2023 Gena Mayo | I Choose Joy! Publishing |ichoosejoy.org and MusicinOurHomeschool.com

All rights reserved. No portion of this course may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted outside the immediate household in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Copyright Information for the art used in this course:

The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain".
Photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. See specific copyright information for each reproduction here.

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