Drawing/Sketching in Bigger

[jrhinrichs]

Hello All!

I have an 8 year-old daughter in Bigger. She is doing well but sometimes becomes discouraged by the amount of drawing and sketching that is required. She told me today she is getting "sick" of drawing. This concerns me a bit becuase she has always loved to draw. This leads me to wonder if Bigger is pushing her too hard in this area? Today I ended up letting her trace a bird instead of free-drawing it (because there were tears). I am super sensitive to this because I was never able to draw myself. I was horrible at it and it literally made me anxious when I was in 6th grade. We had to keep a sketch book that year in art--yet no one had ever taught me how to draw. I feel like that is what I am doing to my daughter. Here--draw a bird, draw a snail, etc. even though no one has ever taught you how. I am very concerned about how my son will handle Bigger in the future. He is not a drawer at all.

So, first of all, what is the goal of the sketching? Can I allow my children to trace instead of draw or does that defeat the purpose? How can I adapt this part of the curriculum to make it easier for a non-drawing child? If my children are not drawers, does that mean HOD is not a fit for us?

Thanks for any help/wisdom you can offer!
Jackie

[CookFamilyHomeschool]

We are on our second trip through Bigger right now. I wouldn’t say my children are gifted artists but they do enjoy coloring and drawing. In our family we put emphasis on doing your best work. So to me when it comes to the drawing, it’s not about making it perfect, but are they giving it their best effort? I’ve also bought a lot of how-to-draw books for kids from our dollar store and they have learned to draw basic animal drawings from those just for fun. Lots of praise goes a long way and siblings will pick up on it too! We’ve praised our children’s efforts so much now the older ones praise the younger ones’ work. It’s really sweet to see! Even if the bird might look funny, you could say “I really like your choice of colors!” Or “the feet turned out really good!” Or “what is your favorite part of your drawing?” I know that it’s harder when your kid is a perfectionist. But just keep encouraging them to do their best work and encourage them that with practice they can get better!

Also, on another note, keep going with Heart of Dakota! In Preparing they start doing the “Draw and Write Through History” series and that will give them some actual drawing instruction! My son loved it this year and is looking forward to the next ones!

Hope this can be an encouragement to you!

[jrhinrichs]

Thank you so much! I was actually starting to look at drawing books for my kids. I may have them use Draw. Write. Now. to encourage their drawing skills. Those books look very easy to follow from what I can tell.

[my3sons]

Preparing Hearts for His Glory through Missions to Modern Marvels include Draw and Write Through History assignments. The directions are given one step at a time, and each step is simply sketched in pencil. The illustrations are easy to follow, and they even include pictures of the final coloring using colored pencils to finish the project.

Each of my 3 sons vary greatly in natural artistic ability. However, each can now draw and color well. This is largely due to Draw and Write Through History assignments. One of my sons struggled with perspective. He made the drawings small, and though he followed the steps the drawings were tiny and didn't fill the page. I sketched the first few steps for him, to draw his attention to the importance of the size of each part of the sketch, and that was all he needed to improve his drawings.

Colored pencils worked better for our sons than crayons, for the most part. Sometimes they outlined things at the end with a fine-tipped black marker or a black pen. I did point out simple things like coloring inside the lines and coloring in the same direction. I think you will see marked improvement in PHFHG through MTMM! Just keep encouraging your daughter, and keep having her do the assignments! Skipping assignments just means skipping skills, and that never helps develop those skills in the long run! So, just keep right on encouraging her, and you are going to see such improvement!!! Hope this helps!

In Christ,
Julie

[Rice]

I'll agree with the others that HOD can still be a great fit. My 3rd child, who is possibly gifted, definitely advanced, has never liked drawing and coloring. He avoided it even as a toddler.

When we came to HOD (he was 9 and placed into CTC), he sometimes asked to skip the drawing assignments (which I realize now is saying a lot - he's not a complainer so that was probably equal to the begging I get from my other kids ). I just encouraged him to do his best and accepted anything he gave. I sometimes allowed him to trace, once or twice (in 6 years) we photocopied and he colored, and sometimes he skipped coloring, but he rarely to skipped it altogether.

Fast forward to WG, when they have a Nature Journaling elective. He didn't want to do it, but I did it, too, along with my other 2 high schoolers, and he tolerated, if not enjoyed it. At the end of the course I had them do a reflection on the course itself and what they learned and how they felt about it. He was glad he'd done it and knew he'd improved in his knowledge of and skills in drawing, combining colors, etc.

I'm so thankful for the skills - across all disciplines - that HOD plans for our kids!

Blessings,

[my3sons]

I'll agree with the others that HOD can still be a great fit. My 3rd child, who is possibly gifted, definitely advanced, has never liked drawing and coloring. He avoided it even as a toddler.

When we came to HOD (he was 9 and placed into CTC), he sometimes asked to skip the drawing assignments (which I realize now is saying a lot - he's not a complainer so that was probably equal to the begging I get from my other kids ). I just encouraged him to do his best and accepted anything he gave. I sometimes allowed him to trace, once or twice (in 6 years) we photocopied and he colored, and sometimes he skipped coloring, but he rarely to skipped it altogether.

Fast forward to WG, when they have a Nature Journaling elective. He didn't want to do it, but I did it, too, along with my other 2 high schoolers, and he tolerated, if not enjoyed it. At the end of the course I had them do a reflection on the course itself and what they learned and how they felt about it. He was glad he'd done it and knew he'd improved in his knowledge of and skills in drawing, combining colors, etc.

I'm so thankful for the skills - across all disciplines - that HOD plans for our kids!

Blessings,

So proud of your son! He learned so much through his nature journaling, and he chose a good attitude about it as well. Our kiddos will have to do some hard things they are not the best at in life - we all do! But, it is often those very things we had to work harder at that give us the most sense of accomplishment when they are completed. Congrats to your son!

In Christ,
Julie