Art Curriculum
Many people have had success in using art with children with autism. Actually, most children do well when they are exposed to the arts and when creativity, self expression and encouragement in their talents are part of their lives. Certain studies have shown that they do better academically, well in a lot of areas. (I am not going to search out the studies now but they are easy enough to find if you search.) Many different avenues of art have been used music, paints, drawing , computer graphics, acting, poetry, writing books, along with any other you can think of.
Art is a very large part of my life even though I do not draw or paint very well I guess my art would be writing.
Not that I have achieved any kind of professional sense of writing in my blog or with my poetry it is still a creative avenue for me to express myself and I consider that to be art. I would say any form for a person to express themselves, is art. My mother is a painter, seamstress, she crochets, restores anything, can create some thing amazing out of a card board box. I did not receive those genes. My father is gifted in music, he taught himself to play keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, the drums, along with other instruments (those are the ones he uses most though) and learn to play without reading music.
I did not inherit that gene either.
But having them be such amazing artists gave me respect and the understanding that the arts are very important. Ariel has naturally picked up the paints and any form of drawing instrument, then creates some very imaginative works of art. All of her art whether on paper, construction paper, wood or rocks all have very detailed stories and reasons behind the creations. Joshua does as well and he is now beginning to use paints and drawing instruments also. It used to be only through Lego’s or blocks, though he still does use them he is expanding with his art forms.
Daniel has yet to really get involved with art for a long period of time.
On most occasions he does not create things without my prompting other than graphics on the computer, although he has surprised me a couple of times. Even though he has not taken it on he has overcome many sensory issues through doing arts and crafts. I believe he will be more of an instrument guy, he loves music and his favorite instruments are the guitar and violin. I am hoping to get one of those soon for him. Our plan is to save for guitars for all three of them. I am sure I will be writing my music curriculum at some point as soon as we get the resources. Currently we are using music and making our own instruments.
This leads me to some of the curriculum items that I am using.
We purchased this last year and it has proven to be a great investment. http://www.madcaplogic.com/
We ordered the online edition. Not only are the characters funny and enjoyable for the kids, but it also contains curriculum that goes along with each section. I use the short clips and the projects then expand with doing other art activities or expand on information about the artists. We all like it and we recently purchased the Art Studio as well it is from Crayola. We got it on sale at Amazon. We find a lot of deals on Amazon from our gluten-free foods in bulk to books that are really cheap. Along with the online art items we have several books. I like this book because it uses books with it and I use it not only with books but also along side with the Creativity Express.
Teaching Art with Books Kids Love
I also use the web for whatever theme pops into my head, I just google my thought with “craft/activities” behind it and away I search. I also have these books that I found at garage sales. They may have them at half.com or goodwill online auctions.
They do have it used at Amazon pretty cheap. http://www.amazon.com/Book-Crafts-Better-Homes-Gardens/dp/0696216922
I put the cooking one up as well because cooking is as art to me also. Each culture has such a variety of foods and I find it fascinating. Though I do not try a lot of different foods, on occasion I will. I have been trying to venture out more though to help the kids try new things also.
I don’t think we paid full price for any of these. I have my wish list on Amazon and then I go searching various web outlets, garage sales, thrift stores and home school sales. There are usually home school sales around here in the summer, along with the library’s book sale and teachers also pull together and have book/curriculum sales. I check as many of those out as possible. I do have quite a hefty collection of resources but I am not just stocking up for now, most of these can all be used at least up to second grade, some further on. I do have to confess here, it is one of my special interests to research curriculum and I do stim by searching out bargains for my wish list. I usually do not pay more than $3.00 for a book, with the exception of the autism resource books we can find them at pretty good prices but they are still a lot more than I like to spend. However, they are not things we can live without so I have to get them.
