I picked out and bought just about all my curriculum for next year today. The two I did not get was Science and Art. My grandson is so into art.

He really has a gift when it comes to art. He takes art classes outside of home one day a week. I want to work that into our school days at home also.

Any advice would be so welcome. Please tell me what you use for art and science. He is will be 8 years old so something for ages 8 would work.

Thanks in advance.

We have used a great book called. 'Teaching Art With Books Kids Love."  There are real art projects using real supplies.  Each unit theme is supported by several picture books.  We had a great time working our way through the techniques.

Check out the Apologia Elementary series for science (Exploring Creation with Astronomy, Exploring Creation with Botany, Exploring Creation with Zoology 1, 2, 3).  They are Christian-based and offer a lot of drawing/notebooking activities.

I also recommend Apologia for Science.

The Homeschool Buyers Co-op has a group buy right now for "Meet the Masters" art.

www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/meet-the-masters/

I'd be interested in it, but we've already covered so much of the content already.  It looks great.

I really, really, love K12's art.  It correlates with their history, which is even neater.  We've done nearly all of their K-8 art classes the past 6 years.

k12.com/curriculum_and_products/art_main/

I  have an 8 year old son.  In our cooperative he is using  Apologia (Astonomy this year) and we love it.  Drawing with Children is also produces much fruit!

My vote goes to NOEO for science and Art Adventures at Home for art instruction.

I also vote for Apologia science (We have done the Zoo1).  My girls (10 and 8) really enjoy it!

For art we are looking into a curriculum called Artistic Pursuit  www.artisticpursuits.com/  I have heard really good things about this curriculum.

There's a children's  book series series about the great masters, that we used when the kids were younger.  I'd read the short biography aloud, we'd look at the copies of the artists' work, then set up some paints and be inspired to try something in the style of that artist.  The series is called Great Painters for Children, published by Ediciones, B, S.A. Barcelona, Spain.

I just posted two to my shelf and there are probably more floating around in the system.  Our public library carries the series as well.

sorry double post

My son worked his way through The Draw Squad.   He is an avid drawer and this book advanced his ability greatly. 

We did not "do it" formally .  However, I believe you could schedule this out very easily if you wanted to. 

The book is written to the student.  My son enjoyed it so much I did not have to do much at all,  he worked his way through it as he wanted.... wich was a lot.   He enjoyed it.

I am thinking my son was 10 or so and reading well .(he is now 13) Depending on your sons reading ability you may need to help a bit. 

For science ditto the Apologia series.  Or really at this age I would do tons of interest led learning in science.  Library trips and nature walks.  Rock collections,  fishtanks, pets, gardens.   plant a bean in a cup. 

Art: Both my boys are doing great with learning foundations of art and applying them with the art curriculum Artistic Pursuits. My younger is 8 and uses the lower level and my older is using the grade 4-6 level. However if your son is already taking art outside the home I would advise to buy the level for grades 4-6 and work with that. After having tried different things over the years this curriculum is solid and blowing me away. Not overwhelming and not boring either. There is an official website with info about the program, check it out.

http://www.artisticpursuits.com/

Science: We have always used living books (real, good children's books) for main content. We supplement with outside classes, experiential nature classes. More dry but building foundations and not a ton of work is using the Real Science 4 Kids curriculum, they sell chem, bio and physics and I'm doing physics this year with my sons aged 8 and 11 in addition to living books to learn other topics and in addition to outside classes. Normally I hate textbook type learning for science which is usually dry and really dumbed down for elem and middle school but the REal Science 4 Kids is not dumbed down and not boring either.

Apologia for elem grades looked great to me but we never used it as we already own too much good stuff to justify it. Check that out too.

HTH.

We use Apologia and love it!  We did Astronomy, which the kids both loved, and now my son is doing Botany while my daughter is in General Science.  Great program!!

I, too, appreciate all the ideas for art!  I'll be looking into them!