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MONDAY MONTAGE. Artsy Books for Kids.

A homeschool mom recently asked me for recommendations for art resources. Well, last night I found a little Usborne gold mine in the children’s section at Barnes & Noble. Entitled POCKET ARTIST. The price and size captured my attention immediately. Budget priced and pocket sized. Then flipping through it (almost 300 pages) I discovered a wide gamut of How-to-Draw techniques for the 12 most popular subjects I find kids drawing when they are permitted to “free draw”. One other interesting feature is the Usborne Quicklinks Website links included at the end of each one of the 12 chapters.

Of course my bookcase is bulging with lots of art resources. Beyond books, I gain inspiration from magazines and the internet and my own photos. In fact, I love my messy files spilling over with really cool images and awesome lesson plan ideas.

While it is not a primary resource for “teaching art,” this book I’m currently enthused about, POCKET ARTIST, is a supplementary resource for encouraging children to gain confidence in their drawing skills. Granted, it needs to be on a bookshelf tucked between other Usborne books, like ART TREASURY (featuring 22 Master Artists and projects to do in each style), and THE USBORNE COMPLETE BOOK OF ART IDEAS (over 400 inspiring ideas for things to do with paint, collage, pastels, crayons, inks, ,etc.).

One of our sons was delighted to find a favorite childhood book

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. ~Chinese Proverb

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it. ~Oscar Wilde

The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television. ~Andrew Ross

TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they’ll have with twenty-six. Open your child’s imagination. Open a book. ~Author Unknown

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. ~James Russell Lowell

Author: Bonnie Porter

Bonnie Porter is an artist who lived in Europe and now resides in Atlanta. A part-time art teacher who paints and creates with a love of color, line and composition, drawing on inspiration from everywhere.

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