Harmony Fine Arts Mini-Unit: Johannes Vermeer and Joseph Haydn

It is finally finished and ready for you! I have been working hard over the last month to pull this ebook plan together as an easy to use resource for art and music appreciation study. I have incorporated some new ideas and followed some suggestions from the users of the summer and autumn art and music appreciation ebooks. If you are looking for a way to incorporate art and music into your homeschool plans, you will enjoy this ebook with your family.

• Full nine week plans for both art and music appreciation, specific suggestions for each week
• 40 pages long, including 16 custom notebooking pages
• 9 full-color large prints for artist study plus 8 mini-prints
• All links are provided for viewing artwork online, as well as additional study for Vermeer
• Every painting has a follow-up project: coloring pages, supplies lists, and full instructions provided
• Listening suggestions provided, many with online listening links, YouTube videos, and follow-up activities for Haydn
• Suggested additional resources to complement studies, reasonably priced
• This mini-unit was written so children of all ages can participate in art and music appreciation in your family. Viewing great paintings and listening to Haydn's music are both appropriate activities for all members of your family. 
• This ebook plan is available for $3.95. (I have kept the price close to the same as my other mini-units even though this ebook offers far more than the previous ones.

I have written the plans in such a way that you don't need any additional resources if you are on a limited budget. If your circumstances allow, the one resource you might consider purchasing is the CD for listening to Haydn for the nine weeks outlined in the plans.


This mini-unit can be used at any time of the year and is not seasonal in theme. My mini-units are written so you can pick and chose when to study and how to study each artist and composer featured. The plans are flexible enough that you can use them with all ages of children in your family.

The great thing about ebooks is that you purchase once and then you can use them multiple time and they are not consumed. You can print the notebooking pages and prints as many times as you need to for your family.

Would you like to see a sample?

HFA Vermeer and Haydn Sample


Note: There might be a delay in you receiving the ebook in your inbox. I am emailing each book out myself and the delay can be up to 24 hours. I usually can send them a lot quicker than that. Also, I will be emailing the ebook to the email address on your Paypal.com account.

If you have any questions, please email me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.


You can check out all my mini-units, including a free unit, on my special Harmony Fine Arts Mini-Unit page.

Comparing Harmony Fine Arts Plans with the Harmony Fine Arts Mini-Units

I have received quite a bit of email asking me the differences between my regular Harmony Fine Arts plans and the mini-units. Since the mini-units are something new, it may be helpful to make some distinctions between the two kinds of plans. Both choices are wonderful ways to add art and music appreciation into your weekly plans and it really just depends on what your goals are for art appreciation whether you want the mini-units or the full Harmony Fine Arts plans. 


Mini Unit:

• One artist and one composer.
• 6-9 weeks long to complete depending on how in-depth you go and how much time per week you devote.
• View art online with links, prints included in the ebook, notebookpages, follow-up activities.
• Short biographies linked from the ebook for both artist and composer.
• Suggested music to listen to with links from the ebook, notebook pages to follow-up, YouTube videos.
• Suggested additional resources and books-for families who want to go more in-depth
• Plans are written so you can use with the whole family.
• $3.95 per ebook.

Harmony Fine Arts:

• 32 weeks of plans. Usually 8 artists and 8 composers (depends on the year you are using)
• Three options for art appreciation to pick and choose from.
• Generally, option 1 is art to view online with links, option 2 is a little more in-depth with art appreciation books you purchase, option 3 is a schedule for AP or another choice for art skills (depending on the grade)
• Plans are generally written in the four year cycle of history suggested in a classical school program (Ancient, Medieval/Renaissance, 1600-1800's, and 1850's-Modern). Grade 1 is an overview year.
• Grades 1,2,3,7,8 have no notebook pages.
• The two ebooks I offer for Ancient and Medieval/Renaissance have far more resources linked and that you can use for free. They have coloring book pages, notebook pages, and a selection of art prints.
• Composer study is very flexible and you can listen to any music you have on hand for the composer featured. There is also a book to purchase to go along with the listening.
• Plans are usually written so you can include multiple ages with adaptations.
• More in-depth looks at particular time periods.  
• More required resources depending on which options you choose.
• $19.95 for print versions, $17.44 for ebooks (if available).

All my mini-units are found on this page: Harmony Fine Arts Mini-Units.
More information about my Harmony Fine Arts plans can be found in two places: Harmony Fine Arts and Harmony Fine Arts on Squidoo.

If you have any questions at all, please email me anytime.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

"Hungry for Art"

"Art's a staple. Like bread or wine or a warm coat in winter. Those who think it is a luxury have only a fragment of a mind. Man's spirit grows hungry for art in the same way his stomach growls for food..."
Irving Stone

Isn't this painting divine? I love everything about it and at first glance I thought it was a photo.....how does he do that with paint and two dimensions?

A new favorite painter-Charles Courtney Curran.

Sketch Tuesday: Winter Fun

Last week's assignment was to sketch something that starts with the letter F. There was a great variety of sketches this week and that makes for a very enjoyable slideshow. Frogs, flowers, fruit, fire, foxes, fairies, and so many more! Thanks for sharing your sketches this week.

Here is your slideshow: Letter F

We will be taking a break next week so the next assignment will be due Monday, January 3, 2011.
The sketch topic for the next slideshow will be to sketch something you do for winter fun.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, January 3rd, 2011 and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Weekly Wrap-Up: Last School Day of 2010

Last week of school for the year 2010...hardly seems possible. We still have two weeks to finish from our current term but not until after we get back from our break so projects are left hanging. I would rather have everything buttoned up for the term but this is the way our schedule played out this time. Mr. A has three weeks off from his welding class which means he will be home in the afternoons and we can take some long walks together.

History: First, modern history was a focused week on D-Day (WW2) and we listened to a few speeches on YouTube. I gleaned the idea of listening to speeches from Ambleside Online and they have a whole list of speeches to choose from on their website (if you click the link above they will be listed by term in the history section of Year 11). For ancient history we are still deep into using the Bible as our core reading. Mr. B is also reading Holman's Bible Atlas to supplement his reading. This book makes things more alive and I am thoroughly enjoying following along with his reading. Last week he used it to find out about Bible geography and this week about Israel's surrounding nations.

Literature: Using SparkNotes.com we chose two themes to think about as we read The Crucible, intolerance and hysteria. I asked Mr. A to start keeping a list of places in the play where he finds examples of each of these themes and then at our Friday meeting he will share his points. We started this last week and I think we will keep it going until we finish the play. Everything else was pretty routine for The Chosen and then Mr. B's Iliad reading.

We are all enjoying Robert Frost's poetry and this week we focused a little on The Tuft of Flowers. How about these lines?

But as I said it, swift there passed me by
On noiseless wing a bewildered butterfly,

I am beginning to see the value of SparkNotes.com and with my son we have found it to be a great jumping off spot for doing some deeper thinking about what we are reading. It helps point us in the right direction if we are having trouble understanding something or if we want to see what other people think about what we are reading. There is so much more there than just summaries of literature and poetry.




Art and Music: Mr. A is working on a special timeline featuring Picasso and Matisse as part of his study of more modern art. The assignment was to include a piece of artwork on the timeline that represents each period of the artist's life and include their artwork other than paintings (sketches, collages, sculptures). He is using some of Notebooking.com's new Book of Centuries Timeline Pages. They add just a little something extra to his project. I will be sure to post some completed pages when he finishes.

Mr. B is listening to Edvard Grieg right now. My days are filled with this sort of music coming from his computer. Hall of the Mountain King

I think I will put this composer on the list of ones I want to cover in a Harmony Fine Arts Mini-Unit. There is a lot of interesting stuff to be learned in connection with this composer. I think Mr. B is really enjoying his study and I have to laugh...I don't know how many times Mr. B has said that Grieg looks like Mark Twain.


Hard at work on his videography project in his brother's workshop/office.



Baking and now Cooking Course: Mr. B has added another cookbook to his shelf and this week he tried out a Meatball Soup recipe. This is the results that we devoured for dinner last night with some rolls and butter. Perfect dinner after our cold damp hiking trip. 

So ends our last wrap-up post for the 2010 calendar year. We are taking three weeks off I think.....hoping to extend the two weeks we had planned off into three weeks to take advantage of an opportunity that just arose and we are tempted by.

Thanks for all your kind words and encouragement in the last weeks in the comments section of my wrap-up posts. I appreciate every single one.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom






Enter "book of centuries" search box and then scroll down for samples to look at.

Great Find! Linking Videography, Modern Composers, and a Interest in Star Wars

My boys are big Star Wars fans and with our focus on videography we are pulling in some additional ideas to get the juices flowing.

I found the perfect book for stimulating an interest in finding sounds to go with Mr. B's video projects.
The Sounds of Star Wars



Make sure to click over to Amazon.com and watch the video about this book! It will bring all your Star Wars fans running to the computer to see what you are up to. The book incorporates the story of the sound collecting for the movies and then it has playback buttons included in the book so you will hear what you are reading about.

Found the video on YouTube.com


As an additional side point to our videography study and modern composer study, we are going to be listening later in the year to John Williams soundtracks. Many of the Star Wars themes are familiar to all of us and as a finishing touch to my 12th graders composer study, we will be featuring John Williams' music.

The Music of John Williams: 40 Years of Film Music

I love homeschooling.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Sketch Tuesday: Creative Letter F

Last week's assignment was to sketch something with eyes....I think everyone did a great job and there are some very creative entries. Thank you for sharing your sketches with the slideshow!

Here is your slideshow: Something With Eyes.



This week's assignment, due Monday, December 20, 2010: 
Sketch that starts with the letter F.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, December 20th and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Just a sidenote: I have revamped my Drawing With Children Lessons on Squidoo and now they are all printable. You can check out the free lessons here: Drawing With Children: Nature Journal Style.  Click the Printable Version link at the bottom of each lesson. This page also has a review of a variety of art media that you may not have tried yet with your children so don't miss that part of the page too! I would love to hear from you if you are going to use the lessons and then how it goes once you start.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

How Long Is Our School Day?

Typical Morning's Stack of Books for My 11th Grader

Question from a reader: How long is your school day?

Defining our school day is difficult but if you are talking about the time that I am basically in charge of what happens and the content of our schedule here is my best estimate.

Mr. A (12th Grade)

He starts at 7:45 AM every weekday. He works through the morning with a short 15-20 minute break and then has lunch at noon. He works until 1:30 PM and then leaves for his welding course which is from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM every weekday. Free reading is done in the evenings.

That is 5 hours with me at home and 1 1/2 hours at his outside class.

Mr. B (11th Grade)

He holds the same basic schedule as Mr. A in the morning and then he works until around 1:30 PM after lunch. After that, he works on his projects like robotics, videography, his cooking course, and free reading.

So he is working close to 6-7 hours a day as well.

You can read more about our typical day by following these links:
Charlotte Mason High School Daily Schedule 
Daily Routine High School (from two years ago so a little different than what I outlined above) 
12th Grade History and Literature Plan example

Hope that helps with your planning....we are definitely looking forward to a break after this week is over. Two weeks off from our normal routine will be a welcome change although I am going to be finishing work on the next art and music appreciation ebook (to be released 1/1/11) AND revamping and writing a new Harmony Fine Arts Grade 2 plan. I will be releasing it as part of a HUGE big announcement about Harmony Fine Arts. Let's just say I am overwhelmed with an honor Harmony Fine Arts has received that I will be able to talk about soon.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Weekly Wrap-Up: Just a Normal Week

Sometimes weeks are like that...they just smoothly pass by with hardly any effort. Well, there was some effort but it was all pointing in one direction which is nice. Moving forward always feels good and like you accomplished something.


History: Ancient History with Tapestry of Grace Year 1 is delightful, especially if you are Bible readers. They help you weave your Bible history and more secular history together. I love it when I can open the plans for the week and tell Mr. B, "Go get out your Bible." We talked about Rahab (love a good Bible heroine), Jericho, and Joshua this week...not as Bible stories but as history....real history about meaningful people and events that we can learn from and apply in our lives. He did lots of written narration this week using notebook pages. Mr. A is still working on Modern History and is pretty thick into WW2. We watched a speech on YouTube given by FDR and then discussed the role of the media in history.

Literature: Mr. A is reading The Crucible, The Chosen, and Robert Frost's poetry. Oh, this week we started The Merchant of Venice....what a great bit of Shakespeare! New quotes are being heard around the house so I know it is a hit with the boys too. ("Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.") Mr. B is reading The Iliad and we are taking the opportunity to talk about conflict. This is a great piece of literature for illustrating various kinds of conflict in a story: man vs. man, man vs. god, man vs. self. I find it easier to just keep chipping away at the literary terms and devices as the years and books go by. It does not need to be overwhelming.

Math: Deep Sigh......I am mighty glad that Mr. A is almost DONE with his math text and that will be the end of our math together. I am worn out.

Chemistry: Another failed demonstration this week, the fault of the materials we used but even in failure we learned a lot. I received two new resources from Amazon.com this week to breathe some life into our chemistry studies. I will share when I get it all pulled together.

LEGO NXT - Beginnings of a Self-Parking Car. Stay tuned.

Robotics and Videography and Baking: Robotics is chugging along and hopefully we will have something to share next week. Videography is a longer project on Ancient Egypt. Mr. B is still gathering data and images. Baking last week was popovers (forgot to take a photo) and this week is going to be pretzels using a different recipe than normal.

Creative Writing: We started reading Ray Bradbury's The Zen in the Art of Writing this week. What a great read! It has delivered far and above my expectations and Mr. B and I had a lively discussion about the section we read. I am feeling a little more confident about what we are doing now and I do promise to share some of the plans when we get a little further down the road. He did some amazing writing again this week so I think we are on the right track.

Photo Courtesy of Mr. A....Metal Hat with an Element Logo.

Welding Class: This project cracked me up! Mr. A had some free time and used some scrap metal to make this metal hat in class. This child has a great sense of humor and is gaining some skill at welding. I love to watch him be excited about things. 

I have finally kicked the horrible cough I had so we will be outdoors a bit more this coming week. I am hoping to strap on the old snowshoes and take a hike and the boys are itching to slide down the mountain on some white stuff as well.

And so ends another week for our family.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

If you read by email subscription, you may need to click over to the blog to see the resource list for the week.
Creative Writing Resource


Literature Resources

But I Don't Like Mahler....What To Do Now?

Everyone's taste in music is unique. We all have our particular likes and dislikes that lead us through our musical choices...it seems teens are especially sensitive to music choices. Mr. A has been happily following our simplified art plans (more on our high school plans HERE) until this six week section of art and music appreciation.

His selections are Pablo Picasso and Gustav Mahler.

He loves Picasso and can't wait until we are able to see some in person....hopefully soon.

He does NOT like Mahler's music. Listen HERE.
(Click to the blog to see the YouTube selection he chose to share to illustrate a piece of Mahler's music he does not like.)



So what do you do when you have six weeks planned for music appreciation focusing on a composer that your child does not like at all? Here are a few choices we came up with that we are kicking around trying to decide on in our family.

• Choose another composer from the same time period or genre of music. We decided that after two weeks of listening if the child really doesn't enjoy the music, they can switch composers. They would need to complete the composer notebook page and listening log, including information on why they did not enjoy the music.
• Listen to a wider variety of pieces by the composer. Sometimes it just takes getting used to a composer's style before you appreciate their music. There could be a gem hidden in the list of selections. Give the composer a chance!
• Instead of focusing on the music itself, research more about the time period and the influences on the music. Ask your self questions about the composer. What was his life like and what was the political atmosphere when the music was written? Could the music be an expression of the composer's emotions or physical state?
• Focus on the instruments used by the composer. Perhaps it is not the composer but the sound of the instruments or how they put the composition together that is not enjoyable for listening. Analyze how the composer used the instruments to create a theme or emotion in the listener.
• Skip the composer for the present time and perhaps revisit them in the future. Sometimes our ear needs to develop before we can appreciate a particular composer or understand the sound of their music. This is usually what we do in our family when this situation arises but now that the boys only have a year or two left of formal homeschooling, they have less time to revisit a composer.

We haven't decided which choice we will use with Mr. A's study of Mahler. I am going to leave it up to him since he has covered so much ground with music appreciation over the years and has a pretty good grasp of music history. He is focusing on Modern Classical composers this year and there are a lot of composers with some rather odd ideas about music.

So what composers have you come across that you do not like or that your children do not like? I would love to hear some of your least loved composers....just for fun.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

I just finished building a new reference page on Squidoo with my Top Ten Picks for a Beginning Classical Music Library. You may wish to check them out and bookmark for future reference. 

Build Your Classical Music Library

Sketch Tuesday: Got My Eye On You

Last week's assignment was to sketch something you find in a music store. Welcome to all the new sketchers! I love the variety of style and subjects this week and it makes for a wonderful slideshow.

Here is your slideshow: Something in a music store.




This week's assignment, due Monday, December 13th, 2010: 
Sketch something with eyes.

All sketchers are welcome and there is no need to sign up. Participate as much as possible and make sketching a weekly habit. Send in your sketches in jpg format and mail them to: sketchtuesday@yahoo.com by Monday, December 13th and I will include them in Tuesday's slideshow. Complete instructions are found by clicking the Sketch Tuesday tab at the top of my blog.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

"The Artist" and Some Info on My New Art/Music Ebook

Portrait of a Young Woman - Johannes Vermeer

"The artist is the person who makes life more interesting or beautiful, more understandable or mysterious, or probably, in the best sense, more wonderful."
George Bellows

Just a simple thought to contemplate as we start the month of December.

Our family is pulling out more art supplies during the long autumn evenings and when the weather is too cold or wet to be outside. It is a good time to stop and take inventory of art supplies and paper stashes. I realized there still are a few items to play with that I had intended to use but have never offered to the boys. My box of acrylics is still unopened...afraid to get started. I am now putting the project on my winter break list of things to do.

Artist do make our world more interesting and we are all artists in our own way if we just give ourselves the chance.

Sorting Colors to Work on Vermeer's Color Palette

I also wanted to let you know that I am putting the finishing touches on the next art and music appreciation ebook due to come out by the end of the month featuring Vermeer and Haydn. This is going to be an awesome resource for families wishing to have a simple plan for about nine weeks study of one artist and one composer. Every time I write one of these sorts of ebooks, I get better at adding in what families are looking for in simple art and music appreciation. Keep this ebook in mind for your new year's plans.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Beethoven Violin

Most of us are familiar with Beethoven's piano music but one of my favorite Beethoven pieces is a violin concerto.

I especially like this YouTube video, not really a video but a slideshow describing what the violinist is thinking and playing as you listen to the piece.



Nine minutes of wonderful violin and orchestral music to listen to when you get a chance.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Variation on a Wrap-Up

I think the single most important quality that a homeschooling mom needs to develop is that of willingness to admit that we make mistakes and then be open to making changes. 

• I may have picked the wrong materials for teaching math.
• I chose a curricula that doesn't match our child's learning style.
• I offered something too hard and something too easy.
• I projected my own desire into a subject instead of viewing it from my child's side of the table.
• I planned too much material for the week/year.
• I lost sight of our ultimate goals. 

Admitting to a wrong step takes a shift in attitude, at least it does on my part. As the years tick off behind me, I am becoming more flexible and willing to shift gears in the middle of my plans.

So what subjects will I be revamping? The list includes astronomy (again), chemistry (again), creative writing, and Mr. B's art plans. After discussing things with my boys and hearing their thoughts, I went to the principal and financial head of our homeschool, my husband. Consulting with him and hearing his clear-headed thinking, I decided to leave my feelings out of the picture and take his green light to make a few changes.

Here is what we are aiming for now:

• Astronomy: Make the course more research based perhaps starting with current events and people from the astronomy news. Keep up to date with current night sky conditions. Tie in history of astronomy with his ancient history study. (I have come to realize this child is not a science person but rather a humanities driven learner.)
• Chemistry: The cry for more real labwork was heard loud and clear and I have purchased a new book to support that desire.....more work on my part making sure the materials are on hand and that we coordinate schedules but I agree that the focus of the course I outlined was math based which was not stimulating much delight or awe in our study. I need to find a balance. 
• Creative Writing: AGH! Can I just admit here that offering a course like this is frustrating? I am building my own plans week by week but it is turning out some great stuff from Mr. B. All great writers are great readers as well and I am finding that the key to creative writing is not necessarily focusing on writing stories or poetry. The key is stimulating a passion to write and developing a need to write. Mr. B will write when he has something to say. 
• 11th Grade Art: Perhaps this is my biggest shift in thinking. At the beginning of the year I had a whole plan outlined for Mr. B. I have a gold mine of materials on my shelves and I pulled out all the good stuff that have been wanting to offer and crammed it into a plan. Light bulb moment: It was my idea of a great plan and it was way too much. Mr. B would very obediently complete his art assignments but he lacked enthusiasm. I have been operating under the idea that he just needed to follow the plan and make the best of it but after twelve weeks of watching his art lack the shine that it normally has, I decided to sit with him and talk about it to see what he felt was contributing to his lack of spark. He expressed the desire to research artists and composers and follow the rabbit trails this leads to as he goes along. (I am beginning to see a pattern in the learning style of this child...research and humanities.) He wants to do more drawing with pencil and to have one big art project going each week that we do together. Okay, he wiped out half of my plans for his art with that revelation. I am willing to give it a try because I think that it is just as important to teach the heart as it is to teach the head, thus I am gathering some ideas to proceed from here. 

All of this gives me an opportunity to grow and learn alongside my boys. As far the regular wrap-up stuff, how about I just post some photos?



Chemistry notebook pages are one of the fun aspects of chemistry. They research the three elements of the week and then record what they find interesting.


Mr. B and I did mosaic work together today. We listened to some of the audio book Ancient Greek Tales as we worked.


Here is a finished project that Mr. A built over our week off. He is not going to fly it but display it as a model. He has put a lot of time into finishing this one so he is not going to chance crashing it. You can't tell but it is really big...I would say 6+ foot wingspan.


So the minute he finished one airplane, he started on a new one.



This means back to the computer to design and scale some plans. Math in his free time...does it get any better than that?

Homeschooling makes me a better mom. My kids know I am not perfect but that I try really hard. I know they are trying hard too. Another part of our shared journey....savoring the moments.



A morning break sitting in the sun.....

Barb-Harmony Art Mom