There are no pre-made, pre-designed, or prepared arts and craft kits in the DVS Creative Homeschooling Curriculum. Each project is created from start to finish by the kids. This curriculum is as challenging and important as any science or math curriculum. Let me explain...
In the two age groups at DVS, the younger age groups is almost always more agile and eager when it comes to using fine motor skills. By the time kids reach age 10, they have generally been led away from depending so heavily on their fine motor skills and developing them to their full potential. They express some anxiety or show at least some level of low confidence in their fine motor abilities, and use of imagination when they're challenged to do so independently. It takes a greater effort and much more encouragement to get them to just start a project. Often times they will sit for a while and stare at their blank pages in worry, whereas the younger age group can't wait to get to work, bursting with energy, expressing their wild ideas and not knowing which ones to choose to do first!
Why do the older children hesitate? They hesitate because children are directed towards spending their time primarily focused on their cognitive abilities, attaining, retaining, ad applying information. We tend to focus on information/systems-based learning models, rather than a balance between information/systems-based learning models and material/skill-based learning models. Both are equally important, and compliment one another.
The most searched keywords for homeschoolers on Google are 'science' and 'math' not 'building' and 'arts'. In recent years, what we have come to know as the S.T.E.M. learning model (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) has integrated a new field into the model....Art. S.T.E.M. is now called S.T.E.A.M. because we are always faced with the reality that creativity is not an optional extracurricular activity you can take or leave, it's actually the basis for the S.T.E.M. learning model. For innovation to take place, you can't subtract creativity out of the learning model. There is no science, technology, engineering, or math without the single most elemental aspect of human consciousness....CREATIVITY. This word is worthy of all capitals and a bold treatment because it's literally the thing that our species has used to survive and thrive, and the source of everything we do and make in the world as a species. Creativity is imagination at work, and imagination is how we have become the species that we are. In some professions, employers actually look for workers who list 'creative thinking' as a skill on their resume.
How did Nikola Tesla come up with his machines and inventions? He imagined them in dreams. How did Albert Einstein come up with the theory of relativity? He imagined himself travelling. How did Isaac Newton come to 'discover' gravity? He imagined an alternative to an apple falling down from a tree, and became curious about why it falls down instead of up!
Creativity can be applied to most anything and everything, from the way you dress, to the meals you make, to the way you organize your office, and the problems you solve at work. The people working towards inventions and innovations in biotech, farming, infotech, urban planning, and space technology are essentially highly creative people working together, regardless of their individual expertise. Creativity is not optional, it's the driving force that runs through us as individuals and as a collective.
The DVS Homeschool Curriculum starts with a simple project of making beads. This activity requires the kids to use very fine motor skills. Building with their hands is as material as you can get. They have s list of creative requirements they have to fulfill for this project, and they finish with a beaded object that's uniquely an expression of their imagination and personal sensibility. They can wear it, or hang it on a wall, even give it as a gift to a love one. It's a great way to get their confidence up, and their hands warmed up for the rest of the curriculum. It activates their imagination and their motor skills.
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