I wondered what to do a quickie resources post on, and decided for art 
. Partly on the basis that I think my schooling and upbringing has left me with zero confidence in practical art myself, so i have bought a lot of books 
and partly because Kirsty reminded me of Harmony Art Mom, one of the 2 non UK home ed blogs I have on my RSS feed. SO here is a small selection of the books we have used a lot and found valuable
Beautiful art appreciation books for children
I think nothing beats going to a variety of art galleries and installations, because there you can see how big and impressive or small and detailed the various pics are. Historic houses – like Burghley that we went to recently as well, as SB was v keen to focus on the art and wants to go back. But it is also nice to pour over pictures, get ideas and inspiration from them, as SB has often done, with matisse, van gogh recently.
Artist Story Books
I have to confess to a complete love of the Anholt Stories about artists, as well as the Katie books. They can be read purely as stories or jump off to new and different directions. We have quite a few different ‘story’ books which are particularly good for BB now. The book people did some good deals on them a while back, so often in libraries.
How To… Art Books
Feeling terribly useless at art, I have compensated with books well, i had no idea how to use oil paints or watercolour pencils for example when the girls asked! SO some of these are ideas books from Usborne – owned by myself or friends! S0me are suggested by harmony art mom as well – thankyou.
SO go and enjoy painting, splodging and sketching, no excuses ALso please link fav’s in comments.
Previous resource Posts
Geography
Got a couple of useful ideas from this, thank you! F’s friend today was saying she liked the idea of a type of art book and here is just the thing. Might give it to her for Xmas and get one for F too.
I like the look of the water colour one
Another good one is http://www.amazon.com/Art-Pack-Christopher-Frayling/dp/1902413091 (available from UK amazon too, but the desc on the US site is better). Lots of postcards and pop up tools and fold outs and things. Very interactive; Emily’s art teacher lent it to her a few years ago when she and Jon went on an art course and we loved it so much we bought a copy.
ooh, thanks Nikki
I love the Anholt series
I just bought the Usborne Art Treasury which is fab too and I know a few people have.
I’m also not very good at knowing how to do art. I’m hoping our HarmonyFineArts thing will be a good starter in getting us doing stuff as they do really love when we take the time to do stuff, but don’t often initiate it.
The kids also love doing the Sketch Tuesday at the moment on her site too.