If your child can’t sit still through a lesson, if you have journals jam-packed with little doodles, if every spare scrap of paper has a tiny drawing on it, this is for you. Sounds like you’ve got a cartoony child on your hands! When your child has an unbridled need to draw and doodle instead of doing schoolwork, it can make you want to BIF! them on the head! But, if you understand how to channel their wild artist spirit, you can encourage them in their academics without sacrificing their art. Plus, your child can get in some great study and memorization techniques as well. Here are my top suggestions on how to incorporate cartooning into your homeschool!
Math
Math is probably the hardest subject to include cartooning in, simply because as mathematics becomes more advanced, it also becomes more abstract. How does one draw am · an = am + n? What about imaginary numbers or quadratic functions? Your guess is as good as mine, but your artsy child might not have those same limitations! Try these ideas out.
– Concept Illustrations: Allow your child to freely doodle the abstract math concepts, representing them with graphs, geometric shapes, or equations in visual form. Remember there is no wrong answer in art.
– Story Problems: Create cartoon or comic strips to walk through the word problems. The characters will “solve” the problem step by step. Encourage your child to add as many cartoony onomatopoeias as their heart desires.
– Math Journaling: Showing your work is important in mathematics, especially as the student becomes more advanced. Let them show their work as artistically as they want, expressing their problem-solving through doodles. If they continue to attain mastery over every concept, they are still learning.
– Concept Illustrations: Allow your child to freely doodle the abstract math concepts, representing them with graphs, geometric shapes, or equations in visual form. Remember there is no wrong answer in art.
– Story Problems: Create cartoon or comic strips to walk through the word problems. The characters will “solve” the problem step by step. Encourage your child to add as many cartoony onomatopoeias as their heart desires.
– Math Journaling: Showing your work is important in mathematics, especially as the student becomes more advanced. Let them show their work as artistically as they want, expressing their problem-solving through doodles. If they continue to attain mastery over every concept, they are still learning.
For many students, especially visual learners, abstract ideas can be difficult to understand. Cartooning allows ideas like compound interest equations or permutation to be simplified into concrete, visual representations that can be more easily understood.
Science
In comparison to math, science is much easier to incorporate cartooning into! Many of the lab workbooks out there require students to draw what they see under a microscope. Science is much more physical, typically much less abstract than math. Science is a great subject to try these ideas!
– Visual Lab Notes: After completing a lab or experiment, your child can sketch their findings instead of writing up a lab report or paper. Let them doodle the cells, plants, or steps in the chemical reaction.
– Concept Maps: Use colorful mind maps or doodles to show relationships between different scientific concepts. This will look different for every single child, and maybe for every single scientific concept.
– Science Comics: Create comics explaining scientific theories (like creation, photosynthesis, the water cycle, or gravity). Each one can contain their favorite comic book heroes or their own cartoon characters. Even superheroes live within the rules of the water cycle.
Seeing the processes and experiments laid out visually can help your student memorize and retain the information better. The effort and act of drawing it all out is like repeating the information over and over again until it sticks.
– Visual Lab Notes: After completing a lab or experiment, your child can sketch their findings instead of writing up a lab report or paper. Let them doodle the cells, plants, or steps in the chemical reaction.
– Concept Maps: Use colorful mind maps or doodles to show relationships between different scientific concepts. This will look different for every single child, and maybe for every single scientific concept.
– Science Comics: Create comics explaining scientific theories (like creation, photosynthesis, the water cycle, or gravity). Each one can contain their favorite comic book heroes or their own cartoon characters. Even superheroes live within the rules of the water cycle.
Seeing the processes and experiments laid out visually can help your student memorize and retain the information better. The effort and act of drawing it all out is like repeating the information over and over again until it sticks.
History
History is probably one of the easiest classes to incorporate cartooning into. After all, historical political cartoons have been around since the 18th century and continue to surface around every election. Art and history go hand in hand.
– Timelines with Drawings: Create a timeline of all the standard dates or events your child will be studying through the year. Your child can follow behind you to create a doodle or cartoon for every significant event they studied throughout the year.
– Character Sketches: Draw political figures, warriors, or inventors and include text bubbles with their achievements. How would George Washington look in your student’s unique art style, I wonder?
– Historic Comic Strips: Recreate important moments in history through a comic strip format. Include as much real dialogue as possible. Famous historical lines are the most fun to recreate through art. Quotes like, “A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it.” Or “I may walk slowly but I never walk backwards.” Or more stirring, “The victor will never be asked if he told the truth”. These can help make the historical scene more real to your student. [Bonus points in the comments if you know who said these lines!!]
– Timelines with Drawings: Create a timeline of all the standard dates or events your child will be studying through the year. Your child can follow behind you to create a doodle or cartoon for every significant event they studied throughout the year.
– Character Sketches: Draw political figures, warriors, or inventors and include text bubbles with their achievements. How would George Washington look in your student’s unique art style, I wonder?
– Historic Comic Strips: Recreate important moments in history through a comic strip format. Include as much real dialogue as possible. Famous historical lines are the most fun to recreate through art. Quotes like, “A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it.” Or “I may walk slowly but I never walk backwards.” Or more stirring, “The victor will never be asked if he told the truth”. These can help make the historical scene more real to your student. [Bonus points in the comments if you know who said these lines!!]
With personal cartoons and doodles, historical figures and events become much more than just a date to memorize. They can become much more tangible and meaningful. Don’t overlook including cartooning in social studies.
English
Literature doesn’t have to exist only through reading books and writing essays. The rich themes and characters students discover in English class can be put to paper through cartoons and doodles.
– Literary Doodles: Encourage doodling while reading or listening to an audio book, where your student sketches scenes, characters, or themes from the assigned books. You might even be able to substitute the occasional essay for a detailed drawing or artful retelling of events from the story.
– Character Profiles: Have your student illustrate characters from the books they read, adding details to help understand their traits. Perhaps think of it like a gallery of characters, each in a frame (physical or doodled), and each with their own detailed biography.
– Creative Writing Prompts: Use cartoons to inspire short stories, where your student draws an initial scene and then writes about it. The more detailed the scene, the more detailed the writing can be! This method can be used to help the student put themself in place of the characters, making the story more real and meaningful.
– Literary Doodles: Encourage doodling while reading or listening to an audio book, where your student sketches scenes, characters, or themes from the assigned books. You might even be able to substitute the occasional essay for a detailed drawing or artful retelling of events from the story.
– Character Profiles: Have your student illustrate characters from the books they read, adding details to help understand their traits. Perhaps think of it like a gallery of characters, each in a frame (physical or doodled), and each with their own detailed biography.
– Creative Writing Prompts: Use cartoons to inspire short stories, where your student draws an initial scene and then writes about it. The more detailed the scene, the more detailed the writing can be! This method can be used to help the student put themself in place of the characters, making the story more real and meaningful.
Much of high school literature is analyzing the plot, the characters, and the hidden meanings behind chosen phrases. Sketching out these themes and elements can make literature more tangible for your student and help them keep the narrative straight. These pieces are also fantastic to keep for your homeschool records as included works.
Foreign Language
Even foreign language can benefit from cartooning! Implementing these activities can help your child cement their vocabulary faster.
– Vocabulary Comics: Allow your student to create comics where characters speak in the target language, helping reinforce vocabulary and sentence structures. Writing in the studied language is an important skill that can sometimes be overlooked in pursuit of speaking fluently. This method will consistently incorporate that skill.
– Flashcard Art: Draw pictures representing vocabulary words, especially for nouns, verbs, and adjectives. You can use these as typical flashcards, or tape them around the house with the corresponding noun or object for practice throughout the day.
– Vocabulary Comics: Allow your student to create comics where characters speak in the target language, helping reinforce vocabulary and sentence structures. Writing in the studied language is an important skill that can sometimes be overlooked in pursuit of speaking fluently. This method will consistently incorporate that skill.
– Flashcard Art: Draw pictures representing vocabulary words, especially for nouns, verbs, and adjectives. You can use these as typical flashcards, or tape them around the house with the corresponding noun or object for practice throughout the day.
I have seen cartooning as an art, as occupational education (when you make it a business) and as a technology credit (when you do it though computer programming rather than drawing). Adding the visual elements of cartoons or doodles can make learning more dynamic and tailored to your student’s personal interests, while enhancing both retention and creativity! It’s true what they say about an image being worth a thousand words. Associating images with concepts helps improve memory. Visual information is often easier to remember and creating art while learning enhances long-term retention by activating different parts of the brain. Drawing also has a therapeutic effect on people, young learners most of all. Especially when dealing with challenging subjects, incorporating art helps boost the confidence of the student and allows them to shine through their creative abilities while learning at the same time. It can show students that learning isn’t confined to rigid boundaries or textbooks alone, but is a creative, flexible process.
How have you incorporated doodling into your homeschooling?
Inquiring minds would love to know in the comments!!
Inquiring minds would love to know in the comments!!
