Unique lessons from pre-school through the tenth grade developed by Mae Carden guide children in recognizing the beauty of great paintings.  These weekly exercises enhance the development of the ‘mental image’ and concentration which also support skill development in language arts, especially early reading and mathematics.  The lessons feature:

• Three-year-olds: VanDyke, Liotard, Renoir, and Giotto

• Four-year-olds: Renouf, Landseer, Muenier, Millet, and Breton

• Kindergarten: Franz Hals, Raeburn, Reynolds, and de Hooch.

• Grade One: Goya, Manet, Sargent, Valezquez, and Millet

• Grades Two through Five : Lessons are based upon the paintings of Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin. 

Supplementary works of art by Van Gogh, Leutze, Romney, Stuart, Cassatt, Da Vinci, Renoir, Degas, Whistler, Rembrandt, and others.

  Art Techniques

Lessons in a variety of media: Drawing, watercolors, solid color paints, chalk, collage, and others.

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Swimming Lessons

The children in all grades walk to the adjacent Osborn Aquatic Center twice weekly for lessons.  Authorization by the enrolling parent(s) is required.  Lesson fees, which are charged separately from the tuition and fees, are paid directly to the Aquatic Center.

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Music and Drama

All students participate in the weekly singing lessons, Christmas Program, and Spring Musical.  Lessons in music theory offered each week at school develop skills in reading music and sight singing, which support individual instrument lessons.  Miss Carden suggests that formal music lessons are most successfully begun when a child is eight years old and he or she has a deep desire for this instruction.

   Spring playlet 2001
 American Revolution scene

 
  ‘Betsy Ross greeting General George Washington’

Eiffel Tower

  French and Greek

All students participate in Miss Carden’s French lessons.  To assure clarity of enunciation Carden Schools use Miss Carden’s taped lessons.  Workbooks and worksheet assignments accompany the auditory work to develop a French vocabulary of words and phrases by Grade 2. 

Students in Grade 3 and above gain familiarity with the French, Greek, and German sounds in English words, and the meaning of prefixes with a Greek origin.

Travel to Paris and other European sites is planned for our future Daystar Carden Middle School students joining other Carden Schools on the West Coast.