Art / Curriculum / Forum / Homeschool

Hi fellow homeschoolers! Since I know a lot of you are out there contemplating your curriculum for next year, I thought it would be fun to do a curriculum series where we can all talk about our favorites.

My “plan” is to discuss one subject per day with you all. I’ll of course share my picks for the subject, and then you will all be free to leave a comment on this post regarding your favorites as well!

art

So today I wanted to talk about your favorite art program, curriculum, unit study, website, or resource. Feel free to leave a comment below with your top art picks and why so we can all share our wisdom with one another!

One of my favorite art curriculum is the See The Light Art DVDs. Not only do I NOT have to teach the actual lesson, but I can participate! And the kids love the lessons and we have been really impressed with their finished products as well.

artseethelight

Pros:

  • The art project DVDs include wonderful art techniques and instruction via video lessons.
  • You can stop, pause, or replay the lessons as needed.
  • Supplies are fairly normal, they don’t usually require anything that is hard to find.

Cons:

  • Some of the lessons can be quite long, and my students will sometimes “fast-foward” through some of the slower parts.
  • The DVD price might be a little high depending on your budget.

I love the Home Art Studio DVDs they have really fun art projects. They are sold by grade level, which might not work as well if you have multiple-grades represented in your home. But I’ve found that for the most part, if you pick a DVD between the upper grades in your home, you can have everyone do a project from one DVD and it seems to be okay. There have been a few times where it was more difficult for my youngest, but I don’t expect her work to be the same level as her older sister. So we just go with it and they’ve done fine. The DVDs may cost a bit more, but they also take the pressure off of you to teach a lesson.  If you’re not comfortable teaching art, you can simply gather the required materials and let the DVD do the teaching for you.

Pros:

  • Great video led art lessons, lessons are challenging, fun, and well laid out. They also have some free lessons on their website as well.

Cons:

  • Price. They are purchased by grade level which can get kind of expensive if you have multiple grades using it. They also only have lessons for K-4th as of right now.

And of course we are having a wonderful time doing our Greatest Artists Units as well! I have two volumes out now for you all.

art2

What Artists are included in Vol 1?

What artists are included in Vol. 2?

Some of my favorite art resources are found for free online! Here are my top art websites:

So, now comes the fun part!

What are your favorite art curriculum, resources, websites, etc? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for art this year and why.

Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too!

It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!

And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.

Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards ART, I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.

Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.

65 Comments

  2. This is more for high school kids, but The Paint Basket is a great site to learn to paint in oils/acrylics and watercolors. There is a number of free classes available, it is all online bases, with a few DVD’s that can be purchased. Most of their classes are 2 hours long.
    They also have a Let Draw course, which is fantastic.
    This is for all those serious about art 🙂

    Maryna

    Maryna
    Reply

  3. We love “See the Light” as well. I was hoping for something a bit more child-like. I feel like I could sit through the lessons myself. My son loves art and he will do just about anything to have it, so we keep it. I am a fan of your unit studies! I think this the Artists ones are a bit much for him now. We may try them in a year or two! 🙂 Thanks for posting this, i cannot wait to see the others.

    Joyice
    Reply

  5. We’ve used Pineapple Paintbrush’s Intro to Art Class pdf. It was a wonderful and expensive ($15) way to have great projects (35 of them!) and guided instruction on the essential components of art. Plus we did it at our own pace. Our art co-op used many of these lessons for a semester too.

    http://www.pineapplepaintbrush.com/p/shop-class-pdfs.html

    We also used Mona Brooks Drawing with Children for guided drawing.
    Of course, lots of open ended art for exploring.

    Susan
    Reply

  6. We enjoy How Great Thou Art curriculum. There are various curriculum for various skill levels, starting from about pre-school age. I also use the curriculum and we find it fun. We had the opportunity to learn from Mr Barry Stebbings over a few days last year, and thoroughly enjoyed his commitment to inspire everyone for art – which comes through in the curriculum.

    Queenie
    Reply

    1. We’ve been using the How Great Thou Art book, and it must say that it just drags on, and on, and on. When teaching a new concept (ie, shading) not enough information is given. Its just grab a pencil and draw like this, now make your own pretty little picture! My son is bored with it.

      Tom
      Reply

  9. My 7 y.o. has been going to Young Rembrandts for 2 years. She loves it! My 5 y.o. will start in the fall. When they are bit older, we will also learn about artists via studying Laurence Anholt books.

    Amy S.
    Reply

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