The Creation is a lovely hardback children’s book telling the story of Creation in the Bible. I suppose there are numerous children’s books on Creation out there but this book has something different…

Sam's Noggin

…each day of The Creation is illustrated by way of hand-appliqued quilt illustrations!

Sam's Noggin

Author Janice Green has done a fabulous job of retelling the account of Creation in her book; each page is truly a work of art. At the end of each page, or day of Creation, there are discussion questions, as well as the corresponding Bible verses noted.

Another welcome addition to this book is the Bible quilt activity you will find at the end. This is something I would love to do with my children!

This book was a pleasant surprise for me, and if you have younger children in your home, or any age that loves a beautiful book, you will want to pick this one up!

Price: You can find The Creation at Amazon for $11.69.

Samantha is a Christian homeschooling mom of six, married to Rick, her high school sweetheart. She is interested in Bible study, photography, exercise, organizing, and sweet tea. You can find Samantha blogging at Sam’s Noggin.

You are in for a treat at the end. Don’t miss the giveaway!

Dear homeschool parent,

Are you like me? Do you long to enrich your homeschool with studies of composers and artists? Do you wish that someone would just do it all for you? You know, invest the time in research, find the online links, point you to the resources you need? All I really wanted to be able to do was open something up and teach. Have it all right there and not have to pull it all together myself.

It’s done. Yes, really. It’s all done for you. Barb-Harmony Art Mom has created just what you need. She, too, was like us. Here is what Barb has to say about the Harmony Fine Arts (HFA) plans she created:

The idea behind this program came from my own home schooling experience. I was always searching for a plan for picture study and composer study. It seemed simple enough to do myself but I just never did it. I also wanted to use the classical style and Charlotte Mason’s ideas for our art and music. I wanted all the great resources organized in the four-year cycle of history. I wanted it to be flexible and easy to use. I never found what I was searching for so I decided to do it myself!

This is the art and music appreciation program for busy people. We have done all the research and organizing. You are able to open our plan and offer a great program for your children.

As mentioned above, the plans are organized by the four-year cycle of history. They are presented as follows but plans for individual grades are available:

• Grammar – Grades 1-4
• Logic – Grades 5-8
• Rhetoric – Grades 9-12

(First grade plans are a general overview and gentle introduction to composers and artists. Starting with grade 2, the plans work chronologically through the four year history cycle.)

Art Plans:

Offer three options so you can choose what is best for your homeschool.

• You can simply choose picture study with links to view all the art online for easy viewing.
• You can add in an art appreciation study with short activities.
• You can even follow along in certain grades with the formal art program Artistic Pursuits or Drawing with Children or Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad – depending on the grade level.
• Depending on which option you choose within the art plans – you can allow for one or two 45-minute art periods per week.

Composer Study:

• Choose to study the composers and listen to their music or
• Enhance your music study with suggested books

Included: artist and composer notebooking pages, coloring pages of famous art.

How we use Harmony Fine Arts Plans in our home: we adopted Angie and her boys at Petra School’s Wednesday habit of artist and composer study. All this means is that we push back the dishes from lunch. I open up the Harmony Fine Art Plans on my computer. I turn on the music of the composer we are studying. Or I click over to the optional online listening of Classics for Kids. We might work on a notebook page while listening.

Next, depending on the day, I might click over to view artwork of the artist we are studying. We may follow with an artist notebook page or a Draw Squad lesson. This takes 15 to 30 minutes once a week. But building a weekly habit has tuned us all in and made us want more the rest of the week.

• “Can we play that again? I really like it.” 14-year-old
• Six-year-old whistling along to Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony when I turn on the classical music just for listening fun.

The Many Benefits of Art and Music Study:

• Made by a homeschool mom to meet a need.
• Affordable Plans for Busy Moms
• Practical Homeschooling Reader Award 2011
• How to Get Started with Harmony Fine Arts
• Download Sample pages – try it out!
• Enjoy free downloads
• Listen to a podcast to see if the Harmony Fine Arts plans are right for your family
• Browse Harmony Fine Arts Pinterest boards for direct links to sample plans

Cost: All costs are listed on the order page of the Harmony Fine Arts website. Bundles are available as well as individual year plans. I purchased the Middle School Medieval/Renaissance Plans at the start of this school year for $17.44. A whole year of study for the whole family for less than $20 – one that brings that much learning and enjoyment? What a bargain!

Print or ebook? Harmony Fine Arts Plans are available in both print or ebook format.

In Summary: What I originally intended for my middle-schoolers to study has extended to full blown appreciation for the whole family – all five children.

• The artist and composer studies compliment our Tapestry of Grace studies beautifully.
• For this mama, using HFA plans is easy. I just click to open the plans, click to print what we might like to compliment our studies, click to print a coloring page for the younger ones.
• Not to mention, this type of enrichment is pure delight. It might just be what your homeschool needs too.

“All my music I wrote for God.” ~ J. S. Bach

I shared about our studies on my Hodgepodge site and my friend Kimberly, a pianist and life-long musician, had this to say…

“It warms my heart when I hear children learning about classical music! So many of those composers had such a love for God and were certainly gifted. When you mention Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, etc. to most children, they have no idea who they are. It’s so sad because these musicians have had such an impact on our world. It’s wonderful that you’re sharing this education with your children!” ~Kimberly

I agree – there is so much history and part of HIS story we can learn from those gifted and Godly. With thanks to Harmony Fine Arts for creating a wonderful tool for just such an education.

• Full descriptions of individual plans at the Harmony Fine Arts site.
• Plus Barb-Harmony Art Mom shares many more examples and samples on her Harmony Art Mom site.
• Barb is a review author here at Curriculum Choice. You can find all of her reviews here.

Now for the giveaway!

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Homeschooling for over a decade now, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children. She shares a mixture of free art lessons, recipes and the practical at Hodgepodge. Her husband, Steve, also shares reviews here at Curriculum Choice.

A Bit of Background: For the 2011 school year my family decided to make a change in our curriculum. If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know we’re Five In A Row fans, and after 4 years of their curriculum with my eldest it was time to move forward to give him something a bit meatier for his grade level.

After some prayerful research and web surfing I discovered there’s a lot of curriculum out there that a homeschooling mama can choose from. In fact there’s so much that at times I felt truly overloaded with choices. In the end I wrote down my needs on one side of a sheet of paper and my wants on the other side. From there I was able to quickly weed out curriculum that would be of no use to me and finally settle on ones that would work. From that very short list I settled on Winter Promise All American 1.

I chose to use All American 1 because it covers your needs from grades 1-7. This does not mean that you can use this particular core for seven years, rather it means that if you have students ranging from first through seventh grades it’s a good fit for you. If you have students older than that and wish to keep them all together, you can also purchase a high school add on pack.

How We Use It:

This was our very first year using an “out of the box” curriculum. {Out of the box simply means everything you need to use is included and you’re off and running.} We basically used it exactly as it’s laid out. I ordered the core {All American 1; AA-1}, as well as the accompanying Character Supplement, Art Study, and I even picked out a science pack to round everything out.

All but the science is scheduled right in your main core. All I have to do is open to the week and day I’m on and we’re off and running. I will confess, that at times we didn’t use it exactly as it was laid out. Some weeks were incredibly light and we wanted more so we did two weeks in one. This isn’t too hard if you have a couple of back to back light weeks. Winter Promise cores are only mapped out for a four day school week.

Our core also came with Student Planning Pages that I chose not to use. I had high hopes of using them for my 4/5 grader to learn to be a more independent learner. However because his younger brother was also doing the core, it limited how much I could permit him to do on his own.

This core also came with plenty of web links to enhance the study. We did not check most of these out. We did visit a few and they were so-so. Eventually we found we were fully satisfied with the vast amount of crafts and notebooking that we were doing.

I also chose to use some of the read-alouds as audio books because our family adores having a book playing in the car. During one of our long journeys this year I purchased Fever {our current read aloud} as an audio and plugged it in the car and were able to enjoy the story while we traveled.

What I Loved:

I loved, loved, loved, the fact that this particular core decided to use Homeschool In The Woods Time (HSITW) Traveler Packs {worthy of a review all their own!}. My family happens to be HUGE HSITW fans and these packs are nothing short of fantastic. The fact that Winter Promise chose to use them in this particular core was one of the deciding factors in our purchase!

I loved the fast array of historical fiction we read this year. Many of the books I was none the wise for and wouldn’t have chosen had I not used this curriculum. We learned so much from the good quality literature that we read and my children still refer to these characters {some fictional some real} as life-long friends.

I can not stress how amazing it was to have our school year laid out for us, all 36 weeks, 180 days worth. I suffer from chronic migraines and there are times in my life where planning out our school is nothing short of a miracle. We also had to abruptly move in September and helped a family member move.. twice! It was such a relief to know that despite all of that we were not going to be held up because I hadn’t had time to finish planning the final bits of our school week. Instead, we grabbed some of our books and hit the road!

Customer Service! Living overseas I have an overseas mailing address and a US address. When the company accidentally mailed something to the wrong address, they quickly refunded my shipping so that I could then pay to have it forwarded to the right place. Anytime I contacted them they were quick to answer my questions in full. I was grateful for that.

The Timeline. Oh. My. I’ve never met a timeline I’m so in love with, and we’ve tried a lot! Over the years I’m pretty sure we’ve used no less than four timelines, but this one is the best! It’s a notebook timeline separated by years. You then glue timeline figures to the separating pages and place all notebooking, lapbooking, maps, etc. behind these pages. My children equally love these huge notebooks. They are a beautiful portfolio of the work they’ve done all year! Even if you use nothing else from this company, I assure you their timeline is worth purchasing all on it’s own!

What I Don’t Love:

I didn’t love the price of shipping for overseas users. Check out my tips at the end of this post for help in reducing the cost of shipping!

I was disappointed to see a few typos in the Core. Only a couple, but they did throw me for a loop for a minute.

I found the Character study to be a bit weak for my family. The prints of the artwork were small and dark compared to the large copies we found online.

To be totally honest and fair with my review I must admit my children loved the art portion and requested it frequently! I would also like to have seen the prints turned into coloring sheets for the children. I never asked my children to try their hands at drawing the pictures we studied. I knew my eight-year-old would have been quickly overwhelmed and frustrated with his attempts. Had the art prints been coloring pictures it would have allowed him to try it and critique his art in a positive way.

Their resale policy. I was unaware when I purchased from them that they had a strict request that you don’t resell their exclusive material.

I was also disappointed to see that if I had not included the Bible Character Supplement there would have been no “Christian” reference to their curriculum. I admit to being disappointed because it’s considered a Christian curriculum and I would have loved to see that better integrated.

Geography. In the AA-1 core there was geography worked into it. We ended up only doing a few weeks before leaving it alone and only doing the geography that applied to our stories {mapping the Lewis & Clark trail, Mapping the Erie canal, finding the places specific battles took place, etc.}

Tips I’d Like To Share:

I want to offer up a few tips for anyone trying to decide about Winter Promise.

• Try ringing them directly to place your order. While I ordered online, I did ring them later that week to confirm that my order had taken place and to find out exactly when it would be shipped out. If you have your order shipped to an overseas address you must ring them anyway.

• Only order Winter Promise Exclusives from them. That means the Core Manual, Bible, Art, Timeline, etc. Order all the books you’ll need from other sources. This is exactly what I did. I chose to order all my books {read alouds, readers, and go alongs} from Book Depository. They offer free shipping to most of the world and I knew exactly when they’d show up at my front door! No waiting on a middle man to get them to me. This is huge for overseas purchasers! The biggest complaint for people who purchased an entire core from this company that lived overseas was that books trickled in over months.

• Use the samples on their websites, & really investigate their website! All American 1 is not listed as a core on their Themed Humanities page, but it is available if you look at the American Story {1 or 2} as a better option if you are working with a wider range of children.

• If you don’t want to do all the crafts included, don’t! There were many I skipped mainly because we all ready had done lots and I knew my involvement would be heavily needed. For crafts that my children could do on their own I supplied them with what they needed and let them lose. For crafts that needed my involvement we only picked a few to do each week.

• Purchase your Time Traveler Packs from The Old Schoohouse Magazine.* This will greatly reduce your costs because you won’t pay shipping for them! They are shipped directly from the Pak family and arrive in amazingly quick time. You can’t go wrong there! We also purchased the Homeschool In The Woods Mapping CD to use with the geography written in the core {the same geography we chose to drop because it seemed very watery instead of rich and purposeful.} *If you live overseas you will not be able to get the free shipping mentioned above. Instead email HSITW! When I did that they offered to put them in a priority mail envelope and post them to me, up to six, for the current price of that envelope {at the time of this review I believe the envelopes cost $14 USD}

Bottom Line:

We absolutely loved our year with Winter Promise’s All-American 1! My children learned and created so much this year. They have a timeline notebook bursting with the proof of their labors and will continue to fill that over the rest of their homeschooling “careers”. I am grateful for the freedom it gave me as I dealt with life this year. Despite my initial concerns when making the switch I’m incredibly glad that I did!

Notes: The cores do not come bound as you see in the above pictures. I chose to bind my own copy! Each core comes pre-hole punched and ready to slip into a three ring binder.

*You might also be interested in Jimmie’s review of Winter Promise American Story 1 here.

What a treat for the eyes and a delight to the heart! I LOVE this book and any mom who is looking for ways to build on play-based learning, this book is a gem. The book, Playful Learning by Mariah Bruehl, will help you create an atmosphere of learning by building spaces and providing activities that spark creativity and fun. Looking back over my years as a homeschooling mom, I realize the best learning takes place when I could build on my child’s interest in a relaxed and enjoyable way. The trick was to be prepared for those moments.

Sometimes it is as easy as creating a learning environment, introducing your child to the space, and then letting them explore.

Playful Learning is the kind of book that can be referred to again and again and you will always find some new idea to spark a creative activity. It is a visually appealing book that outlines areas of your home where you can set the stage for playing and natural learning.  The author stresses the importance of free and unstructured time for children to explore their interests and Playful Learning gives specific ideas for building on your child’s natural inclinations to play and learn by organizing play spaces and materials to nurture the interest alongside your child.

“Playful Learning gives us as parents an opportunity to play again! It is wonderful to teach the way we wish we had been taught. I have rediscovered my own awe and wonder of the world.”

 

• Do you want to nurture your child’s love of writing? Young writers will be encouraged to keep lists and notebooks, write stories and letters, and have a try at bookmaking.
• Do you want to build an art area, a child’s science “lab”, or a cozy reading library? Images and resource lists are included in this book.
• Has your child shown an interest in learning geography?  Create maps together and learn more about the world we live in using suggestions in this section of the book.
• Is your child a nature lover? Activities illustrated will help your child better connect the the natural world in your own backyard.

Mariah Bruehl will give ideas in pictures and words, making it easier to provide a richer learning experience at home by showing you activities to plan on and offer as you play through your day.

She explains that the key for parents is to stay “one step ahead”.  I appreciate that this book assumes you want to identify an interest and then build on it, preparing yourself to offer up the space and ingredients for playful learning at home. She outlines in each main section the stages of learning, how to stay “one step ahead”, the process of building on interests, and then more ways to explore with your child. She suggests skimming the book with your child and then refer back to it when they become interested in a particular subject.

The book includes lots of printables in the back of the book as well as from the Playful Learning website. What a great way to get started with your Playful Learning experiences! You may also want to follow Playful Learning on Pinterest where there are many, many wonderful additional ideas for you to implement in your home.

Excellent resource for families with children from ages 4-8 (even older if you extend the ideas). This book will be a perfect supplement to any homeschooling curriculum and can be used with any style of learning. Big thumbs up for this sparkling gem of a book!

Written by Barb-Harmony Art Mom.  I blog at Harmony Art Mom and am the creator of  Harmony Fine Arts. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges at the Handbook of Nature Study.

You are in for a treat! Not only are we offering a giveaway but you have nine more chances to win at the sites we are teaming up with…
We are all about adding in the joy of art in our homeschool. And what a fun way to view beautiful pieces of art – holding copies of them right in your hand. Playing a game? Even better! As a parent, I am very impressed with the quality of Art Ditto by Birdcage Press. The children are very impressed with the fun factor.

For ages 4 and up (all my children enjoyed it – from age 4 up to 14):

• Brilliantly-colored cards. Glossy and thick – will stand the test of my rough and tumble household.
• Simple memory game with benefit of learning famous pieces of art.
• Includes 48 tiles – so younger ones can play with just a few and older children can be challenged by using the whole set.
• Easy enough for children to play independently.

For a more advanced way of playing – pretend your are an art collector:

• Eight (8) art collecting cards that show details on one side and full paintings on the other.
• Cards include names of famous artists (hooray! A supplement to our homeschool studies).
• Find the matching tiles and collect them on the cards.
• The cards give a visual of how different artists depict birds, boats, cats, flowers, horses and more.

Need even more of a challenge? Learn words in 4 languages.

You might be interested to know:

• Art Ditto won the Creative Child Game of the Year Award as well as the Parents’ Choice Recommended Award.
• Art Ditto is also available in an American Art version. (Which Rachel at at Finding Joy is reviewing)
• You can browse all the Birdcage Press art products here.

Conclusion: Playing Art Ditto over and over makes us interested in all the other products from Bird Cage press. Click over to their site for more detail and to browse other games in the art category. We loved Art Ditto so much that we ordered Go Fish for Renaissance Artists to compliment our Tapestry of Grace studies.

Happy faces! Play memory games! Collect your favorite art! And as a homeschool parent, enjoy a high-quality, educational resource for your homeschool.

Find Art Ditto and many more wonderful educational products via the Birdcage Press website.

• Join the Birdcage Press mailing list for future promotions.
• Birdcage Press also has digital products. We particularly enjoy the My Bird World app!
• You can follow Birdcage Press on Facebook.

*Special shipping discount code on all orders: IN12 is good until 3/31/12

Please note: I received this Art Ditto game in exchange for a review. I always give my honest opinion and love to share our family’s experiences when reviewing a product.

Now for the giveaway! The giveaway will only run through Sunday, February 26th. The winner will be announced Monday, the 27th. Birdcage Press is kindly offering one (1) Art Ditto game to our readers.

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More Chances to Win! The Curriculum Choice is joining with these wonderful sites in reviewing Birdcage Press products. Be sure to visit each blog to find out about more of these great resources. Plus enter to win a different game or product at each site!

Spell Outloud — Choice of Egyptian Art Cards or Battle Cards-Military Jets

Finding Joy — Choice of Wild Cards – North American Birds or Art Ditto Game.

Jimmie’s Collage –Choice of Impressionist or Renaissance Art Game

Mama’s Learning Corner — Renaissance Art Game

Handbook of Nature Study — Wild Cards-Backyard Birds

Harmony Art Mom — Choice of Go Fish for Art or Art Close-Up Cards

Hodgepodge — Go Fish for Wildlife – Sea Creatures

The Traveling Praters — Choice of Go Fish for Van Gogh and Friends or 52 Amazing Places-National Parks
Get Along Home — Choice of Wild Cards, Backyard Birds or Renaissance Art Game

Tricia has been homeschooling for over a decade now. She faces a daily dose of chaos balancing the needs of five children from preschool to middle school (and playing educational games) at Hodgepodge.

I love art, but have no real training in it.  I believe my children need to learn art techniques, but I can’t afford $60/hour lessons at the local art studio.  What’s a homeschooling mom to do?  Well…I had the blessing of reviewing lessons 1-12 of See the Light Art Class DVD’s and found them to be full of solid instruction at a reasonable price.

Before I even begin telling you about the lessons, you ought to know the film quality is very good.  That means a lot to me considering so many DVD programs I review leave a lot to be desired in quality.  No need to worry with these!

The complete first year program consists of 36 lessons, meant to be taught once per week.  The teacher has an engaging personality, gives clear directions, and models lessons at an appropriate pace – all important aspects allowing my children to stay focused.  And, she teaches lessons incrementally, meaning each new lesson expands on a previously learned skill.

Technique and art vocabulary are key components in the lessons, as well as learning how to effectively use various art media.  Even though the lessons are simple to implement, they are in-depth, making art class a serious (and fun) venture.  Additionally, each lesson is wholeheartedly Christian, tying in Bible verses or mini-devotionals to the art topic at hand.

Students are encouraged to have their own “toolbox” of basic art supplies including #2 pencils, paper, a drawing pencil, charcoal pencils, a black Sharpie marker, colored pencils, a sharpener, a medium to large box of crayons, a large white eraser and a kneaded eraser.   Some lessons will include easily found household supplies, too, like two apples in lesson 3, for example.

Each lesson lasts approximately 15 minutes and it’s assumed your child will put to practice some of the newly learned skills afterward.  I have used the lessons with my 6th and 9th graders, but even my five year old enjoyed taking part most of the time.

You can purchase all 36 DVD lessons in a bundle for $99.  (Yes, that seems high, but it’s an entire year of art instruction.)  You can also purchase DVDs of four lessons each for $14.99 or get an online subscription which “unlocks” four lessons at a time for only $10 per month.

My children aren’t the most artistically gifted kids you’ll ever meet, but the lessons have really improved their skills.  If you’re skeptical, try the first three lessons for free!

Draw Write Now handwriting and art program helped my daughter develop her printing skills and have fun while doing it! The series consists of eight books, each with a different theme and all written at the same level. You can start with any of the eight books. I took my daughter to the nearby children’s book store and she chose Book 1 – On the Farm, Kids, Critters. It was full of her favorite animals to draw!

When we opened the book together, we saw that each lesson included a shape or animal to draw and a short story to copy. Each story included facts about the animal or shape, such as “Rabbits eat plants” or “Ducks have webbed feet.” My second grader enjoyed copying down these new facts, and of course, drawing her new animal!

My daughter’s favorites were the sheep and penguin.

Benefits:

• This program is built on success! Each animal or shape is explained in step-by-step drawings.
• Explanations are very easy to follow.
• While drawing, my daughter was developing her fine motor skills! We placed special drawings into frames and, of course, posted on the frig!
• Draw,Write Now was a good fit for my daughter because she knew how to form each letter but needed a lot of practice in her printing.
• Drawing also helped my daughter practice following a sequence – which improved her reading skills!

Skill building: As we worked through three of these books, my daughter developed better control of her pencil. Then while copying the sentences, she began to think up her own stories! Soon she was writing down these stories and illustrating them. The following year, she wrote a story about a toucan and illustrated it for a story contest.

• Draw Write Now is aimed at the first or second grade level.
• Although we chose from the animal books, Draw Write Now also offers a number of science and social studies topics.
• Each of the eight books has 64 pages and is non-consumable.
• Draw, Write, Now also offers lined paper, books to draw in, pencil grips and grasp positioning guides and more on their site.

Below are the eight Draw, Write Now titles:

• Book 1  On Farm, Kids, Critters
• Book 2 Columbus, Autumn Harvest, Weather
• Book 3 North America, Native Americans, Pilgrims
• Book 4 Polar Regions, Arctic, Antarctic
• Book 5 U.S, From Sea to Sea
• Book 6 Animal Habitats, Land, Ponds, Ocean
• Book 7 Animals of the World, Part 1, Tropical
• Book 8 Animals, part 2, Savannas, Grasslands

In summary, I would recommend Draw, Write, Now to families with young children who know how to form letters – and want to improve printing skills in a fun and creative way!

For more information, please visit the Draw Write Now site. You might also like Shannon’s review of Draw, Write, Now.

~Written by Betsy, a veteran homeschooler who likes unit studies and offers Homeschool Consulting, as a volunteer, to new and experienced families. She can be reached on her Facebook, at Jane Sproger. 

What immediately drew me to My Father’s World is that the curriculum is the fact that it is fairly stand alone. You purchase either the basic set or their deluxe set, and you are ready to go!  I adore this as our little library in this rural community really doesn’t have the variety or selection of books that we were used to in San Diego. This means filling in blanks or filling out a curriculum is a challenge now so a curriculum with most of the absolutely necessary books included was a huge plus to us.

However, like the true bibliophiles that we are, I wanted the option of having more, should we be able to find them. True to the Charlotte Mason element, the curriculum is surrounded by the “living books” concept so the usage of books is completely up to you.  I love that they include this in every year.

About My Father’s World 

My Father’s World isn’t just a Charlotte Mason style offering but rather a unique fusion of sorts, merging both “the best of Charlotte Mason, classical education, and unit studies with a Biblical worldview and international focus.”

My Father’s World offers grades K-2nd grade as a more independent, semi-stand alone element and then moves into a family 5 year cycle that works around a central theme. The 5 year cycle is specifically geared for multiple ages, for grades 2nd-8th so there is savings to be found as families with more than one child use the same program to teach all children in 2nd – 8th grade.

They also offer a bridge year called Adventures in My Father’s World, which is geared for families 2nd or 3rd graders who have no siblings in 4th – 8th grade.(We will be doing this program next year as I have a 4year old and a 7 year old.)

Our Adventure

Currently we are working our way though My Father’s World, 1st grade.  I adore this program as it is laid out in an easy to follow, daily workbook fashion.  It’s easy for me to combine the integrated social studies, science, art and Bible elements with both kids, while focusing independently on the phonics and math.  My boys love that they are learning together, doing the same things, despite their age and grade differences.

The curriculum does include a 1st grade phonics-based reading program that focuses on the Bible and more fun, hands-on math activities.  We include our own K4 phonics and and additional math program (Math U See) for both boys as I found their math not as intensive as I think it needs to be for the grade.

One major element we always seemed to miss with our previous years curriculum was the arts; we simply didn’t always make time for them.

With My Father’s World, art, music, crafts,hands-on learning is a major part of the curriculum. Everything is planned out and outlined for you to see the day before so you can prep easily, using common household items most of the time.  My boys have enjoyed this more consistent addition to our learning and I have found they have better attitudes and have better lesson retention.

The only cons that I have experience thus far is that the 1st grade teachers book is only formatted with a daily lesson plan. It lacks the easy, one glace, weekly grid that their latter versions offer.  I also felt the math that is included is a bit weak for the age group so we needed to supplement an additional math program. Ultimately, minor things that we easily rectified.

For a full curriculum, It’s fairly affordable, especially when you compare it to larger, more known companies. For the 1st grade curriculum, you can elect to get their basic package for only $136.oo or their deluxe package for $239.00.  As the years grow in complexity, so does the number of books included which will contribute to a steady raise in the overall costs. However, remaining competitive and within reach for most families.

Overall, My Father’s World, or MFW, has been a blessing to our household. It’s affordable, fun, engaging and the children really do learn.

I previously introduced you to Artistic Pursuits for the K-3rd crowd. Now I would like to introduce you to Artistic Pursuits for the Junior High crowd. Artistic Pursuits will be highly appreciated by those who teach from a Charlotte Mason or Classical method. However, this art curriculum will enhance any homeschool.

The focus in Book One is on World Art. The student will gain an understanding of how different cultures impacted the world in different ways through their art. The book places equal emphasis on art history, art appreciation and techniques making this a complete art course for your junior high student. The lessons will cover one full year of Art. The course can also credit the student with Art Appreciation and Art History as each lesson focuses on these aspects. The student will gain a full understanding of how cultures interpreted art, what mediums were used, and how art was influenced by history and cultural aspects. Students will learn the techniques of the lesson before completing the art project to ensure proper reinforcement and understanding.

If you are concerned with your ability to teach art or you have too much on your plate to add in an involved art curriculum, do not turn away from Artistic Pursuits. This book is written to the student and no teacher preparation is needed. A list of materials is given in the beginning of the book and can be easily found at your local craft or art store. Once your student is equipped with the textbook, supplies and time, he can successfully complete this course. If you enjoy art and want to share the experience with your child this book will be a delight to your homeschool.

Artistic Pursuits is my favorite art curriculum based on its emphasis on art appreciation and art history. This is not a book full of projects with no purpose or a perfunctory glance at the roots of a technique. Artistic Pursuits is a course that your student will appreciate regardless of his talent, skill level, or interest in creating projects. This course will reinforce your history lessons by giving them a flavor of the people of the time.

Disclosure: This book provided by the publisher/creator for the purpose of review. Thoughts expressed are solely my own and from my experience.

Richele is a homeschooling mom to four reflections of God’s love whose greatest accomplishment thus far was teaching physics, folding laundry, and playing Candyland simultaneously.   Find her blogging at Under the Golden Apple Tree.

I love art and even considered making it my career.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on which child I’m talking to), I never seem to get around to teaching art as a hands-on, let’s-get-creative-and-make-a-mess activity.  I don’t know why; it’s just one of those things.

So what do my children do for art?  Well, we do Charlotte Mason style picture study every few weeks, and each of my children works through the entire Art with A Purpose curriculum, doing about one lesson a week for eight years.

Art With a Purpose is an easy-to-teach curriculum that covers everything from coloring and pasting in the younger grades to lettering, color combining, perspective, and pen and ink drawings in the older grades.  It does not, however, teach art history or appreciation at all.  (Hence the picture study lessons.) 

Each year’s Artpac contains 36 simple, step-by-step art lessons.  Materials are usually simple to obtain.  In fact, the only ones we’ve had trouble finding are the brass fasteners needed to allow movement in a monkey’s limbs and the hands of a clock.

Using this curriculum, moms have little teaching to do in the younger grades and even less as the children get older because the instructions are clear and easy to follow. Although classroom teachers are encouraged to work through each Artpac to provide their students with examples, this was not necessary for us at home.

Rod and Staff breaks down each year’s skills as follows:

• Artpac 1 Simple coloring skills, color-by-number, cutting and pasting.
• Artpac 2 Simple coloring skills, cutting, pasting, simple perspective drawing.
• Artpac 3 Coloring, shading with crayons, simple grid drawing and painting.
• Artpac 4 Coloring, shading with crayons, drawing stick figures, simple grid drawing, and perspective drawing.
• Artpac 5 Shading with colored pencils, drawing faces, painting and paint mixing, lettering, and grid work.
• Artpac 6 Shading with colored pencils, drawing faces, lettering, grid work, freehand and perspective drawing.
• Artpac 7 Advanced shading with soft lead colored pencils, grid drawing, calligraphy, paint mixing and painting, and sketching.
• Artpac 8 Shading with pen and ink.

View detailed outlines of each course, with samples.

Most weeks my children spend between 30 minutes and two hours on their Artpacs, depending on the effort they are willing to expend. They are usually pleased with their work, and often give the cards, pictures, or crafts as gifts.  Many of them also adorn the bedroom doors.

We’ve encountered very few problems over the years.  Some lessons in the early years are much too difficult and take too long.  We don’t skip those, but I allowed the child to work on them for a long time, pointing out that it was a lesson in perseverance as well as in art.  I also allowed children who struggled with motor skills to progress slowly, with the beneficial result that they were able to do a better job at the upper levels as well.

Published by Rod and Staff, the Artpacs feature a few pictures that are obviously Mennonite.  Wording, where there is any, is inspiring and often Christian.  Although the Artpacs have no projects about Halloween, Easter bunnies, Santa Claus, or baby Jesus, I have received several wonderful Mothers’ Day cards.

Each year’s worth of lessons is well under $10.  This is a very good deal, especially for the grade 8 Artpac’s pen and ink pages that would retail for several hundred dollars at my local art supply store.

If you’re not the kind of person who thrives on doing hands-on crafts with your children, but you still want them to learn the basics of art, it’s worth checking out Art with A Purpose.  It’s thorough, easy to use, Christian, and inexpensive.

Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate.

Disclosure: Having used Artpacs for a dozen years, I love telling people about them.  I receive no compensation for this review.

Last February my family spent several days creating murals to hang in their bedrooms.  Coordinating several children to produce something beautiful to hang on the wall can be challenging.  We used inexpensive downloads from Art Murals for Kids as our guide for several reasons:

• They’re easy – even my 2 year old can color.
• They’re printable – which meant if a piece got messed up and bothered the children they could just print again and redo it.
• They make beautiful final products.

My sons chose to use Oil Pastels to color their version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night.  They decided to try following the original for their colors.  This came from the Mini Impressionist Mural Set, which is only $5.00.  In this set the murals are small – our Starry Night printout was 6 pages, measuring 23″x 19″.  It was just right for a family to do together instead of a classroom.  There is a larger version of Starry Night available for download that is 24 pages and measures 48″x 36″.  I really like how the colors of the oil pastels are bold.  The only drawback to oil pastels is they are a bit smudgy – mostly on children’s hands!

My daughters used crayons with this mural for their bedroom.  They chose this one for the animals.  Their file was also $5.00and included two sizes to use: a 36-page version measuring 45″x 45″ and a 9-page mini version measuring 22.5″ x 22.5″.  I think the crayons looks all right, it just does not stand out as much as the oil pastels.  We may try painting a mural sometime for a change.

There are quite a few other mural possibilities to choose from at Art Murals for Kids.  She even offers coloring books of famous paintings that would be a fun addition to an artist study.  Be sure to check out her companion site, Art Projects for Kids for tons of art project ideas to use with your children.  I’ve found some real gems as I’ve explored the archives!

Tristan is a happily homeschooling LDS mother to 6 blessings age 9, 6, 5, 3, 2, and 5 months old.  You can drop in and visit anytime over at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.  Read her other Curriculum Choice posts here.

{Disclaimer: I purchased these products on my own.  This is not a sponsored post in any way.  And yes, we hope to purchase more murals in the future!}

I count it a benefit of homeschooling when one of the masters can step in and teach my children. Thomas Kinkade has led my children in Drawing Basics several times already. That is with the Alpha Omega DVD Lifepac. An Alpha Omega Lifepac is a full subject of study “built upon the principle of mastery learning.” Drawing Basics is an elective Lifepac.

Our two eldest children went through all the lessons with the accompanying workbooks. We just added drawing tablets, pencils and erasers. Drawing Basics is truly the basics. The study begins with line and shape and leads all the way to art history.

The five units each include three sections. Thomas Kinkade teaches the concept at the beginning of each section, encouraging students to sketch along in their drawing tablets.

Next the student is directed to pause the DVD and to “return to your workbook” for practice in the concept.

Also included:

• 18 weeks of study
• extra enrichment activities
• review questions
• tests
• teacher guide
• 5 unit workbooks
• instructional DVD

Unit workbooks and instructional DVD can be purchased separately. Alpha Omega Publications offers the DVD for purchase by itself for $13.95 here.

Intended for:

Grades 3 to 5 but can be adapted for up to grade 8. (Guess what? My 5-year-old, 3^rd grader and two middle schoolers all enjoy it).

Plus:

Thomas Kinkade teaches from a Biblical worldview and includes a Bible lesson in each section.

This resource is great to use as an elective, a unit study and/or to compliment history studies. Plus when you’ve already enjoyed his lessons several times, the DVD is so nice to pull out on a sick day. There is always something new we didn’t notice before. And that day, not long ago, when I was on the couch, it was sure fun to tell my fellow homeschoolers, “Oh Thomas Kinkade taught school today!”

For more information on all Alpha Omega Lifepac Curriculum, visit their site.

View a video sample on the AOP website by creating an account here.

How about you? Wouldn’t you like the ‘Painter of Light’ to teach your children?

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

It’s easy.

It’s done for you.

Those two criteria really appeal to me as a homeschool mother.

Julie Lavender has done all the work. Pull out her 365 Days of Celebration and Praise to start the day. It’s appropriate for all ages. A full year of family devotionals.

We all need an easy, stress-free way to add some fun to our homeschool day. We sometimes start with these Daily Devotions and Activities written by a homeschooler for homeschooling families. Or maybe we read it together at lunch time. Other times children pull it out on their own.

We celebrate birthdays, holidays. Why not every day? Included for each day:

1. Questions to discuss
2. Related activity – a craft, recipe or other simple, hands-on project
3. Curriculum Connection – suggested activity related to a school subject (e.g., for National Backyard Games Week – “What interjections did you use when you played your game outside? What is an interjection? Can you think of more interjections?”)
4. Verse to memorize
5. Prayer suggestion

Did you know March 1 is National Pig Day? Read Luke 15: 11-32 and discuss why you think the younger son took all he had and left… Who forgave the young man? Then make a pig bookmark if you like. All the instructions are included. Next, see how many baby animal names you know. Memorize Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Pray, asking God to help you forgive. Thank God for his forgiveness of sins.

National Fragrance Week? Clergy Appreciation Day? National Dessert Month? Basketball Season? Holy Humor Month? Golden Rule Week? Epiphany? Drinking Straw Day?

So take a bit of advice from December 30, Make-Up-Your-Mind Day, check out Julie Lavender’s resource. It’s available for $16.99 here. Learn, discuss, memorize and pray together as a family this year.

May God bless you as you make each day a holiday! ~ Julie Lavender

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

We have many, many Dover coloring books, and they have changed the life of at least one of our children.  Miss 12 spends hours carefully coloring fashions of the past.  She has learned so much history simply from studying the pictures and reading the captions.  In fact, when she looks at paintings she can date them accurately, just by what the people are wearing!  She’s also learned a lot about color, realism, different media, and shading from the historical fashion coloring books.

Of course, not all Dover coloring books are about historical fashions.  We have books about military planes, cowboys, dogs, birds of prey, weeds, butterflies, and more.  Many of these books have small full-color examples of each coloring page, and all of them have informative captions for each picture.  Other coloring book titles include castles, farm animals, and ABC’s .  You can see them all here.

Note that these are not your typical scribble-in-when-you-are-four-years-old coloring books.  The pictures are detailed and accurate and would be a pleasant challenge even for an adult.  The paper is high quality, and we’ve even used markers on them, although pencil crayons and gel-pens work better.

For children who love to do something with their hands while mom reads aloud or while chatting with friends, there is no better Christmas gift or add-on to a school subject.  Of course these books will not work for all children, but since they are relatively inexpensive it’s worth a try.  If the kids don’t like them, you can always color them yourself.  In fact, I’m regularly tempted to order some of the great artists books for myself, but right now my days are too full to add a project like that.

To try out actual coloring pages, you can sign up for free weekly samples at the Dover web site.

Caution:  Occasionally the outfits in the fashion coloring books are indecent.  Some of the other books, such as those about art, may need a similar warning, but I have not seen them.

Disclosure

This review is based on the many Dover coloring books we have bought over the years. I do not receive any compensation for it.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five great children, who blogs at Tea Time With Annie Kate.

Though I never did well in art in school, I like to encourage lots of different types of art activities with my children.  I want them to feel like art has many different forms and it can be fun.  Although we do artist studies, Artistic Pursuits, and lots of free art time, we also really enjoy doodle books.

What is a doodle book?

There are a variety of doodle book available.  Each of my children have their own copy of Do You Doodle? by Nikalas Catlow, which they all enjoy reading through and figuring out exactly what they might draw.  In a doodle book, there is typically the beginning of a picture and a caption to help the children know what to draw.  For instance, there might be a page with a genie lamp at the bottom and the description at the top “Make the Genie Appear.”  The child can then choose how to finish drawing the scene.

Do You Doodle? is a doodle book that has a variety of picture starters and is perfect for boys and girls alike.  There are also doodle books that are specifically made for boys (such as a starter for an alien invasion) or for girls (such as a starter with drawing in shoes in a boutique-style shoe store).  While I realize that may sound stereotypical, I know that my kids would actually really enjoy the gender specific ones (probably even more than the general ones, to be honest).

What we enjoy about Do You Doodle?

I like that this book not only encourages children (or adults!) to use their drawing skills, but even more so, it inspires their creativity and problem solving skills.  It is fun to watch what they come up with.  In fact, it often makes me wish that I could steal a book away from one of them and make my own creations.

Not only is Do You Doodle? a great art activity, but it can be picked up for under $10 (at Amazon, though the actual retail price is $12.95) and can make an excellent gift.

If you’re a creative type, however, I will have to warn you about one thing: You just might want to buy an extra copy for yourself so you can join in with your children while they are drawing.

Angie is a former domestic flunkie who records her attempts at domesticity, and everything else that happens in between all of those loads of laundry that keep piling up, at Many Little Blessings.  She is also the founder of The Homeschool Classroom and Catholic Mothers Online.

As a Charlotte Mason educator, some of our homeschool time is spent learning about artists and completing picture study. And, continuing in Charlotte Mason style, I try to only use living literature in our homeschool. Luckily, I’ve found several wonderful children’s books about artists including the Getting To Know the Great Artist Series and Smart About Art Series.

But my most favorite living art books are the Anholt Art Books for Children. Beautiful illustrations and lovely story lines tie the artist and his art into a fictional stories that are lighthearted, but captivating. I’m a huge fan of clever stories, and these are very clever!

The main character in the stories, other than the artist himself, is always based on a real person whom the artist knew. Even though the storyline is fictional, at the end of each book, you will find a non-fiction biography about the artist and how the main character of the book relates to him.

If you’re looking for a mostly factual selection, then one of the series mentioned in the first paragraph might interest you more. However, don’t push these aside before giving them a chance. At least see if your library has any of the titles – you and your children are sure to enjoy them!

There is no age range given on the publisher’s website, but I found them appropriate for children 5-12. I’m listing a few books below that I haven’t read, but I wanted to give you a complete list of the Anholt titles available. Note that not all of these are authored by Laurence Anholt, but all have a similar style.

• Cezanne and the Apple Boy
• Degas and the Little Dancer
• Leonardo and the Flying Boy
• The Magical Garden of Claude Monet
• Matisse, the King of Color
• Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytail
• Rembrandt and the Boy Who Drew Dogs
• Renoir and the Boy with the Long Hair
• Rockwell: A Boy and His Dog
• Suzette and the Puppy
• Van Gogh and the Sunflowers (My library has this as Camille and the Sunflowers)

Do you know of any living art literature that I haven’t mentioned?  Please share!

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and find her nature studies at Shining Dawn Books.

I am not the world’s best artist. As a matter of fact, my idea of drawing people usually involves a whole lot of “stick” lines, and perhaps a set of triangles put together to make a bow, as well as some eyelashes, to indicate which of those stick figures is a girl.

Because of this deficit in the area of drawing, I was thrilled when I was in a religious book store one day and found these fabulous books – Bible Stories to Draw and Tell and Draw and Tell Saints.

For every story in the books, there is a step-by-step simple drawing for the reader to draw as they read. For instance, in a story about The Creation (from Genesis), it shows you that you read, “A long, long, long time ago there was nothing, nothing except GOD.” When you read this, it shows that you draw a single circle. The story progresses, and for each passage, it shows you what to draw next. At the end of each story, you are left with the drawing that you have worked on throughout and a question to ask the kids. For instance, with this story, you end up with a drawing of faces of a boy and a girl. And, at this point, the story has progressed to the point when God made people. So, the question to ask the kids is “What do you think God made?” (And the answer is people.)

Each book has a number of stories in them. The Bible Stories book includes 25 stories — starting with And It Was Good (A Creation Story) and ending with He is Risen, with all of your favorite Old and New Testament stories in between.

The Saints book includes 17 stories — Archangels, St. Blase, Blessed Damien of Molokai, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Joan of Arc, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, St. Juan Diego, St. Julie Billiart, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Katharine Drexel, St. Mark, St. Nicholas, St. Patrick, St. Peter Claver, and St. Therese of Lisieux.

We really love these books, and have such a fun time drawing them up on our dry erase board. The kids enjoy hearing the stories in a unique way, and I enjoy feeling like I’m not a drawing flunkie.  Another bonus of these books is that the drawings are simple enough that older siblings can do religion instruction with younger siblings through these stories as well.

Do you have any untraditional ways to teach religion to your kids?

-When Angie isn’t drawing eye lashes on stick figures, she can be found writing about faith, family, and household management at Many Little Blessings.

I am proud to introduce you to Artistic Pursuits.  I will admit that teaching art was not my strong point.  Mostly art classes in my home consisted of activities I looked up online or using my own imagination.  While I came up with some creative and fun ideas, I was not teaching art but allowing my children to use different mediums to express themselves visually.  I needed a curriculum that was solid, informative, taught concepts about art and was fun.  I began to think what I was seeking did not exist until Artistic Pursuits.  In fact, I would have to add that Artistic Pursuits is among my favorite curriculum I have discovered this year.  I had the pleasure of reviewing Book 1 for Grades K-3.

What you will need:

The curriculum is simply one book containing 32 lessons with an associated art project.  You will have to purchase your art supplies separately.  The materials are easy to find and include common items like scissors, tissue paper, construction paper and drawing paper.  You will also need to purchase an ebony pencil, oil pastels and watercolor pencils among a few other items.  I found all my supplies at Micheals.

How much time will you spend:

This book is not a collection of art projects but art lessons with an associated art project to reinforce the lesson and allow for creative interaction.  It is best to take about about fifteen minutes to read through the lesson and art project thoroughly before beginning with your child.  You may also want to take a few extra minutes to prep the lesson to make your time run smoothly.  The lesson can be as short as five minutes with a ten minute art project or you can extend the learning time for a full thirty minute class.  This will depend on how much time you want to spend on the lesson.

How is the book divided?

The book contains 32 lessons with art projects.  Within the book you will have three sections:

• What Artists Do
• What Artists See
• Exploring Ancient Art

Most lessons will provide a picture of a work of art and a picture from the student gallery.  The works of art shown on the lessons can be easily adapted into art study or narration for Charlotte Mason style teachers.

The Ancient Art section is wonderful!  We had a great time exploring ancient art since we had just studied ancient history the year before.  The lessons were through yet not overwhelming for the age range.  I did allow my two older children to partake in the lessons and projects in this section since this was a wonderful reinforcement of ancient history.

Artistic Pursuits will take your child on an journey from color mixing to brush work, to pottery, to murals to bookbinding and more!  Along the way your child will learn how artists imagine, how art is crafted and ancient art history.  I highly recommend Artistic Pursuits for your child’s creative pursuits in education.  You can find books from preschool through high school.

I have recently had the pleasure to read the first e-book by Kris, the widely read author of the blog Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.  The book, in true WUSH fashion, features games, projects, learning centers, and presentations all with a focus on hands on learning.

Get Your Hands on Learning! has four main sections, as well as an appendix full of even more information.  The sections include:

• Projects: Papier-mache Model, Salt Dough Map, Cookie Dough Map, Ongoing Studies
• Games: Bingo, Memory/Matching, Go Fish, Board Games
• Learning Centers: Writing Center, Preschool Learning Centers, Mini-Offices
• Presentations: Around the World Day, Night at the Museum Party, The Castle Presentation Board, Knights Shields and Swords
• Appendix: Helpful Websites, Basic Papier-mache Paste Recipe, Basic Salt Dough Recipe, Fifty State Friday Resources, Blank Bingo Card, Reading Bingo Card, Learning Center Resources, Hands-on Activities to Enhance Any Study, Narration, Paper Bag Report

What I Liked:

• Great Variety – There is a great variety of activities in this e-book, which can appeal to both the families that don’t mind mess, as well as the families that avoid it like the plague.  It’s a nice reminder that hand-on doesn’t have to mean messy, but it can.
• Step-by-Step Directions – Things like the word “papier-mache” give me hives.  However, with Kris’ easy to understand, step-by-step instructions, it makes me a little less nervous.  The layout, in general, makes it easy to read and follow.
• Lots of Full Color Photographs – Because I am a visual learning, the combination of photographs with the step-by-step directions are exactly what I would need to execute these projects.  It’s also always nice to see what a finished project should look like.
• Length of Book – At 50 pages, this is a book that I felt comfortable sitting down and reading in one sitting.  Not that I can’t read a book that will take me many sessions over several days (because of other commitments), but it’s nice when I can sit down and just finish a book.
• Well Organized – I enjoyed that the activities are each in their own section, so that when I want to implement an idea, I don’t have to skim back through the whole book to find what I was looking for.
• Reasonably Priced – At only $7.95 for an immediate download, this e-book is competitively priced compared to other e-books that I have purchased.

What I Would Change:

• It’s Just What I Was Looking For – This e-book was exactly what I anticipated it would be, so I couldn’t really think of anything that I would have changed.

Get Your Hands on Learning! is available for immediate download for $7.95 at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Disclosures: I received this e-book for free in order to review it, although I had planned to buy it before receiving it for free.  Although I have been a fan of Kris’ blog for several years, in interest of full disclosure — I am the founder/editor of The Homeschool Classroom where Kris is a writer.

Angie is a university trained elementary and special ed teacher turned eclectic homeschooler.  She can be found working at Many Little Blessings, The Homeschool Classroom, and Catholic Mothers Online.  It is also very likely that if you find her, she will be tired.

After many years of homeschooling, seven to be exact, I finally made an effort to include art appreciation in our school day.  I decided to use The Usborne Art Treasury as our “spine”.  The book introduces artists of many genres – from African masks to Vincent van Gogh to Georgia O’Keefe.  Each artist is covered on four pages.  The first two pages introduce one piece of art and a short biography about the artist.  The next two pages offer step-by-step instructions to create an art project based on the artists piece of art.

This is a wonderful way to introduce your children to various artists and their artwork.  In creating the art projects, your child will have the opportunity to explore various art medium – from oil pastels to watercolor paints to chalk pastels.  They will also learn about different techniques used in art – from creating collages in the style of Picasso, creating African masks, or making sculptures in the style of Giacometti.

Emma's art based on Van Gogh's Starry Night

What do my kids think?

My daughter (my budding artist) loves the book!  She loves being able to explore the different genres of art and to try to recreate art by the “real” artists.  My son (who has no desire to do “art) tolerates it.  He doesn’t complain, and has created some really nice art work based on the art in this book.

My experience with this book has been fabulous.  I highly recommend it.  This is a gentle introduction to art and artists.

Issac's art based on Van Gogh's Starry Night

Written by Tara, homeschooling two with a little bit of everything.  You can visit her at her blog, Mom Teaches 2.

Our entire life has been made better by using Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration but I could easily say that this has been the most loved, used, and admired book in our art instruction courses over the past ten years. All three of my boys have worked their way through this art instruction book at least once.

Learning to draw can be an adventure. For my boys it has always been about making things look real.  They wanted realistic cars, planes, houses, and animals. They wanted results! In my searching, I found Mark Kistler and his Draw Squad book.  This book helped my children to get past stick figure drawing and sparked their continued interest in learning to draw even more proficiently.

Each lesson has a drawing challenge that you can keep track of on the provided progress sheet.

How is the Book Set -Up?
First Mark Kistler describes what he calls the Ten Key Words of Drawing. These include foreshortening, shading, surface, size, contour lines, overlapping, density, shadows, attitude, and daily use. These ideas are thoroughly covered in the Draw Squad book for your child to learn and then apply in their everyday drawing. These words are now a part of our art vocabulary. Working with these concepts in their own drawings, they can easily see how other artists use these tools and concepts in their paintings.

Each lesson gives you step-by-step instruction.

There are 30 drawing lessons in this particular book and they each are structured in a way that easily breaks down the steps to understanding the lesson’s concept and then the lesson helps your child apply the concept to his own ideas. Learning to draw is like learning a new language and Mark Kistler gives us the vocabulary and tools to speak a new “drawing” language in a fun and creative way.

How Long Does it Take?

We could easily complete a lesson each week so this book has a whole year’s worth of drawing lessons. We worked through the complete book in the 4th grade and then again in the 7th grade just for fun.

What Supplies Do You Need?

The book is set up like a workbook where you can actually make many of the drawings right on the pages. We have preferred over the years to do our actual sketching on drawing paper. This means the only supplies you will need are a stash of paper and some good old number two pencils.

I like to keep the completed drawings in a three ring binder. A one inch or perhaps a one and half inch size is enough to hold all those wonderful drawings your child will make in a year’s time.

After the lesson, Mark Kistler challenges the kids to draw something from their own imagination using the lesson's concepts.

Do I Need To Know How To Draw?

Mark Kistler can help anyone learn to draw. His style is easy to follow, encouraging you to learn the basics alongside your child if you have the desire. Draw Squad makes the process fun and so simple that you will feel successful after the very first lesson. The book is also very easily used independently by a middle school child.

My kids had fun learning to draw using Draw Squad!

What Do I Like Best About This Book?

As each of my children worked through this drawing book,  I could see the lesson concepts reflected into their other artwork. Many people look at Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad and see a cartooning book, but the cartoon qualities are just the beginning and a vehicle for learning the way to make things look real when you sketch them out. The ideas eventually translate over into more serious artwork. Mark Kistler not only teaches children how to get started, but then he encourages them to add in their own personality. I love this aspect of his teaching.

When we make learning fun and our children have some success, they develop a love for that particular skill. I have seen that in action in our family using this particular drawing book.

This Book is Not Just for Young Children

Drawing and sketching are such important skills for everyone, young and old. Your children will use these skills for the rest of their lives. I have found that it is never too late to give it a try. I took my first drawing class at age 39 and I regret not doing it sooner.

If you are a fan of Mona Brookes’ book Drawing With Children, you may be interested to know that she wrote a glowing forward to Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad book.

For more information and free drawing plans from Mark Kistler, check out his website: Imagination Station

For more information and samples of our artwork, see my Squidoo Lens: Getting Started with Drawing and Painting

Written by Barb-Harmony Art mom.  She also blogs at http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com and her business is found at http://www.harmonyfinearts.com. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com.

It’s that “most wonderful time of the year” again! Many homeschool families take the entire month of December off while others continue on with their regular school routine. In years past we have taken a break from our regular studies – even the 3R’s – to focus on some type of Christmas unit. This year, however, because of some unexpected changes in our schedule, we will be sticking with our regular schooling until the week before Christmas.

Whatever route you choose for your homeschool, there are many enjoyable opportunities for learning through the Christmas season. The following are some simple activities that have become cherished holiday traditions in our home.

• Read a different Christmas story each day to countdown the days until December 25th. You can see a list of some of our favorite books here. (You don’t have to start this on December 1st. Just jump right in whenever you want.)
• Make a simple Christmas ornament. Have your child sign and date it, and it will become a treasured keepsake on your tree for years to come. (I have some ornament ideas on my blog – here and here – that I paired up with the reading of particular Christmas books. You can also Google up an abundance of ornament ideas – as simple or as complicated as you’d like – in the blogosphere right now.)
• As you decorate your tree together, you can simply point out the meaning of various Christmas symbols to your children. The evergreen tree itself reminds us that Jesus came to give us eternal life. The lights remind us that Jesus is the “Light of the World”. The ornaments remind us of the beauty of God’s love for us. Candy canes remind us of the staff carried by the shepherds. Bells remind us to “ring out the good news” of Jesus’ birth and His sacrifice for us.
• Sing, sing, sing! Even if you don’t think you have a great voice, your children will not care. Christmas carols are a treasure trove of great poetry set to music that you and your family don’t want to miss out on. And you don’t need an instrument to enjoy singing Christmas songs together. A cappella will do just fine. If you really feel the need for some instrumental accompaniment, turn on your local radio station or break out some Christmas cd’s. Let your children choose a favorite carol and research the history behind it. There are some wonderful stories behind the writing of these beloved songs.
• Bring out the nativity set. Some families enjoy the tradition of setting out one piece of the nativity each day until Christmas, with baby Jesus being laid in the manger on Christmas day. You could research the history of the nativity scene, or creche, to fit in a bit of history. We have a plastic set that we put out all at once because we have little hands in our home that enjoy playing with it so much.
• Although it’s a lesson that can be learned year round, Christmas provides us with numerous opportunities to give to and serve people in need. Community and church groups often collect toys, food, and clothes for families in need during the holiday season. Local soup kitchens often encourage families to volunteer to serve meals on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. International ministries such as Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion International, and many others provide food, gifts, and other types of relief for families around the world. Involving your children in this type of giving is a lesson that can become a special family tradition.

No matter what activities and traditions you enjoy with your family, may you and your family have a blessed season of celebrating together the birth of Jesus.

Written by Shannon, who is enjoying simple Christmas traditions with her children this year, and can be found blogging at Song of My Heart.

Our family completes artist study once per month during the school year.  We focus on one artist during that month – learning about their life, observing their art and completing art projects of our own.

One super book that has helped us during this art study time is The Usborne Introduction to Art by Rosie Dickins and Mari Griffith.  Even more than being a specific help during artist study, it’s been an awesome, well, introduction to art!

In a 144 page, hard-cover, fully-colored book, you (oh, and your children!) are introduced to all sorts of art and artist related topics such as:

• how to look at paintings critically
• noticing art themes – like prayer, war, Biblical scenes and more
• recognizing scenes
• watching for illusions
• artist’s materials and how they’re used
• sections on Ancient/Medieval art, The Renaissance, Baroque/Rococo, Revolution art and the Modern World of art

Each and every page of this book is brightly colored with authentic artwork, photographs and “just enough” reading material for the typical upper elementary and middle school student.  As with most artist study books, there are a few nudes here and there.  If you’d rather your children not view these, you will need to preview the pages.

As with many Usborne books, this book is internet-linked, which means every few pages offers you a quick-link resource where you can go to find more about a certain topic on a safe internet site.   There’s also a neat section in the back with an art timeline going from ancient times all the way to 1995.  (The very first notation on the timeline mentions cave paintings dating to about 35,000BC.  This is the only questionable reference I found.)  You can also find a brief biography of each artist highlighted in the book – that’s about 140 artists – and a glossary of art terms.

The Introduction to Art has been a wonderful addition to our library!

There’s one more fun book I’d like to mention, just because we’re talking about art and Usborne. 

The Art Sticker Book goes along with Introduction to Art very well.  It’s sort of an introduction in and of itself.  On each two page spread, there is information about a certain topic like:

• fashion
• children
• nature
• self-portraits
• and 11 more!

In the back of the book, your children find full-color, authentic artists painting stickers to place in the correct picture frames on the information pages.  My kids have had a ball with this book!

Along with these books, don’t forget about the Dover Art Cards as great art resources.   What have you used to spice up art/artist study time?

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3.  You can find Cindy blogging at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books.

We enjoy incorporating art into our unit studies. There are many ways to accomplish this, but one of my favorites is to have my children do a lesson from Draw Write Now, a series of books containing beginning drawing lessons and handwriting practice for primary and elementary students. The author, Marie Hablitzel, developed this collection of lessons for her second-grade students after seeing that they were becoming frustrated with their drawing skills and bored with tedious handwriting drills. Starting with the idea that drawing and handwriting require many of the same skills, Mrs. Hablitzel began designing lessons  that combined the two. She also integrated these lessons with other subject areas such as reading, history, geography, and science. The result was students who became enthusiastic about learning to draw and write.

The series consists of eight volumes which can be purchased separately or as a set:

Book 1 – Farm Life, Kids and Critters, Storybook Characters

Book 2 - Christopher Columbus, Autumn Harvest, The Weather

Book 3 -  Native Americans, North America, The Pilgrims

Book 4 - The Polar Regions, The Arctic, The Antarctic

Book 5 – The United States, From Sea to Sea, Moving Forward

Book 6 – Animal Habitats: On Land, Pond and Rivers, Oceans

Book 7 – Animals of the World: Tropical Forests, Northern Forests, Forests Down Under

Book 8 - Animals of the World: Savanna Animals, Grassland Animals, Mountain and Desert Animals

You can see the wide variety of topics, which makes it easy to find a drawing lesson that relates to what your students are learning about.

Each volume contains approximately twenty-four lessons, laid out in a clear, straight-forward manner. Each lesson includes five parts:

1. Introduce the subject – Information and questions are scattered throughout the books that the teacher can use to spark the students’ interest in the subject they will be drawing. There are also suggestions for books related to the topics.

2. Draw the subject – This is my favorite part of each lesson because the author has simplified the drawing process by breaking it down into easy steps, which are pictured for the student. The teacher is encouraged to help students see the objects they are drawing as combinations of lines and simple shapes.

3. Draw the background – Students are encouraged to be creative and use their imaginations as they add details to their drawings.

4. Practice handwriting – Students copy text that relates to the subject of the drawing. I’ve found that my children are much more excited about handwriting practice when it relates to something they have drawn.

5. Color the drawing – Tips are included for the best ways to color certain shapes so as to enhance the child’s drawing and not detract from it.

Each book is rounded out with additional information that I have found very helpful:

• Teaching tips that give great insight and ideas for helping students to succeed at the five parts of each lesson.
• One lesson in each book is dedicated to helping the student draw something from their imagination, as they are encouraged to think about things like how people move, positioning of a horizon line, choosing the size of a subject and deciding upon its placement on the paper, and more.
• “Learn More” sections that contain supplemental information about the subjects being drawn.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the Draw, Write, Now series. After using these lessons, my reluctant artist has gained confidence in his drawing ability and even enjoys drawing now. And since I’ve never had an art lesson in my life, but have always wanted to learn to draw, it has been fun for me to do these lessons along with my children.

You can do a sample lesson from Book 1, the easiest of the eight volumes, by visiting the Draw, Write, Now website, where you’ll find much more information about this series.

Written by Shannon, who enjoys learning to draw alongside her three children. She can be found blogging about her family’s homeschool adventures at Song of My Heart.