Looking for homeschool art curriculum?
It can be a struggle for artistically-challenged parents to provide quality homeschool art instruction for their kids. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for great resources to recommend, and this one is from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. We were able to use the first book from the K-3rd Grade Level, Volumes 1-8 series. Let me tell you all about it.
My kindergartener enjoyed having official art lessons for the first time in our homeschool. We used Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary, K-3 Vol. 1 for several weeks and my daughter enjoyed trying watercolor painting methods and learning about paper cutting and creating pictures with construction paper.
What the Curriculum Includes
Volume 1 is a hardcover book is beautifully laid out with illustrations, samples of projects, and instructions. The book also has a few DVD lessons, and the DVD is included in the book.
You will need these supplies to complete all the projects in Volume 1:
- watercolor crayons set (this brand produced exceptional results!)
- oil pastel set
- Ebony pencils
- vinyl eraser
- watercolor brush
- watercolor paper pad
- drawing paper pad
- construction paper
- scissors
- glue stick
How the Curriculum Works
We started in lesson one and progressed through several lessons, completing about one a week. Lesson one started with a short video instruction that was easy for my kindergartener to understand. Having the video was important for this age, as this is the first time doing some “official” art lessons in homeschool. Instead of just telling her what to do, it was helpful for the art teacher on the video to show her what to do.
The watercolor crayons are easy for kids at this age to use well. It was almost like magic to see the crayon markings turn into beautiful watercolor with the stroke of the brush.
The video also gave instructions for how to care for the brush and showed the proper strokes to use with the brush to get the optimal affect.
Volume 1 includes 12 lessons and 6 video lessons. These video lessons are used to introduce each new art medium, so even if you’re not an artsy homeschool mom, you will feel confident in how the technique and supplies are used and you will be able to help your children.
Several lessons include dialogue between the parent and child about art by the masters. The book provides enough questions and information that you will be able to have a wonderful discussion with your child about the famous piece of art.
Even though this series is technically for K-3rd, my fifth grader also created art with the watercolor crayons.
This first volume includes lessons using these art mediums:
- watercolor crayons
- cutting construction paper
- folding construction paper
- oil pastels
If your state requires learning objectives to be specified, this book includes objectives for each lesson in the back of the book.
What We Liked
We liked that this curriculum didn’t expect a lot from this age group – instead, it allowed the kids to learn one technique or explore one idea and then take a lot of time with their creativity. It was a relaxing art curriculum to use – easy on mom, and enjoyed by kids of many ages.
This curriculum also encouraged kids to slow down and observe the world around them, whether they notice texture, form, or shapes, this careful observation is a critical skill to teach and practice with your kids.
You could use this curriculum once a week and have enough lessons for half a school year.
Recommendations for Homeschool Art Curriculum
The publisher suggests starting with Volume 1 and then gives two options to follow:
- go in chronological historical order through Volumes 2-8, OR
- skip to any other volume to cover the historical period you choose
We enjoyed using Volume 1 and give this curriculum two thumbs up! Check out more reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew!
