ArtAchieve is an online art curriculum that will teach your child to draw and paint. Your child will watch a video presented by John Hofland which gives them instructions and guidelines to draw and color or paint a picture. The art your child will be creating is art inspired from around the world - for example, Hungarian Insects or The Sheep from Wales. You need absolutely no artistic background to use this program - your child will learn from the author everything he or she needs to know to complete the art project. The supplies are simple - a black, fine tip marker, colored markers, colored pencils, acrylic paint, and oil pastels are the supplies used the most.
HOW DOES ArtAchieve WORK?
We received the Entire Level I from ArtAchieve. My 8 year old daughter and 6 year old son were the primary users of this program, although my 11 year old and 3 year old sons joined in sometimes. Each lesson takes from 30-45 minutes to complete, including watching the video and finishing your project. I will walk you through a lesson - The Czech Cat - to show you how it works.
First, I print off the Warm-Up Exercise paper and the Worksheet. I make sure I have all of the supplies we need ready. For this project, we need black markers and colored markers and printer paper.
We start the video. First up is relaxation exercises - you rub your palms together until they are warm and place them over your eyes. Then you take deep breathes. My kids like doing this!
Next is the warm up. You use the print-out and copy the lines in the boxes below. This is actually quite challenging and gets your children ready to draw.
Finally, the project begins. John walks your child through each step of drawing. He even 'makes mistakes' sometimes, which I really like. This shows my kids that not even artist's work is perfect, and that it's okay to mess up!
When your child is through drawing, he will color in his project.
WHAT DO WE THINK OF ArtAchieve?
We really love ArtAchieve! Here are the things I like about this program:
- Your child will make real art projects - not a craft, but actual art.
- Your child will make his project his own - he will be able to design and decorate his art project with whatever colors and patterns he wishes.
- John, the author of the videos, makes mistakes. He has taught my kids that's it's okay if your project isn't turning out the way you want it to. He has also shown my kids how to take a "mess up" and make it work with the picture by changing lines and adding things.
- The lessons aren't too short, but they aren't too long, either. A half hour or so is about all my kids can handle and this is about the time the lessons take.
- You don't need a ton of expensive supplies. Markers, paper, and Sharpies are the main things we have used.
- Each project is unique - I would never think to have my kids drawing and painting some of the projects they have!
- There is relaxing music playing in the background.
- There are cross-curricular activities for each project if you want to expand on each project.
HOW TO BUY ArtAchieve?
You can buy individual lessons from ArtAchieve for a very small fee. The Level I lessons are each $4.00. You can buy a bundle of 3 lessons for $10.00 or the Entire Level I bundle with 9 lessons for $27.00. {Each level has different pricing.}
Art Achieve has 5 levels, all with different and unique lessons. There are free lessons available for download, if you want to try out ArtAchieve. I highly recommend this art program for all homeschoolers!
Beautiful artwork! We loved that you could make each drawing your own.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I also liked how each project was supposed to be different.
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