My 15 year old, 10th grade son has recently shown an interest in art. I was pleased to receive the homeschool art curriculum, ArtAchieve to use with him and review. He has been working through the lessons in the Entire Level I bundle. The purchase of the Entire Level I gives access to the art lessons on the website for 1 year. Each lesson can be purchased individually for $4. Purchasing the Entire Level 1 bundle for $27 makes each lesson only $3. There are two lessons on the website that are free so you can try them out.
There are three levels of ArtAchieve lessons. They do no correspond to grade level. If students are new to drawing, they should start with level 1 regardless of their age, kindergarten to adult. The lessons are inspired by art from around the world.
There is a Tips for Teachers page on the ArtAchieve website that is very helpful. The tips are geared towards parents/teachers that have not taught art before. There is a list of supplies needed on the website. The list does not say which level needs which supplies. I wish the list told you what supplies were needed for each lesson. It would make it so much easier to have everything ready for the student when they start each lesson. Each lesson does have a list of the supplies needed in the lesson introduction. You have to open each lesson to see what supplies are needed in order to purchase supplies ahead of time, however.
Level 1 has 11 lessons, with Lesson 1 having 3 parts. Each lesson will take almost an hour. Depending on age and skill level, it may take less time. In the introduction for each lesson there is a break down of the time needed to complete each section. Lessons do not have to be completed all at once. A student can do a lesson over several days if that works out best for them. The student can work at their own pace. One lesson a week, or one lesson a day.
Since I have a high schooler and always need to know this, Level 1 is not enough work to award any high school credits. I have not looked at the other levels in depth, and I can not find this information on the website, but it is possible that there is enough work in all the levels to earn at least a 1/2 credit, possibly a full credit.
ArtAchieve Homeschool Art Curriculum Review
My son has been averaging one lesson a week. He enjoys the lessons. He likes that the lessons instruct him to listen to music while going through the lessons. Listening to music helps students work in silence and promotes the visual thinking that drawing requires. The video lessons are slide shows with the instructions on the screen. The pictures are bright, colorful, and the step by step instructions are easy to understand. Each lesson has 1 or more pages that you need to print out. I suggest printing them all at once. It’s easier than having to print the pages every time they start a lesson. The pages are not labeled with lesson numbers. I wrote the lesson numbers on as I printed them out. It kept my son from spreading all the pages out trying to find what he was looking for.
An added bonus to this homeschool art curriculum is the Suggestions for Cross-Curricular Connections. These suggestions are for social studies, writing, literature, and science. These suggestions feature ideas, books lists, and linked websites to help the student learn more about what they are drawing. We did not use very many of these to supplement the art curriculum. To me, they seem geared towards younger kids, not high school students.
Here are a few examples of the printables for the Entire Level 1 drawing lessons. This first page is an example of the warm up activity that is available for each lesson. Boxes have printed lines that students have to copy into empty boxes. This activity gets them used to make the curved lines, for example, that they will be using in their drawings for this lesson. My son likes to keep his art close and not share it with very many people. He gave me permission to share these pages.
On this page, my son had to draw lines to decorate the bugs. He drew an extra one in the corner just because he wanted to. lol He chose to keep everything as a drawing, and not color them in. He has been concentrating on the drawing.
My son decided on his own to draw a large bug on the back of this page. He did pretty good. He ran out of room on the paper to make the right wing full size,though.
One of the drawing lessons had the students learn how to draw a cube. It’s a little hard to see in this scan of the actual drawing, but if you look closely, you can see the cube and it’s shadow.
My son, and I, have been very pleased with ArtAchieve Homeschool Art Curriculum. I look forward to looking at many more of his drawings. I can not draw. Like not at all. Not even a straight line. The lessons make learning to draw look easy. If I can find the time, I might try these lessons for myself!
To see what other homeschool families have to say about ArtAchieve, click the graphic below.
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