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.

Men of Honor and Women of Grace from the Scripture Scribes series from Laurelwood Books is the perfect homeschool penmanship book to improve handwriting. My son had just been talking about how bad his handwriting is when I received this handwriting book to review. Perfect timing!

The people behind Laurelwood Books have been homeschooling for 25 years. The same amount of time that I have been homeschooling! They sell curriculum, books, cds, dvds, and more on their website. They also sell used books and curriculum.

The Scripture Scribes series features four books, covering penmanship for 1st through 12th grades. Scripture Scribes Volume 1 Men of Honor and Women of Grace, $19.95 is recommended for Grades 7-12. It is consumable and should be used with only one student. I have been using Men of Honor Women of Grace with my 15 year old son, who will be in the 10th grade in the fall.

Words for Men of Honor and Women of Grace has 22 Lessons. All the lessons are centered around a character trait. The 22 character traits used for the lessons are honor, mercy, compassion, love, justice, grace, joy, peace, truth, long-suffering, faith, hope, honesty, trust, patience, humility, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, loyalty, diligence, and purity.

Each lesson has an introduction page with a dictionary definition and a Biblical definition of the character trait. This introduction page is followed by 12-13 quotes and scriptures to trace and copy. The quotes and scriptures explain and reinforce the character trait. The quotes and scriptures are written in dotted line cursive for the student to trace. Below that, there are handwriting lines for the student to write the quote or scripture themselves. There are enough lines for the student to write each quote or scripture one time.

Also included in the Men of Honor Women of Grace are several pages discussing the development of the scriptures, Bible translation and copying. They are not long, but do include black and white drawings and samples.

The book contains no suggestions for how many lessons should be done a week. You will have to decide how much time you want your student to work on the copywork every day. Men of Honor Women of Grace could easily be finished in one quarter. If you go at a more leisurely pace, you could complete this book in two quarters, or one semester. On the high school level, there would be no credits earned for completing this course, in my opinion.

I started out having my son do 2 lessons a week.  He prefers working at a more leisurely pace of one lesson a week, though.

In the picture above, you can see what one of the pages with quotes and scriptures on the left. On the right, you can see one of the character traits introduction page with the dictionary definition and the Biblical definition of that trait.

Looking back to lesson one and comparing it to where he is now in the book, I can see a definite improvement in my son’s handwriting.

Usually, practicing penmanship is a boring, mind numbing activity. I love that my son has scriptures and great quotes to think about while he is doing this copywork.

To see what other homeschoolers have to say about Men of Hone Women of Grace and the other books in the Scripture Scribe series, click the graphic below.

Progeny Press makes studying great literature easy with their Great Expectations E-Guide.  I received the Great Expectations E-Guide to review as part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew. This e-guide is for high school students in grade 9-12. I had my 10th grade son read Great Expectations and use this e-guide.

Progeny Press e-guides are interactive study guides that are in pdf form. I was able to download the e-guide and open it on my computer with no problems. The guide is printable. I printed the whole guide for my son. The new interactive study guides can be opened with Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0+. The student can then enter their answers to the questions right onto the pdf. The student saves their work to the computer as they work through the study guide. This is an great option for those that don’t have printers, or prefer to do the work on the computer.

The student section of the Great Expectations Study Guide is 72 pages, plus the cover picture. You are able to print out as many copies as you need to use in your homeschool. It is recommended that the student have a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a Bible available to use with this study guide. Internet access and encyclopedias would be a help to the student as well, but aren’t necessary.

The Great Expectations Study Guide includes a section about the novel’s author, a synopsis of the novel, and background information. There are prereading ideas for the student to complete prior to, or while reading the novel. The study guide has nine sections, each dealing with several chapters of the novel. Each section will take an average of one week to complete. The novel is read before starting the chapter studies. The student is allowed to use the book to look up the answers in.

Each of the chapter study sections are divided into five sections. Vocabulary, General Questions, Analysis, Dig Deeper, and Expectations. Some sections have an Additional Activities section. The General Question, analysis, and Dig Deeper sections have between 15 and 21 essay style questions. There are no yes/no, T/F, or multiple choice questions. The Vocabulary, Expectations, and Additional Activities sections vary in length. The Vocabulary section has the student complete an activity with the vocabulary words: matching a word with it’s definition, choosing the best definition from 3 choices, synonyms & antonyms, and looking up the definitions in a dictionary.

Also included in the Great Expectations E-Guide are an Overview section, Final Essays and Project Ideas, Additional Resources, and an Answer Key.

The Answer Key is a separate PDF. It is pages 73 through 94 of the e-guide. It contains answers to the vocabulary sections, as well as all the chapter questions, and the overview questions.

You can view a sample of the Great Expectations E-Guide.

The Great Expectations Study Guide can be completed in 8-10 weeks, and can earn the student 1/4 of a credit. There are instructions included in front of the study guide for the teacher that wants to give the student a final exam.

The Progeny Press Great Expectations E-Guide is a faith-based study guide. There are quite a few intellectual, moral, and spiritual issues addressed in Great Expectations. I like that the study guide helps the student to examine these from a Christian perspective.

You can read the review of Progeny Press study guides that I wrote a few years ago.

You can follow Progeny Press on Facebook, and Progeny Press on Twitter.

The Great Expectations E-Guide is for high schoolers, but Progeny Press also has guides for Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle School. Click the graphic below to see what other homeschool mom’s have to say about Progeny Press E-Guides for all grades.