Note: We received free access to ArtAchieve’s Entire Level II in exchange for this fair and honest review.
Homeschool parents often freak out about subjects they are unfamiliar with. Science and math are biggies, and for the non-linguistical, it’s English. Okay, I get that. But one of the biggest freak-outs is art. Art! I hear, “I’m not crafty. I can’t do art.” I hear it all the time, people!
Never fear, ArtAchieve is here!
ArtAchieve is an online video course for homeschoolers or anyone else wanting to add some real art lessons to their lives.
Learning how to do art versus learning how to draw a picture:
I’m going to ramble a little about piano lessons, but there is a relevant point, so bear with me a moment. (I almost wrote bare with me, but all that bareness would be socially awkward. Narrow escape.)
I took piano lessons as a kid, which was great. Wanting to advance, I took piano lessons in college as well. All the teacher did was find out my current ability level and teach me how to play a stinkin’ song at that level! She just wanted me to sound good for the recital. No theory, no skills training, no ear training. Major boo teacher!
That’s what I was afraid ArtAchieve was going to be like. I thought the kids would learn how to draw one thing in each lesson–a cat, a horse, a bird–but not learn how to “do art.” I thought they would want the kids to look good on the fridge.
I was wrong. Oh, they learned how to draw a cat, a horse, a bird, but they learned art techniques in the process. Major hooray!
Back to piano lessons. One thing nobody likes about piano lessons is when you get one of those teachers who spends so much time on drills and skills that you don’t get to make music. Those are the kids that burn out. Major boo teachers.
Art teachers can have the same issue. Somehow (not sure how), the ArtAchieve program blends technique with creation–the kids learn art techniques as they are creating their masterpieces.
My second daughter, Marissa, is a self-taught artist with an art business, The Art of Marissa Renee. Recently she whipped out a picture of Lucille Ball and used some of the same techniques I witnessed her younger siblings learn from their ArtAchieve lessons. Imagine my delight to see they were learning real, workable techniques.
Yup, some of the techniques 10-year-old Elijah used to make the dala horse below were the same techniques 17-year-old Marissa used to draw Lucille Ball above. Cool, eh? Totally.
You said something about history:
Yes, the students also learn a bit of history and culture connected to their project.
For example, my favorite project was the dala horse. Three of my youngsters (10, 7, and 4) drew the dala horse as a gift to send to their sister. They learned a little about the Scandinavian culture and the history of the dala.
When our travels took us to the home of a Swedish couple living in the northwoods of Wisconsin, we saw dala horses and other evidence of Swedish culture everywhere! And the kids were not ignorant of it. It was a joy to see them make that connection with that couple and their heritage.
A personal note:
Something about the instructor really clicked with this boy above. He’s often rushed and focuses on just getting finished, but he really took his time on this project and made it his own. It doesn’t look like the instructor’s horse (which was not the goal). It is his own creation, and it’s charming, unique, and neat…as in tidy, but also neat as in grooooovy.
I was very happy with his efforts.
A note about age:
While we did this with my four-year-old, level II was a little tough for her. She definitely participated and did great, but she got it into her head that her pieces needed to look exactly like the instructor’s, which they didn’t–shocker. Still, she was happy with the end results.
A note about the freebies:
Please try out the free lessons! You will learn some important skills necessary for all art, such as line, shading, and perspective. We already studied these in depth, being an artistic family, and the lessons here are spot on with other things we studied–the benefit is that these are on video, so if you are not artistic, which I am not, you can rely on the teacher to demonstrate instead of trying to demonstrate it yourself with your own ineptness…speaking from personal experience. Go through the beginning lessons, including the Cheshire cat–you will know if this is for you.
Please try the freebies, and then share the freebie links with others as a thank you to ArtAchieve for offering the free lessons.
Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:
Internet
Blast it all, this course requires a decent internet connection to watch the videos. When we were touring Michigan, our internet connection rocked! Here in Wisconsin, our connection feels like we’re tapping into a rock. We’ve gotten almost all baddies here so far, which is why I can’t pull other project pictures down from the illusive Cloud to show y’all. Boo. Not boo like my college piano teacher, but boo like annoying.
This isn’t something I feel comfortable doing at, say, the libraries with their smokin’ connections, in case one of my kids decides to sign her name on the carpet in permanent marker. It happens. Test the freebies and see how your connection does.
Space
You will need art supplies to take these art classes. Duh. You can do a large number of them with supplies you probably already have on hand. If you advance to level III (that’s 3, not i-i-i), you will need more supplies. Check out the supply lists before you make a decision.
You don’t need a big fat teacher’s manual, so that’s a good thing, right? Of course right.
The end results look great plastered to your RV wall, but look even greater mailed from some random place throughout the country to grandparents and aunts and uncles. Am I right? You know it.
Hey, connect with these people:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Artachieve
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/artchieve @artachieve
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/artachieve/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+artachieve
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnahofland/
See what other members of the Review Crew think:
