Review: ArtAchieve

We’ve been enjoying creating many new projects with this new homeschool art curriculum  from ArtAchieve!  Our boys have been working through the lessons in the Entire Level I bundle.

What is ArtAchieve? Well, artAchieve is an amazing art program that was created by John Holland, a homeschool father. There are a total of five levels, with each level containing 8 to 14 lessons. These lessons can be purchased individually or as a bundle.

We were given access to the Entire Level 1 Bundle which includes 11 art lessons (there are lessons 1, 1a, 1b and 1c to get to the 11):

• Free – Simple Lines 
• Free – Shading Objects that have corners
• Free – Shading Round Objects
• Free – The Czech Cat
• The Hungarian Insects
• The Haitian Gecko
• The Dragonfly from Ecuador
• The Chinese Dragon
• The Owl from Bali
• The Kiting Tree Wall Hanging from Tanzania
• The Plate from Nepal
• Four Suns with Four Faces
• The Sheep From Wales

How did we go?

We didn’t complete the lessons in order. Instead, we jumped around, starting with the Four Suns with Four Faces. In this lesson, students learn about warm and cool colours and about light and dark values.

At the start, we read through the information before collecting all of our supplies.

There are lots of suggestions for Cross-Curricular Connections which we chose to do after we had completed the drawing, though you could do them before if you wish. By clicking on the red links, you are taken to the curriculum: some are videos to watch, other links are to books and others are to lesson plans.

At the start of each lesson is a warm-up activity. This will need to be printed out for your child to complete. These drawings are great for getting the student relaxing and in the right mind, ready for drawing the ‘big’ picture. Below are our boys completing the warm-up activity for the Four Suns art activity.

Once the warm-up activity has been completed, you move onto the lesson. There are two options for the way you view the lessons. One is a powerpoint version and the other is a video version. There is also a printout of the completed object that the student is drawing as well. We chose to watch the video as it was nice to listen to the explanation on how to draw the next part. As part of the video presentation, John shows you what to draw and then allow you to pause the video, complete your drawing before starting the video again. Our boys also referred to the completed printout during the process as well.

The videos go for around 30 minutes, with John explaining everything step by step. Once the picture has been drawn, then it is time to colour.

In the Four Suns lessons, our boys learnt about warm and cool colours as well as blending lighter / darker values with each other.

Our boys already new about warm and cool colours, but found the blending very interesting and fun.

We also completed many of the other lessons as well, learning more art techniques along the way.

Overall, we have really loved using this art program. Our boys have learnt many art techniques and have enjoyed putting their newly learnt skills to use. 

The instructions are very easy to understand and having the freedom to get as creative as you want in the second (colouring) part of the lesson is amazing. I like the different art supplies the boys were able to use and try: pencils, watercolour paints, and oil pastels to to name a few. Our boys have really benefited from these online lessons, being able to slow down and taking their time to complete their creative masterpieces.

The price of these programs are very affordable for homeschoolers, and having the ability to try free lessons first is great. So, what are you waiting for? Check out ArtAchieve today!

 

 

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