Creating a Masterpiece

If I had to describe my daughter in two words, I'd choose reader and artist. We often receive review products to satiate her book obsession (or at least attempt to keep up with it, ha), but lately we've been using a program that appeals to her crafty side.

She told me recently that she wanted to get better at drawing. She's used some books and a couple drawing videos for kids, but she's reached a point where she is ready for lessons that are more complex. I was happy that she received a one year subscription to an online Drawing Program from Creating a Masterpiece.

Creating a Masterpiece was established by master artist Sharon Hofer. Her mission is to help students of all ages to produce "beautiful, masterpiece quality artwork." Her step-by-step teaching videos have helped thousands of students gain confidence as they learn the skills to succeed in creating fine art.

With over 20 years of teaching in the classroom, Sharon has much experience, not just in creating her own artwork, but in conveying those skills to others, as well. Her courses cover a wide variety of  mediums including acrylic, balsa carving, copper tooling, faux metal working, glass mosaic, oil pastel, silk painting, wood burning, and more. Along with the core program, students can choose to learn about artists and recreate their work through the art history course. For those who would like to learn visually through text instead of video, there is also a collection of step-by-step art books covering both a range of history and specific projects and techniques.

The drawing program that my daughter is using is divided into 4 sections:

• Beginning, 8 projects
• Level 1, 7 projects
• Level 2, 6 projects
• Level 3, 8 projects

A subscription to the course allows access to all projects in every level for your entire family. Each lesson shows a picture, the type of medium used, and the name of the piece.

Students will learn how to plan, develop, and enhance their projects through Sharon's guidance. As they progress through the levels, they will be able to apply their techniques more intricately as they hone their skills. They will learn things such as incorporating value, both two- and three-point perspective, showing movement, blending, highlighting, and more. Sharon teaches not only how to preform the technique, but why to do it, as well.

Clicking on a project will take you to a new page that lists a description that may include interesting facts, a supply list, and the number of lessons. The lessons link at the bottom will produce another page with even more information including the teaching videos, suggested color swatches, supplies, helpful tips, and simple sketches of the highlights of the lesson.

I have been so impressed watching my daughter draw with this program! The lessons are self-paced, so she's been working through them as the desire strikes. The realistic drawings are so beautiful that I plan to have her make one specifically to hang in our house. Sharon does a fantastic job teaching. She's calm, encouraging, and pleasant.

My husband also enjoys sketching (that's where our girl got her talent) and sometimes watches videos of drawing to relax. I admit, I never really saw the appeal until I watched a few of Sharon's videos myself. It's almost therapeutic. She claims that drawing is a skill that anyone can learn. Watching her do it makes me a believer.

One thing that pleases me is that my daughter has started to recreate her drawings, not by re-watching the videos, but from looking at her completed projects or simply from memory. I love that she's truly learning the techniques.

Something that she learned from the Moonstruck cat project was to "work small" to keep it simpler. She's been putting that into practice the last few days, trying to control her lines better in a smaller space. I love watching her advance her skills as she continues to practice.

Here's what my girl had to say:

The lessons are easy-to-follow and fun. I like that the projects aren't just pencil.

My daughter is enjoying learning techniques using pencil, colored pencil, and charcoal with this Drawing Program. I'm excited to watch her skills improve as she continues with this course.

You can connect with Creating a Masterpiece on their website and Facebook.

You can see other homeschoolers' drawings by reading the reviews on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

Thin Stix

My kids love Kwik Stix from The Pencil Grip, Inc.. They enjoy them so much in fact, that we have a set of the classic colors, a set of the neon colors, and a set of the metallic colors! So when the company came out with the stix in a thinner version, I knew the kiddos would be pleased to try them out. 

The Thin Stix, just like the original Kwik Stix, are solid tempera paint sticks, but without the mess. That means we don't always have to pull out the paint, brushes, smocks, and cups whenever the kiddos want to create masterpieces. With these paint sticks, they can simply uncap, twist, and paint to their hearts' content. On top of that, the fast-drying formula of the stix though allows the color to dry in only 90 seconds!  Now we don't have paintings drying all over the house. The pages can simply be stacked in one neat pile.
 

The stix remind me of a big tube of lipstick. The paint is waxy and slightly tacky. They silkily glide across the paper as you swipe. Using them is more like coloring than painting though since you draw instead of brush the color around. The finish on the page is paint-like with a shimmery sheen, so the completed project looks like it was painted.

The Thin Stix are much slimmer than their original counterpart. Their size and length are similar to markers. They have slightly less paint inside (0.35 oz for the original, 0.21 oz for the thin). You can be more precise and accurate with the thin version.

 

We've used these to paint on all types of paper, coffee filters, popsicle sticks, and styrofoam plates. The paint easily colors them all. My kids have been having so much fun creating crafts and pictures with these. They love being able to pull them out whenever they want. I love the versatility and lack of mess. These stix are convenient, easy-to-use, easy-to-store, and mess-free. We keep all of ours in a plastic pencil box, so we can grab them whenever the kids feel the creative bug biting. We can take them outside, in the car, on vacation, or at the kitchen table. All the kids, from the toddler all the way through the 11-year-old, enjoy using these. 

If you haven't tried out Kwik Stix yet, you should! My kids like both sizes and appreciate the variety of colors. These are great art supplies to have in any home.

* We received this product in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I was not paid monetarily for this post.

Grapevine Studies Review

Homeschooling 5 kiddies makes for some busy days. We like to school together as much as we can, because it simplifies the lessons, encourages family time, and helps us learn from each other. When we had the chance to review a Bible curriculum from Grapevine Studies that could be used with all the kids, I knew it would be a blessing.  The past many weeks we've been studying using the following books:

New Testament 1: Beginner John to the Apostles
New Testament 1: Level 1 Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry
New Testament 1: Level 3 Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry

Grapevine Studies is a Bible study curriculum that helps teachers simplify planning, engage students, and grow disciples. Their mission is "to provide believers with the tools they need to know God's Word and to disciple others." Its method teaches students to "stick figure through the Bible," meaning draw a simple stick figure scene to remember the facts of the story. The lessons are introduced with a timeline and then expound on the characters and biblical events on that timeline. The process for the preschool/kindergarten level is Hear-Draw-Review, while the older students will learn through Read-Draw-Review.  

Our kids' ages are 10, 7, 6, and 3, so even though we were studying the same topic, I chose books according to their levels. I picked both the Beginner and Beginner Traceable books for my two little ones, the Level 1 and Level 1 Traceable books for my middle child, and the Level 3 book for my oldest. Of course, the baby is too young to be completing lessons, but that didn't stop him trying to be included by grabbing things off the table and jabbering over our voices, ha.

Every morning, we sit at the table together to complete the lesson. Since we are using the ebooks, I printed the pages and created a notebook for each child. (Having your own notebook is so much cooler than having your own textbook, by the way.) There are corresponding teacher books for each level that walk you step-by-step through the curriculum. I couldn't teach from all the teacher notes, because that would take a long time and defeat the purpose of learning the class together. I chose the level 3 book to use as my guide. The problem with using 3 different levels is that they don't match up entirely. I know, that should seem pretty obviously, right? The Beginners level has quite a bit less information than levels 1 and 3. It is missing the timelines and has fewer details and drawing spots for the stories, in order to keep things simple for the little ones.  

We received both the traceable books and student (blank, draw-your-own) books for the younger levels. I gave my kids a choice as to which one they wanted to use. They all chose the traceables. There are differences in those, as well. Simpler pictures for the little ones and gaining a bit more detail as the levels get higher.

The problem that we ran into was that the oldest was able to be more creative since he had blank boxes to draw. In one of the pictures, John the Baptist was drawn with a large tummy, so from then on, the kids referred to John as a Sumo Baby. The younger kids stopped following the pre-drawn figures and added extra details (the curriculum encourages this, as well).

Also, since the Beginner level doesn't cover all the details, their are portions when they didn't have any pages to complete. My two little guys drew on the margins of other papers or added blank pages in the notebook to create.  


I encourage this creativity and am thankful that I had printed through only lesson 3 when I assembled their notebooks. At that point, I asked the kids if they wanted to continue with their current books or switch to level 3. They wanted to swap, which made the lessons go even smoother since all the pages matched. And the kids were able to be as creative as they wanted. It was a win-win situation.

Along with the stick-figuring sections, there are other forms of learning through the books.  There are memory verses and review questions at the end of each lesson, such as

Who was the king when Zacharias was a priest?
What happened as a result of Zacharias' unbelief? (This one always brings giggles.)
What did Gabriel tell Mary?
How did Joseph respond to what the angel told him?
What do we know about Jesus as He grew to be a man?
How did Jesus respond to temptation?
How are we to treat our enemies?
When did Jesus pray? 

Character even cards are included for the higher levels. The students draw their favorite part of the lesson, write the memory verse, and add key facts to remember. My kids loved this review time.

The level 3 book pushes the student even more in his Bible study. Looking up words in a Bible dictionary, finding verses in a concordance, comparing and contrasting characters, identifying biblical locations on a map are some of the things covered.

Even my younger ones enjoy these further studies. They may not understand the deeper themes, but I love that they're learning and picking up bits up information as they listen to their older siblings. 

My kids are enjoying using Grapevine Studies for our Bible class. Every morning when I say it's time to start school, they rush to grab their notebooks. Our lessons are filled with laughter as the kids draw their pictures and show them off to each other. Stick figuring through the Bible is such a simple, yet fantastic idea. The curriculum is easy to use, even if you're working with different age groups, which makes it great for a family study. Even though we found it best for us to use the same book for all the kids, it's written in a way that you could use the appropriate level for each student. More important than having fun though is that my little ones are retaining what they've learned. You can ask them about the temptations of Jesus or what happened when He was baptized or what happened because of Zacharias' unbelief. They can tell you. That means the curriculum is working. That is the most important of all.  


You can connect with Grapevine Studies on the following social media sites:

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter
 

Some of my Crew Mates have been using other studies offered by Grapevine Studies. To read these reviews, visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

 

Wordless Wednesday 2/26/14

Wordless Wednesday: 3/7/12