ArtAchieve - TOS Review

I enjoy being able to include art in our learning. That used to be something that we did in co-op but since we do not have a co-op at this time it is something that I have worked to be intentional about including in our schedule. I am not an artist and so it means that I need resources and things to help me with this. Recently we were able to review ArtAchieve Entire Level II.  We had fun learning and drawing together.

ArtAchieve is an online resources for teaching art. These lessons also include bits of cross cultural information. The author of ArtAchieve is John Hofland. This began when they homeschooled their children and a drawing course for beginning theatrical stage design students. Mr. Hofland has spent time in Eastern Europe studying, designing, and teaching workshops.


We received a year's subscription to Entire Level II. There are 14 lessons in the Entire Level II. Each lesson has a warm-up worksheet. This is a fun page that gives you the whole picture but in bits almost like a puzzle. This is an opportunity to practice the lines and curves. The lessons are then given in both a video or a Powerpoint version. The students can work along with the presentation and create their own masterpiece.

I like to have an art project once or twice a week. Normally I would give the children something to draw while I read history. That is one way to keep their hands busy. These lessons begin with a warm-up in getting your hands and fingers ready to draw. Then the suggestion is to put on some calm music and quietly draw. J is a talented artist while Miss K struggles at time. I was looking forward to seeing the masterpieces they would each create.

The first project that we did was the Czech Cat. This is a free lesson. Each lesson gives you the object that was the inspiration for the artwork.

In a way I don't like to do it but we often have to tell Miss K to just stop that she has enough colour on her picture.

One of the first projects that we did was the Swedish Dala Horse. I liked the bits of information about the Dala horse. I felt like we were learning bits of culture along with our art.

Even me who does not think I am not artistic was able to draw a Dala horse that looks like one.

One of the projects that the kids did was a Japanese goldfish. I have many memories of being in Asia and seeing all the goldfish in a pond.

This is the elephant from Ghana. We used supplies that we had around the house. Some of the projects it was suggested to do in paint or watercolour but we used markers for most of our projects. It was suggested to use a glossy paper. I tried with some that we had but it did not work with the markers.

I think the kids found it easy to follow the lessons and create some beautiful artwork. There were times that the drawing began in a place that I thought was interesting like with the eye.

We did a nutcracker. Miss K loves The Nutcracker ballet so she enjoyed drawing this one.

One of the things that I really liked about this program was the cross cultural aspects. It was fun this past week to see some nutcrackers in Germany and remember the artwork we created.

Overall we loved the program. It was something easy that the kids could do on their own. It had more than just drawing with some of the cross-cultural aspects.

It was good for the artist and also for the beginner. We enjoyed working on these projects the past few weeks. There are even a few more that I did not show.

Beth