art – Page 2

Be Bold: A Tyndale Blog Network Review

April 28, 2017 Grace-Filled Writer

Coloring for adults is all the rage! While it is a fun pastime in and of itself, I am always intrigued and excited when a coloring book is paired with devotions as well. Be Bold, by Ellen Elliott, is a great example of a good devotional combined with coloring.

Each devotion is begins with a verse from Scripture and accompanied by a themed coloring page which correlates with the Bible verse chosen. The back of the book contains several pages for journaling notes or prayers as you work through the book. The devotions can be completed in order or not, which is nice. I like the freedom to move through the book as it works best for me.

The first devotion I was drawn to was in the middle of the book and it was about prayer. God has been teaching me a lot about prayer over the last year and I loved the look of the coloring page. I enjoyed the lighter, but solid, devotional and the particular page drew me to it.

The devotions will only take a minimal amount of time to complete. While you color you have an opportunity to reflect on the Scripture. This devotional would be ideal for anyone pre-teen and up who enjoys coloring, especially if they are new to the idea of daily time with the Lord. It is not a deep Bible study, but all of our time with the Lord does not necessarily have to be excessively deep. This particular style of devotionals are enjoyable for me in the evening after I’m done with my day.

If you enjoy coloring and enjoy learning from the Word of God, this would be a good book to check out!

Disclaimer: I received this title in exchange for my honest review. I was not compensated in any other way. I was not required to write a positive review.

Creating a Masterpiece: A TOS Review Crew Review

March 20, 2017 Grace-Filled Writer

Probably one of the most difficult subjects for me to make sure happens in our homeschool is art. We absolutely value the arts and I have a daughter who dreams of being an art teacher overseas at an international school, so I should make this a priority. The trouble comes with logistics, cost, and ability. I’m not artistic enough to be able to teach my girls how to more than cut, paste, and color. Art classes can be very pricey. Needless to say my girls were jumping with joy when they learned we were going to review a new art curriculum, especially Rose!

When my daughters saw this young artist and her amazing creation they couldn’t believe it! If this was an example of what they would create they were absolutely on board with trying out Creating a Masterpiece. We had the opportunity to review the monthly plan which is great for families who may want to plan for certain parts of the year to focus on art lessons. The value of these lessons is well worth the cost. They are well done and have enabled my daughters to create beautiful works of art.

Our experience with this art curriculum was spectacular. The girls understood the instructor clearly and were eager to work on their projects. Our first project was a beginner charcoal piece.

I enjoyed sitting back and watching my girls create. We haven’t done any art with charcoal so this was a completely new medium for them. This is my oldest daughter’s yaht. She would like to try this one more time as this was her first experience with charcoal. One thing I’m very pleased about with her is how she has matured and is willing to grow through what she sees as mistakes. I appreciated how the instructor emphasizes that erasers are fine, no two pictures need to look the same, and you can always include things you didn’t originally intend in the final picture. The girls each made the most of their own projects and had fun dressing them up so they were unique.

Here are their final products!

Order: Rose (11), Beth (9), Grace (7) One of the other projects we worked on was a chalk pastel painting. I joined in for this project and learned so very much! For instance, I did not realize that chalk pastels contain no actual chalk, but are pure paint pigment in a dry form. I have to admit, I struggle with art because I feel inadequate, but my daughters absolutely love when I join in their creativity. I genuinely enjoyed creating this picture. This was a level 1 lesson, so it was a bit more detailed.

I snapped this shot while the girls took a break for a snack. We used painters tape to attach the paper to the table. We already had chalk pastels although they were not the ones recommended by the curriculum. We have used this medium before to create so the girls were a bit more comfortable with this project.

Here are our final products!

OrderTop: Rose (11), MommyBottom: Grace (7), Beth (9) We completed each of these in a day although they can be completed over the course of several days. My daughters tend to like to work to completion if possible. For these beginning levels this is absolutely doable. Some of the more complex projects definitely need more than one day.One of the very unique aspects of this curriculum is having all levels and all types of art mediums available with one subscription. Families with kids who want to try different things have the opportunity to allow this freedom! Also the wide variety of supplies used is amazing! You can choose projects which you already own or venture into the unknown. Young students and adults will enjoy these projects and might just be surprised with their results.
Painting, sculpting, carving, wood burning, mosaics…I have never seen a curriculum with so much available at such an affordable price. This is the perfect fit for large families and families with kids who have multiple levels of artistic abilities. It’s also a perfect fit for children who want to try a new artistic medium they may have never tried before. I highly recommend giving this curriculum a try and fully expect you and your kids to love every minute! Read more from my Crewmates!

Creating Beautiful Art at Home {Creating A Masterpiece Reviews}

2014 Art Show

May 16, 2014 Grace-Filled Writer

My girls attend classes at a local learning center for homeschoolers where I also teach junior high literature. It is different from a co-op in that it is run more like a private school along with a board, director, hired teachers and tuition. It is a blessing and a beautiful thing for my girls to be in a nurturing environment once or twice a week outside our regular homeschooling.

Each year the girls will have artwork as part of the art show. Here are some of their submissions…

Rose has mosaic art featuring gears, one of many simple machines she studied this year!

Rose also wrote a sweet poem about a bee and made a nice illustration as well.

Here is Beth’s version of Sunflowers by van Gogh. So beautiful!

Beth also had a collaborative story telling project which she then illustrated with Aboriginal art. She loved this project and has talked about it almost constantly since working on it!

Grace is too little to participate in the classes offered, but she wanted her picture taken by some artwork like her sisters. These masks were some of her favorites!

This manatee was another collaborative piece done by Beth’s entire class. She said it was neat to work on it together.

This is also something very cool. An amazingly talented group of 7th and 8th graders created a radio drama for their contribution to the art show for their literature class. They also wrote some pretty hilarious commercials as well. Click here or on the picture to listen to the full drama.

(pssst….These are all my students!!!!!!! Aren’t they amazing?!?!)

Rose also just had a poem accepted for publication in a Creative Communications poetry contest! This is her second piece accepted which is really cool. Anyone can enter and homeschoolers are welcomed into the competition. I recently had an article published with this group because one of my 7th and 8th grade literature students was a finalist and won a prize in the essay contest! You can click here to read the article.

If anyone tells you homeschoolers don’t have the same opportunities as traditional schoolers, don’t listen to them. You may have to make an effort to provide those opportunities, but they are out there! If anything, the opportunities are more open because time is not a limitation. I love opening the world wide for my girls to explore and experience the creativity God has blessed them with!

Art of Brick: Field Trip

September 28, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

There’s just something about Legos…am I right? I haven’t met a kid who didn’t love them and my girls are no exception. They build according to the models and only rarely branched out to make their own creations…until today! We had the chance to visit the free exhibit The Art of Brick, hosted by the Alamance County Arts Council.

The Arts Council is housed in a house preserved for its history. It may not look like a museum from the outside, but once step into its doors and you are immediately surrounded by art. Volunteers greeted us and made sure we knew not to touch or even accidentally bump into the exhibits. Although they are glued together, they were not glued to their stands and even jumping could dislodge them. We made sure the girls understood this rule, especially since we had just been visiting a much more hands-on museum prior to this!

Some of the sculptures were housed at the Children’s Museum of Alamance County so we saw those first. The opened book with a castle and moat surrounding it was my favorite. A story-poem was written on the book and it was fun to share it with my girls. Grace said it looked like a pop-up book and I think she’s right!

The crayons were another fun sculpture for the girls!

The boy looking at his reflection entranced Beth and Rose.

Many of the sculptures were of people. The genius of this artwork goes beyond the ability to create sculptures out of Legos. The creativity and ideas behind the art seem endless.

This one looked like someone was squeezing the clouds to make it rain on the city!

“Mommy, look! His heart is floating!“

Grace’s face while she looks at this one is just fabulous!

This is just so cool! Grace loved this one and spent a long time looking at it and talking with me about it. Grace is almost 4 and here she is discussing art with me. Wow!

Hopefully this won’t be the only time we see Mt. Rushmore, but even if it is, it’s a pretty cool way!

Beth and Grace enjoyed talking about this one and why it was titled Lonely Yellow. We chatted about why only one brick was yellow, what it represented, and why only light would be on in the city.

Here is a self-portrait of the artist made entirely of Legos. How cool would family pictures like this be?

After we toured the exhibit we watched a short video of the artist talking about how he started out and why he made these sculptures. The girls were very entertained by him and I really enjoyed hearing about his past. What struck me most about what he said was how much it meant to him that families came to his exhibits. He said families who typically wouldn’t go to an art exhibit would come to The Art of Brick. Boy was he right! The art museum really wasn’t on my radar for a field trip until the girls were much older. I’m now reconsidering it. Talking with the girls about the sculptures, what they represented, and just discussing them was so much fun!

The girls were also inspired to come home and create on their own. Rose, my by-the-book girl, didn’t once look at her instruction sheets for her Lego sets when she came home. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen her do that! The Art of Brick was a fabulous exhibit and a really fun way to introduce art to your kids if you haven’t yet! Check here to see if there is an exhibit near you!

Family Friendly: 10

Kids Engagement: 10

Likelihood to return: 10

Global Art from Gryphon House: Review

July 26, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

There is nothing more fun for my girls than an art project. I’ve admitted it before…art isn’t my favorite area of teaching. I like the outcome, but the effort to get everything going and be a frustrating point for me. The best art projects are ones I can use with all three girls at the same time, use your average art materials I already have on hand, and most importantly connect to their learning. I have found all three to hold true for Global Art from Gryphon House.

Global art is intended to use with elementary age students (k-5) but I have found the majority of these activities can be used as written or moderately adapted for younger children. Although I didn’t use this with older students Art is typically adaptable to almost any age and I think many of these projects could work well with middle school students. This book costs $16.95 which is an incredibly reasonable price for the great number of projects ideas available.

Each project includes geographical, scientific and/or cultural information which brings all sorts of conversations to the table as the girls created their masterpieces. I love how easy this book is to incorporate with whatever history or geography we are studying. I simply look in the table of contents for the country or continent we are studying and choose which project we want to do.

One of the projects we did was from Antarctica. We’ve been having quite the heat wave here in the South, so I thought thinking about cooler areas of the world would be fun! I adapted the project so all three were able to enjoy themselves. We first talked about where Antarctica was and why no one lived there. Then I read the short paragraph on how snowflakes are formed by small ice crystals.

Then they got to work! First they painted snowflakes and then sprinkled them with salt. The idea is the salt would change and form crystals. To say the girls love to paint is an understatement. They spent a long time working on their creations and really enjoyed adding salt as they went along.

First they painted a small portion of the snowflake and while it was still wet added the salt.

Grace enjoyed this part! She kept picking colors that weren’t very bright, but she didn’t seem to mind!

Beth tried several different ways of doing this particular art project. She likes to see how things will work different ways. For some parts she put the salt on first and then painted. Sometimes she followed the directions. Sometimes she added a lot of water on top of the salt. She’s my little experimenter!

The effort all three of my girls put into this was fun to watch. They were focused and excited for the entire 30 minutes they worked. I loved listening to the conversation between them about how the salt was acting on their papers, how they liked each other’s color choices, and what it might be like to live where there is always snow. I was once again reminded of the reason art is important. Creativity inspires learning and it was a lovely bonding moment for the three of them.

The final project!

Gryphon house has an abundance of resources and after reviewing just this one book I have been very impressed. Not only will I be using this throughout our homeschooling, I’m also looking forward to using it during missions lessons with the children at our church. As we learn about missions around the world and focus on different countries I am looking forward to using a lot of these projects. Art which engages and encourages learning is always welcome in our home!

Don’t forget to check out the other reviews from my Crewmates!

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God’s Special Surprise from See the Light: Review

May 30, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

One of our favorite traveling ministries to visit our church for several years was Parables in Pastels. The artist was a personal friend of my husband’s from childhood and we thoroughly enjoyed his presentations. Through chalk art and black lighting we were blessed with encouragement and always a presentation of the gospel. Rose was especially riveted the last time we saw his presentation. The beauty of art combined with the truth of the Word of God captured her heart. She already loves all things artistic and has expressed how she wants to honor God with her artwork and crafts

When I found out I was going to get to participate in this review I knew Rose (7) would be thrilled. We were privileged to use God’s Special Surprise from See the Light. This Each DVD in the Bible Stories Series costs $14.99 or you can purchase the entire 5 DVD set for $74.95 and contain three projects aligned to the same Bible story. The high-quality video engaged even my girls who weren’t participating in the art! This particular DVD in the series is designed for students six and up.

Before completing the art projects Rose, Beth, and Grace watched the beautifully illustrated story of Moses. They loved this and have asked to watch it again several times! You would think in our high-tech, flashy world that a picture only story-telling venue might not hold a child’s attention. I don’t know about anyone else, but I really think this refreshing style was why it captured their attention. It was sort of like having a book read to you with such beautiful illustrations you didn’t want to turn the page.

Project #1: Surprise!

(A lesson in creative lettering)

The first lesson we worked on was creative lettering. The letters were intended to look like letters chiseled into rock. Beth (5 years old) joined us for this one! The DVD instructor clearly explained in kid-friendly language how to create this unique ancient looking lettering. After writing the letter the girls traced them with extreme colored pencils to create a really cool effect under the black light. The girls also each chose a word to write with their newly practiced chiseled lettering. Rose chose FAITH and Beth chose LEAH (we’ve been enjoying another DVD with a character named Leah!)

Project #2: Hope for a Nation

(A lesson in chalk pastels)

This lesson was the hardest of the three for Rose, but even at that she did great! The biggest problem Rose has right now is with size perception. This is something I could work on her well with the DVD. The instructor would explain and draw. She typically wanted to start drawing before the explanation was over and would sometimes have extreme proportion issues. I was pleased to see that when I talked to her about it and walked her through looking at the example compared to her own she was very calm. In the past she would become frustrated from her art not being exactly like the original. This problem with perfectionism was one reason we started homeschooling in the first place. It still rears its ugly head sometimes, but this was a great test of her patience and giving herself grace in the face of mistakes.

This is the picture with and without the black-light. I again think that this looks much better in person, but I couldn’t find a setting to capture the enhanced picture to my satisfaction. Grace liked this artwork a lot and did her own version on the chalkboard opposite Rose!

Project #3: Moses in the Nile

(A lesson in water colors)

This lesson was by far our favorite! Both the simplicity and beautiful end artwork made it very fun. The beautiful blending techniques with the watercolors were amazing to watch come together. A large part of this piece included using permanent marker. I was pleased at the effort Rose made with this portion. I was wondering if she would get bored, but she did great job. I also learned the right way to use water color paint and how to keep the colors from mixing or becoming too watery.

These pictures turned out to be the most stunning although the black-light version is still not nearly as beautiful as in person.

There are many aspects to this series I loved. I appreciated the historical references and information included in each lesson. The artists also thoroughly explained each step, suggesting to pause the DVD at different points and explaining not only how to complete the steps, but why it needed to be done that way. Am I the only one with a seven-year-old who wants to know the reason behind everything before she does it? It was nice to have everything so clearly explained.

I especially loved the tie-ins with Scripture. Art is beautiful and enjoyable. Art for the purpose of glorifying God takes it to an entirely different level.

This DVD gets a fabulous review from Rose who completed all of the projects. She asked me just this morning, “Would it be okay to go back and make those same pictures again sometime?” I also know it is spectacular because as my other girls watched Rose complete her projects they were inspired to create their own work.

Art that inspires more art…what better compliment is there?

Want to see more? Check out other reviews from my Crewmates by clicking below!

Friday Art Projects: April 5

April 6, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

So, first of all this was actually Saturday, but since it technically was still our Friday projects I’m not changing the title! And yes, the girls are in their pj’s but, no we don’t do school in our jammies (usually)! We got busy on Friday, visited our local museum and some friends came over to play outside in the warm weather, so our art projects got moved to Saturday, which also got busy! I promised the girls after taking their bath and getting ready for bed they could do their art projects.

Heart of Dakota schedules the art projects throughout the week in our guides, but I prefer to do them all at once at the end of the week. I like for each of them to have something to work on at the same time because I honestly don’t have time to let them each do every project! I like that there isn’t a competition about who’s looks better. I like that the younger girls can see what they have to look forward to. I like getting the mess over and done with all at one time. I love reviewing things we have learned earlier in the week.

Here is a preview of our three art projects. This week’s were fairly mess-free. Yay! (I’m really trying hard to be okay with messes!) One thing I love about Heart of Dakota is how everything connects. History is integrated with Bible study which is integrated with science which is integrated with story time, which is integrated with art…you get the picture!

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 27

Rose is a budding artist! She loves using any medium to create. This week she studied John Muir and his documentation of species going extinct. The art project was to choose a state shown in her history book. She chose Florida because is her birth-state. I also gave her a flashcard of the state so it was easier for her to create the state outline. I gave her yarn, some tape, helped her tape down the first piece and let her have at it! I am consistently impressed with her artistic abilities. She wasn’t as excited about drawing the extinct species, but she did a good job anyway. She also wanted to include the name Florida written in cursive.

Little Hands for His Glory: Unit 25

Beth wasn’t as excited at first about her art project. It came from a history reading about the Battle of Quebec between the British and the French. To say the least it didn’t capture her attention! The art project was creating her own flag and to make the same design on both sides. That part caught her attention. I let her look at pictures of the French and British flags so I expected her to make a similar design. Not my Beth! She made an artistic scene, then flipped it over and recreated it! I was proud of her effort and attention to detail.

Little Hands To Heaven: Unit 17

Grace jumps in wholeheartedly no matter what our project is! This week we studied about the kings of Israel, both good and bad, so she made a crown out of construction paper. I let her wear it the next day and it no longer is in tact! That’s okay though. What is the point of learning except having fun? That’s why I love documenting what we do in school with photos and blogging. Grace took a long time creating her crown. I took some time to read the stories of the kings to her again. It makes me sad to see the state Israel often fell into and sadder still to see the similarities in my own heart. I can’t help but see how God uses our studies to draw my own heart more in line with His.

Draw Write Now: Review and Giveaway!!!!

March 25, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

One of my favorite past times from childhood was drawing pictures using coloring books. I would work for hours getting the dimensions just right. In our school we had a choice: Music or Art. You could not participate in both and I chose band over art. Still, drawing was a fun pastime of mine until I went away to college and other things seemed to take up my time. Rose especially has seemed to acquire my love of drawing. She has several notebooks of different categories where she draws everything from Angry Birds to real birds! When I told her we were going to get to review some drawing books she was over the moon!

The Draw Write Now series from Draw Your World is a clear instructional series which combines handwriting and drawing. These non-consumable books encourage looking at handwriting as art and combines the two skills seamlessly. Each lesson includes several sentences about what the child will draw and clear directions for how to draw the picture. The sentences are written in manuscript, but can easily be transcribed into cursive you like. They generously sent me a fun package to review including the eight-book series and a variety of pencil grips.

I used paper which had room for a picture at the top as well as handwriting lines at the bottom. I first had the girls practice their handwriting, then move on to the picture. My reason was that I knew they would become so engrossed in their pictures the handwriting would possibly be forgotten. I was very pleased with how quickly they completed their copywork and how neat it looked!

I knew Rose would enjoy this series, but I wasn’t sure about Beth. She likes to do things her own way and I’m having a hard time teaching her it’s not always okay to decorate her words with smiley faces and flowers! She has clear artistic tendencies, but getting her to conform to set standards is not easy. I actually love her decorated letters and words, but I also want her to know they aren’t always appropriate. I was shocked at how quickly her handwriting improved! She was incredibly focused on neatness and proportion of her letters for the first time.

Rose enjoyed drawing the pictures and also adding the background scenery. She made it her own and enjoyed coloring the scenes as well. She was so pleased with her work and I appreciated the simple instructions for her to follow. The books do not need to be completed in any particular order, but book 1 has the simplest pictures and instructions. Other topics in the series include a variety of science, historical, and geographical themes. These will be a lot of fun to include as we continue our studies throughout the years!

Although Grace is not really to the drawing or handwriting stage, the various pencil grips worked well for her. We tried several different ones and her favorite was the basic Pencil Grip. I love how it helps her know exactly how to hold the pencil so as she grows the grip will become second nature. From one who still doesn’t hold a pencil correctly this is a great product!

The girls tried out the other grips as well. Beth particularly liked the Twist ‘n Write. She uses this one frequently for a lot of her work! She likes to do things out-of-the-box by nature so I think that is why she is partial to this one!

Rose liked the idea of The Writing Claw, but said she felt like her fingers were too big to fit it. I think it was more a matter of too many years of not using a pencil grip. She did use one when she first started writing, but it has been about 3 years. I like how flexible this particular type was because it give the writer more individual control.

I also really loved the pencils! They were so easy to use and had such smooth flow for writing. I have relegated these for handwriting/drawing only because they are so nice and we tend to break a lot of pencils around here with learning how much pressure to apply and all that.

Here is an example of Rose’s artwork:

Rose – 7 years old

Here is an example of Beth’s artwork:

Beth – 5 years old

I am so proud of my girls, especially Beth. She always used to say, “I can’t draw pretty pictures!” Now she says, “Can I PLEASE draw using my drawing book?” What a beautiful change.

Are you ready for an incredibly giveaway now? Draw Your World has generously donated a $50 gift card to be used on their site! Enter several ways below.

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Disclaimer

I received the 8 book set of Draw Write Now and a pencil grip starter set in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was received.

Fun Activity: Soap Clouds

March 22, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

We had a failed activity this week. This is extremely rare with HOD activities. They usually go off without a hitch for me, but our soap making activity to go along with our story about Naaman washing in the Jordan River for healing failed miserably! Therefore we did something a little different.

We were supposed to take powdered laundry soap, a small amount of water, and form it into soap shape. That didn’t work…probably due to the fact that I only had homemade laundry soap and not just the regular kind! So we opted to make soap clouds in the microwave!

If you try this remember: 1. You must use Ivory soap. 2. Please keep a close eye on the microwave

1. Place a piece of wax paper or a microwave safe paper towel into the bottom of the microwave. DO NOT USE FOIL!

2. Place bar of IVORY soap into the microwave

3. Set the microwave for about 2 minutes, but stand close by to keep an eye on it!

Having fun watching! I wish I could have gotten a better picture because this is really cool!

This is the end result…

It is so weird! The soap will be warm surprised me by being easy to mold in this state!

So the girls pushed it into a heart shaped silicone mold and then used it for bath time. I added a few drops of water to the top of each heart to help it set better. So even though our original project didn’t work out quite right, this was really fun!

Friday Art Projects: October 26

October 26, 2012 Grace-Filled Writer

Our art projects went really well this week. Really, really well! I guess my assessment that doing more art projects would be good for my girls even if it isn’t something I’m very good at! This week they all three waited patiently while I prepared the projects, gave individual directions, and took pictures. They all three had a good time as well!

Rose’s project this week is still in progress. We’ve been studying Benjamin Franklin and several of his experiments, including the famous kite experiment. After I made 2 inch strips on her painting paper she created a rainbow colored kite by mixing primary colors. It turned out beautifully!

Beth’s collage of children cut from magazines was inspired by this week’s Bible verse, Matthew 2:52 which says, “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” She chose pictures of children in all different stages of life. She really got into cutting these out!

Finally is Grace’s art! I think she had my favorite project of the week. First I helped her tape the center portion of a piece of photo paper. Then I drew fish using sharpie markers. She asked for an octopus even though I’m not certain there are any in the Red Sea! There is also a yellow shark with teeth, but it’s hard to see. Finally she used blue and purple water colors on the page for the water. We removed the tape so the Israelites could walk on dry land. After it dries I’m going to let her use some Little People to act it out!

I think one of my favorite moments of our art projects was with Rose. I explained the project and she said, “How does this go with what we learned this week?” One of the great things about Heart of Dakota is that all science, art, history, story times, and Bible are tied in so they correlate together. Even at her young age of 7 she is recognizing the connections!