Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
Nearly all children and parents love art. It’s an expression of our creativity and our unique perspectives, which happens to be the very characteristics that Artistic Pursuits, Inc. encourages in their art book called Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary. This beginner’s art book is intended for grades K through 3rd grade, however, I decided to still use it as a group course for both my 3rd grader and my 4th grader and it worked out great.
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About Artistic Pursuits, Inc.
Artistic Pursuits, Inc. is an award-winning company of multiple consecutive years for their wonderful art books that covers all levels of school from preschool all the way through high school. It’s no wonder this homeschool art curriculum has won all these awards, because the benefits from art are crazy good and Artistic Pursuits has them all in their art curriculum.
They encourage homeschool parents to relax and rely on the text to teach their art curriculum. Covering all the right topics, ARTistic Pursuits provide lessons that fit the needs of every age level so that children can benefit the most during their learning opportunities. The benefits include:
- develop observation skills that are vital to becoming proficient in the arts
- learn creative thinking skills
- produce amazing artworks that are uniquely their own, not a copy-by-following example, but one-of-a-kind creations!
Preschool Art Curriculum
If you have a preschooler that you want to introduce art to, why not check out the preschool book from Artistic Pursuits, Inc? The preschool art curriculum of Artistic Pursuits is called The Way They SEE It, A Book for Every Parent About the Art Children Make. This book is great for introducing art to your new growing artist as it can help expand their visual experiences.
Grades K-3 Art Curriculum
ARTistic Pursuits offer various books available for you to choose from between Kindergarten and 3rd grade. You can decide on which book to get depending on what your children’s interests are or what they’re currently studying in school. Or if you want to explore brand new areas, you can!
The book titles included in the K-3 selection are:
- Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary
- Art of the Ancients
- Art of the Middle Ages
- Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance
- Art of the Northern Countries, Renaissance to Realism
- Art of the Impressionists
- Art of the Modern Age
- Art in America
Grades 4-5 Art Curriculum
There are two books available for grades 4 and 5 that includes the art curriculum. The titles for these grade levels are:
- ARTistic Pursuits, Elementary 4-5 Book One, The Elements of Art and Composition
- ARTistic Pursuits, Elementary 4-5 Book Two, Color and Composition
Middle School Art Curriculum
Artistic Pursuits, Inc. offers a few books for the middle school grade levels. The book titles include:
- ARTistic Pursuits, Middle School 6-8 Book One, The Elements of Art and Composition
- ARTistic Pursuits, Middle School 6-8 Book Two, Color and Composition
High School Art Curriculum
The art books and curriculum for high school include two books available. The book titles are:
- ARTistic Pursuits, High School 9-12 Book One, The Elements of Art and Composition
- ARTistic Pursuits, High School 9-12 Book Two, Color and Composition
Grades 6-12 Sculpture Art Curriculum
Artistic Pursuits, Inc. also offers an art curriculum for grade 6 through 12 students that are interested in tapping into sculpture art. This is a unique curriculum aopportunity and I can see how much fun students can have with this one!
The titles for grades 6-12 sculpture books are:
- Sculpture Technique, Construct
- Sculpture Technique, Model
About ARTistic Pursuits: Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary
Our family chose to go to the visual basics of art, so we chose Art for Children, Building A Visual Vocabulary for grades K-3. Out of three children, I only have two that are in grade school. Their ages are 8 and 9, and grade levels are [around] 3rd and 4th grade.
How We Used ARTistic Pursuits
We got the book in the mail and it was a beautiful, glossy and shiny book that had never even been opened. I know that’s what to be expected when you receive new books, however, this particular book had never ever been open, its thick and sturdy pages have never been flipped through, the DVD packages within book had never been opened, etc. The brand newness was apparent and it gave all of us that extra lift of excitement.
One important point is that the creator encourages throughout the book that she’s not expecting the students to mirror the paintings or images on the television screen (when watching via DVD) or in the book. She wishes for all students to create their own individual art through their own expressions or feelings.
I really like this because many of us in our family are creatives and every single one of us has a different style. If you asked all of us to paint the exact same thing I can guarantee that through our own individual styles and techniques each canvas will differ from one to the next!
Upon flipping through, one of the primary art tools used in the majority of the pages are watercolor crayons, and just a few lessons call for oil pastels. (I had never heard of watercolor crayons until this art curriculum!)
DVD Lessons
All of the books contained in the K-3 grade levels include DVDs in each book. We were surprised and excited to find that our book ARTistic Pursuits: Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary contained two DVDs: one blueray and one DVD.
Even so, when we put the DVDs in, the video lessons provided had 6 lessons. The number of lessons in the book, though, is far greater than 6. And to be honest, when I heard she created an online course of even more video lessons at the end of my review period, I was very happy to hear that. My kids were a little disappointed to only be able to view just 6 of the lessons on DVD but when they heard there will be an online course providing most if not all of the lessons, they perked up.
So I know many other families will come face to face with this same thing. I can’t wait to see her new online course of even more lessons, both for our family’s experience as well as for yours!
Our Projects
Throughout the books in nearly every lesson is a gentle reminder to allow the child to paint according to his or her perspective. There’s not a wrong way to paint or a wrong answer when painting something from your point of view. And this is exactly what I let my children do!
The book has so many neat lessons available for your kids to do in watercolor crayons! But because we couldn’t find any available watercolor crayons due to COVID, they opted to ‘paint’ with their specialty Prismacolor markers.
In the lesson above, the instructions above say to “paint a special event in your life”. The students aren’t to replicate or copy the painting on page 14 by Mark Chagall. My kids did exactly that, just with their specialty markers.
My 8 year old, Zoey, painted the time when we went sailing on the Boston Harbor in Boston, Massachusetts.
My 9 year old, Daniel, drew the latest waves of stormy weather (when our electricity went out more than 4 times for very long periods of time).
The kids and I had a ton of fun while painting the ARTistic Pursuits K-3 art curriculum. We are looking forward to painting more lessons, especially from the lessons on the new online course!
From Your Child’s Perspective {Homeschool Art Lessons}
Wrapping up, Artistic Pursuits, Inc. is great for every child of any grade level. I probably could have gotten the preschool level for my 2-year old toddler! Although I’m not saying preschool level would be great for all toddlers. Just that I’d like to see my toddler’s perspective of a particular painting!
All in all, we very much enjoyed this homeschool art curriculum. If you would like to read reviews on the other levels, go to the Homeschool Review Crew blog where over 60 families have submitted a variety of reviews on the ARTistic Pursuits homeschool art curriculum.
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