Spears Art Curriculum

I am not talented at art. I took one art class in school for 8 weeks in junior high. I walked through the art museum a good bit in college because it was a shortcut home. I do have pictures of Christ, temples, and scripture stories throughout our home, but that's it. As a result, most of the art my kids have been exposed to is through co-op classes or just free exploration with the art supplies here at home. Teaching art was too intimidating and time consuming.

Then I received the Spears Art Studio to review. The entire K-8 curriculum comes on a CD-Rom with different levels of projects for different ages. The projects are laid out by month, which gave me a place to start. Each concept has project ideas for different ages and abilities. We used the K level project for our snowmen and used some oil pastels I was given several years ago for the first time. I liked that it gave me step-by-step instructions to follow. I had the kids follow the instructions the first time, then they could do another will any changes they wanted to make. The snowmen turned out cute. Another project had you trace 7 circles on your paper over lapping randomly then color each section with a different color or pattern. The boys really enjoyed this one too.

I feel like these are projects that are doable. I did have a little difficulty finding the art images it references. I would like to just have a set of postcards or a website with them all compiled for me, but that is just because I am so lacking in art. I didn't even have a clue where to start looking for a given painting in books at the library, but there are some nice samples on the Spears Art website and most projects show a sample of a completed project.

Spears Art Studio K-8 costs $39.95, shipping included, and can be used year after year with children at different ages/abilities. They also have a high school level art program.

Try some free lessons here.