Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew. I was not paid to write this review but asked to give an honest critique. I pray it is helpful and beneficial to all who read it!
I struggle with implementing an art curriculum into our homeschool. It has always been enough to pull out the drawing pads and just let them draw what they see or use their imagination. But with the opportunity to give my middle schooler more detailed training with Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils from Artistic Pursuits, she got to use her natural skills of drawing while learning some things new from a fun and well-taught art lesson.
About the Product
As part of their Art Core series, Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils, Art Core 3 is perfect for 7th/8th graders. This is an intermediate course, offered both fully online, as well as receiving a physical book and online instruction. The physical book has a hard cover, and each lesson is illustrated with an example. Textbook lessons compliment the online instruction video. You will want to purchase the art materials that accompany the course, they are used and very helpful to have on hand.
Video lessons run between 10-12 minutes each. Each lesson is very doable for 1x a week.
How we used it.
Per the instruction in the textbook, we watched the video lesson, then read through the 1-page lesson in the book. The video is much more important, as the textbook really just compliments what they talked about. Both are very useful, and really go hand in hand.
My 7th grader watched the videos from our desktop computer and then too her sketchbook and assignment to a comfortable place to draw. She usually prefers sitting at a desk for sketching, which also kept all her supplies tidy and at arms length.
We dedicated roughly an hour to each lesson – watching, reading and sketching all together. We also aimed to complete 1-2 lessons per week.
What we think about it.
I love that this is an open and go art class for middle school. Because it is drawing, there are minimal supplies to keep track of, and there is no mess. The course offers all the supplies to purchase in a package online, which made getting the entire course very easy.
Because the videos are only 10-12 minutes long AND they aren’t boring, my daughter looked forward to sitting down for art. The online instruction is fun to watch and easy to understand and following up the with book lesson is easy and practical.
The only part I played in the course was to encourage my daughter to follow the main point of the lesson. For example, in lesson 2 where she arranged a few items to sketch, she was supposed to start with a focus line that runs down the center of each item, then make each side symmetrical. However, she just wanted to draw it as she saw it, so I had to remind her to use the new technique before just jumping in 🙂
I also had to encourage her for more detail. I think it’s just typical of any pre-teen, but at the beginning I was only getting minimal effort from her. I only had to remind her a couple of times and then she was off on her own!
Overall, we love Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils from Artistic Pursuits. It was a great addition to our homeschool curriculum for the summer because of the light load and ease of use. This is a great art course to use at home!
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