Spread the word!

One of the biggest fears that I hear from homeschooling mothers is often that they aren’t qualified to teach certain subjects or they don’t think they can teach something they’re not particularly good at. For most, it’s math or science that gets their nerves on edge. For me it’s homeschooling art. It seems silly, I know, but I am not an artsy or craftsy person. I have a DIY board on Pinterest, but please don’t ask me how many of those clever and crafty projects I’ve ever actually completed (none).

Mr. C, however, is an art fanatic. He often says “we could paint a beautiful picture!” when I ask him “what do you want to do today?” So when he said he was interested in learning more about art this year in our homeschool, I listened (hesitantly). Since then I’ve been on the hunt for resources that will make homeschooling art study easy, even for this incredibly art-challenged mom!

Homeschooling Art Study Made Easy!

Art is not my thing, but Mr. C loves it. This art-challenged mom needed a thorough homeschooling art study to help me through, and I found it!
(Please note: The Art Kit generously gifted me this artist study in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are 100% my own. You can see my full disclosure here.)

The Art Kit

Enter The Art Kit stage left! The Art Kit is a monthly subscription box that includes everything you’ll need for a thorough artist study in your homeschool. I received their August box which was all about artist Georges Seurat. When I first got the box I was incredibly impressed. Not only did it come in pretty and branded packaging (I’m a marketer, I notice this stuff) there was just so much stuff included! There was enough stuff to study this artist for a full month with my boys, and all of it was so easy for me to implement I wasn’t intimidated at all. We did the activities slowly and as we had time, and Mr. C especially thought it was just the best thing ever!

The Book

The first activity that we did was read the informational picture book that came with the kit, Learning About the World’s Great Artists: Georges Seurat. Mr. C was so excited that even he could read the book (with a bit of help, Georges Seurat isn’t a common word for most second graders!) and he loved the beautiful pictures. A few days after we read the book, he went to my mom’s house and told her all about the new artist he was learning about who “painted all with dots!” I was nervous that an artist study would be a bit over his head at this stage, but he really enjoyed it and learned from it without a ton of effort on my part.

Mr. C reading his artist picture book from #theartkit!

The Painting

This was Mr. C’s favorite part! The Art Kit included absolutely everything we needed to create our very own pointilism painting like Georges Seurat. The kit came with art paper, natural earth paint, paint cups, a paint brush, and several dot-making supplies like dot brushes and q-tips. One of the things that gets in the way of our art projects is that if I have to run to the store for anything, it never happens. It was so nice to have everything available right at my finger tips! The earth paints were beautiful colors, and easy to make (one scoop of the paint powder with one scoop of water) and Mr. C loved that he got to make his own paints. As a bonus, we are learning about nomads in history and how they painted on caves, so the earth paint helped us tie that in! Mr. C loved painting with the dots, and he told me twice how he felt like a “real artist” because he was painting just like Georges Seurat did. He made a beautiful painting featuring the sun (the large x) the sky (the blue on either side) and our whole family from left to right, me (with a large pregnant belly), Chris, Mr. C, A-Man, and Baby M.

Mr. C's Pointilism Painting Using #TheArtKit

The Puzzle

The Art Kit also included a full 24 piece puzzle of one of Georges Seurat’s most famous paintings. I was really impressed by the high quality of the puzzle. It has thick, sturdy pieces, and the picture is beautiful. Mr. C had a lot of fun putting the puzzle together and he recognized the painting from the book we had read earlier. I will point out that adding a full size, high quality puzzle to each subscription box did make the kit a bit pricey which was the only down side to the kit I could find. I’ve seen though, that since this box went out they’ve decided to stop including the puzzle in order to offer the kit at a more affordable price. They will still be offering the puzzles in their shop for parents who are looking to spend the extra money which I think is a great compromise.

The Stickers

The sticker project included in The Art Kit made my little heart happy. This is where we were able to engage A-Man the most. He is more like me. Art isn’t really his thing, and while he likes painting sometimes, he doesn’t like to learn about it. His fine motor skills are behind for his age, so doing the dots would be really difficult for him. Stickers, though? Easy peasy! He got to make his own pointilism art project using the stickers and art paper provided in The Art Kit. It always makes me happy when he’s able to be included in the fun extras that we’re doing with Mr. C. We were also able to use the activity to talk about dots, circles, and colors. He had fun poking at the different dot stickers on his page. It also helped that this activity was so simple to put together and do. They just need paper and the stickers (which are both included in the kit) and there’s virtually no mess to clean up. That definitely helps this art-challenged mom!

The Details

Overall, we really loved playing with The Art Kit and I think it makes a great homeschooling art study curriculum. The monthly subscription box has more than enough activities to study the artist or art style for the entire month. It includes everything you need to create two fun art projects plus the educational activities. Monthly subscriptions going forward are priced at $34.95 which I believe is really affordable for the high quality products being sent to you (and saving you the headache of going to the store)! You can order the monthly subscription or just one box from The Art Kit, and you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram. If you post about using The Art Kit, be sure to use the hashtag #theartkit! They love to see kiddos enjoying their product.

 

Have you struggled to find art curriculum for your homeschool that’s easy to implement and mess free?