Vote on how I should spend my money this week (art)

[plain jane]

That's it! I'm throwing in the towel and purchasing an art curriculum for dd7. She keeps begging me to do art and I am excruciatingly artistically challenged. :tongue_smilie:

I think I've narrowed it down to two: Atelier or Artistic Pursuits

Which do I choose and WHY? **If you vote for other- pls put what you recommend instead!


ETA: she really wants to learn how to draw but I can't draw beyond stick men. I can't seem to make Drawing With Children work us and have decided to just get something, anything, that will allow art to get done. I'll figure out drawing later. :P

[Jen3boys]

We're enjoying this book for drawing-
www.amazon.com/Art-Kids-Drawing-Artist-Always/dp/1579905870/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228959203&sr=8-1

[OhElizabeth]

Discovering Great Artists--It's so easy even *I* can implement it. If you're doing world history, it lists the artists and projects in chronological order. If you're doing american, there's a Discovering Great American Artists. In other words, these two books can take you through art for 4 years, easy peasy! :)

[Josie]

At that age I would just get some how to books and let her duplicate what they show. We have books on how to draw ocean animals, horses, etc. Get her some color pencils and she should be set to go.

[Gretchen in NJ]

Save your money. Do something nice for your self.;) I use "How to Teach Art to Children." Girls love it. I love it. An Art teacher friend of mine loves it for us.

[elegantlion]

Save your money. Do something nice for your self.;) I use "How to Teach Art to Children." Girls love it. I love it. An Art teacher friend of mine loves it for us.

I looked at this last year. I think it would be good for that age. Either that or do like Princess Diaries and throw darts at balloons filled with paint, that would really fun.

[yvonne]

>>>I am excruciatingly artistically challenged.

Me, too. And I didn't want my kids to feel that way. That's why I bought book after book on teaching art. Then I found the PERFECT solution--Monart classes! If you are at all like me, it will not matter which curriculum you purchase, or how many of them you purchase, or how wonderful your intentions are. It just wasn't going to happen.

With Monart classes, and now with an art teacher who had started out as a Monart teacher & now does her own thing but is clearly heavily influenced by her Monart training, my kids are really learning to draw. They love it. I could never have given them that. Even if we only do this for a couple years, they'll have a great foundation in drawing and the confidence to continue.

Monart classes are a great way to go for us artistically challenged moms!
yvonne

[plain jane]

>>>I am excruciatingly artistically challenged.

Me, too. And I didn't want my kids to feel that way. That's why I bought book after book on teaching art. Then I found the PERFECT solution--Monart classes! If you are at all like me, it will not matter which curriculum you purchase, or how many of them you purchase, or how wonderful your intentions are. It just wasn't going to happen.

With Monart classes, and now with an art teacher who had started out as a Monart teacher & now does her own thing but is clearly heavily influenced by her Monart training, my kids are really learning to draw. They love it. I could never have given them that. Even if we only do this for a couple years, they'll have a great foundation in drawing and the confidence to continue.

Monart classes are a great way to go for us artistically challenged moms!
yvonne

This was actually my first choice. :) Unfortunately for my dc, we do not live near a Monart school. They are stuck with me teaching them art.:tongue_smilie:

[sagira]

I vote Artistic Pursuits. It's Artist-approved by my hubby and looks very interesting to artistically-challenged mom over here :)

[one l michele]

For my ds who is really into art, Artistic Pursuits was a flop. It's great with appreciation, but he wasn't into that, he wanted to do art. The how to is pretty weak, IMO. We use: The Usborne Book of Art and Art Adventures at Home along with have a supply of nice art supplies they can explore with anytime. This has worked well for us.

[Snickerdoodle]

:lurk5:

[H.S. Burrow]

Discovering Great Artists--It's so easy even *I* can implement it. If you're doing world history, it lists the artists and projects in chronological order. If you're doing american, there's a Discovering Great American Artists. In other words, these two books can take you through art for 4 years, easy peasy! :)

OhElizabeth, Is this an Art Appreciation course or a How-To series?




Jane, my DD loves to draw and has checked out from our library the "How to Draw Horses", or Fish, or Dinosaurs, or ...you get the idea.

I looked at the Atelier and found it too pricey for us. I have not looked at the Artistic Pursuits.

[Pretty in Pink]

My children LOVE art. I have found that a comination of keeping my home well-stocked with quality art supplies as well as enrolling them in hands-on art classes at some local art studios is the perfect solution for us at this point. You might check into it if you have any art studios around. My oldest takes painting lessons ($75.00 for 6 90 minute lessons) and my 5yo takes pottery classes (20.00 for one 60 minute class).

[runningirl71]

I voted "other." I say, go simple with art. I like what EL and Burrow suggested, doing things that don't necessarily take an expensive program. I've bought expensive curric in the past only to find out that something from the library would have worked just as well.

Maybe you should see what your library has and give it a trial run before buying something? I'm artistically challenged when it comes to drawing, and I actually do not have any desire to teach it. I think I would be frustrated with an expensive curric. if I knew I couldn't teach it the way I wanted. I would feel much better (especially at age 7) checking out drawing books from the library.

One fun book that I picked up for a dollar was Mark Kistler's Draw Squad. It is fun and engaging. The drawing really cater to kids. Both Ds and Dd went through this book on their own. And, the homeschool co-op might be doing some type of "art academy" (sorry, don't know the details) with Mark Kistler at some point. I guess he has his own cable show?!

My daughter absolutely LOVES art. (If you click on Sarah's Gallery on our blog you can see a little bit of her work) I am fortunate to have my neighbor who is a home school Mom and artist teaching her for free. And, after seeing my neighbor teach her, there is just know way I would be able to reproduce that. I know my limitations!

I don't want to discourage you at all, and I hope I didn't, I just don't want you to put money into an expensive program that has the possibility of not working out. Who knows? Maybe it will for you!:)

[plain jane]

Currently, it's not looking like you're overly decisive on this, are you?? :001_huh: :tongue_smilie:

[newbie]

I bought Atelier, and boy did I hear about price from dh.

Plus, I think I bought them three mos. ago, and they are still sitting in plastic on my dresser. Oops.

Wish I could recommend it.

[KathyBC]

As another can-barely-draw-stick-people mom, I have appreciated having the Draw Write Now books kicking around the house. We use Artistic Pursuits, and hope to move on to Draw Squad next. But for just casual, fun stuff they are really great.