Homeschool Art Program {TOS Crew Review}

We recently got to review a new to us homeschool art program through the TOS Crew.  This program came to us from ARTistic Pursuits Inc.  We chose to review their Early Elementary K-3 Book One since almost all of my children fit into that age range.  And even the ones that are a bit older or a bit younger were still able to use the program with us.

ARTistic Pursuits Inc. offers curriculum for art spanning from preschool through high school and also a few specialty type courses like sculpture.  A fun fact about this homeschool art program is that it not only teaches art but also some art history as well.  It also teaches about art appreciation and teaches observational skills.  It’s really an all around curriculum with the main focus being on art.

I have to admit I’ve never found a homeschool art program that was the perfect fit for us.  I’m not an art person.  In fact, I’m horrible at art.  But this homeschool art program doesn’t require me to be an artist which is very helpful!

This homeschool art program that we received is for Early Elementary K-3 Book One- An Introduction to the Visual Arts.  It has 36 lessons with projects and is written by Brenda Ellis.  I used this book with all of my children ages almost 3-11 years old.  Since we really haven’t done a structured curriculum for art that we’ve loved it seemed a good idea to start everyone at the beginning!  And it saved me having to purchase a different level.  The age level on the book is age 5 and up.  I only have one child under 5 now so it worked well for us.  The list price of this book is currently $47.95 on their website.

A few things I really loved were that most of the art supplies we needed for the majority of projects in this book were ones we already had at home so I didn’t have to go out and try to find art supplies just to do a project.  Of course, some of the projects did require some special supplies, but we were able to skip those until we were able to find the needed supplies.  You can pick and choose how you go through the book without causing major problems.  

I do want to mention that the ARTistic Pursuits Inc. website does sell art packs as well.  There are three art packs to choose from for the particular level we used.  

We love how colorful the pages inside our physical book are.  Not only is it full color for the projects we’re working on but it’s full color for the original art work that we’re studying as well.  It’s engaging and definitely captures my children’s imagination and attention.  

The first section is on what artists do.  They compose, they imagine, etc.  It’s a great way to introduce art to a preschooler(or any child) and help them also learn who artists are and what they really do besides just make nice paintings.  There are great discussions and questions for each piece of art and step by step instructions on how to correctly use the technique being taught.  

For the artists imagine section of the book we worked with watercolors.  Not watercolor paints but watercolor crayons.  This was a totally new experience for my kids but they loved it!  Watercolor crayons were something that I did not have around the house so I had to purchase those.  We skipped this lesson until those came and it didn’t cause any problems with our art program.  We did talk about how artists imagine as we went through this section of the book and then came back for a more indepth look and to do the art project.

If you’re interested in seeing other grades and titles from this homeschool art program please feel free to hop on over to the Main TOS Crew Blog where you’ll find reviews of other levels and titles from other crew reviewers.  You can also find ARTistic Pursuits Inc on Facebook.