Spears Art Studio

For as long as I can recall, Genius has been coloring, drawing, sculpting, cartooning, and most recently graphic designing, whenever she has a spare moment. The thought of teaching art, beyond the construction paper and paste though, made me slightly nauseous, and so since it is not a requirement in our state until high school, I put it aside.

However, that all changed when the package from Spears Art Studio Inc arrived. If you are looking for a curriculum to teach your children art from a Biblical World View, you need look no further. This one’s gold.

The curriculum comes in either a hard copy version or a cd-rom. And one copy will serve you teach your children from grades K – 8. So whether you’re multi-level teaching, or want to use the curriculum year after year, Spears has you covered. What a great investment.

This is so well laid out and organized for the teacher; it would make a perfect art class for a homeschool co-op as well. There are 35 weekly themes, and the activities vary by age, however they all stem off the same theme, so it’s easy to adapt or adjust depending on grade or ability level. The curriculum is packed with Scripture, art history and core subject connections, all tied together by Diane who is an Ed.D. Christian Education Artist.

A typical lesson starts with the thematic Scripture verse; art term vocabulary and teaching a concept. One of our favorite lessons was one that dealt with monochromatic color tones, templates and the color wheel. Using few materials we had a great learning experience and created a work of art. (Okay both of us learned, but Genius created!).

Here are two of the projects she did –

From the unit titled Color Studies – the project is Painted DesignAnd from Trees of Righteousness – the project Pointillism Trees
I was also blessed to receive the High School Art Survey to review.

This is a full year course with accreditation option, so perfect for that fine arts course credit that your high schooler may need.

This course is so much more than art for the student, the Scripture and themes that run through it are an awesome spiritual teaching tool as well.

The instructions to the assignments are clear, and while there will be some parental involvement required (gathering materials and what not), really it’s pretty minimal.

Divided into 36 weeks, a typical lesson will have the objectives, Scripture, vocabulary, art history, sketch book, visual memory exercises, techniques of the lesson, supplies and activities.All of the lessons are done so at the end of the course the national standards are met.There is also provided tests for each unit, and answer keys for the teacher.

In case you haven’t figured out by now, that I am absolutely in love with this curriculum, let me state it again….I LOVE THIS ART CURRICULUM. I am no longer overwhelmed by the thought of teaching art, and Genius is thrilled to be doing it! I feel confident that the work is up to the standards that are expected, and with a Christian emphasis and focus it is even better.

If you have been struggling with art lessons in your home, or just haven’t been doing them because you have no idea where to start, I suggest you pick up this curriculum.The Cdrom in pdf is $39.95 for the K-8 version and $29.95 for the high school. If you prefer hard copy curriculum, it is available, but at a steeper price. Diane also offers package prices if you order the elementary and the high school curriculum together. If you are interested in viewing some lessons there are some links to the pdf documents on her site to show you how the program is set up.

Thank you so much Diane, for making art come alive in our home, we have one happy middle schooler because of it!