Complimentary products provided for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.
Can I share with you one of the things that has made me the most uncomfortable as a parent? It’s art.
I know….many of you are going to think that’s completely ridiculous. With all the things out there to be petrified of as a parent, I’m going to get all nervous about art?!
But I have a feeling that somewhere out there, there are people reading this who are giving me a, “Me, too!” Somewhere along the way, and early on in my life, I decided that I wasn’t any good at art, and so I quit challenging myself and I pretty much avoided art if at all humanly possible. This is why people see art I have created with my girls and instantly assume that it was the 5-year-old who made it. Not kidding.
See?!
Here’s the deal, though: I REALLY don’t want my kids to develop the same fear I have of art, and I know that part of how I will keep that from happening is by making art a part of our daily lives. I have created an art space in our home which has been WONDERFUL because it keeps our materials easy to access. We have been doing art much more frequently since making that shift, so I highly recommend keeping your art suplies visible. Even with these changes, though, I still get very overwhelmed as I look through Pinterest for fun new art ideas. I’m never quite sure what is age appropriate or if the instructions are detailed enough for me to follow (8 times out of 10 they aren’t!).
And this is where the Home Art Studio comes in. I absolutely LOVE this program, you guys! Each DVD is designed to provide art curriculum for the school year (perhaps roughly 1 new lesson every 2 weeks). Ms. Volin serves as your art teacher and walks you through the steps to make your art. Since you are watching a DVD, it is easy to pause or even rewind if you need to see a step again.
Darah and I have been working through the Kindergarten DVD this summer as a way to help increase her confidence and her art skills. And yeah, as a way to increase mine, too. That’s right, friends: I’m working my way through kindergarten art. And no, it’s not too easy for me. The lessons are challenging to Darah, as well, but they are certainly doable, especially with an adult on hand to help explain things. This wouldn’t be the kind of thing you’d sit your 6-year-old in front of and then leave the room while it played.
You, as the parent, also get lesson plans for each activity (they come on the DVD) so that you can know which supplies you need ahead of time and you can prepare the space for the lesson. Speaking of supplies, you can also buy everything you need for each year’s curriculum through the website, or you can simply pick and choose which items you might need based on your current art supply inventory. It is really nice having exactly what the art teacher in the video is using for her projects on hand, and I didn’t have to head to the dreaded craft supply store to try to figure it out myself. So I highly recommend that if you get one these DVDs you at least look over the supply list and see what you might want to buy. The prices are reasonable. 🙂
My time spent with Darah working on these art lessons has been absolutely precious to me. We’ve really bonded over our lessons! I’m there to encourage her when she gets frustrated and she truly beams with pride when she steps back and realizes that she finished a project. We have art hanging up all over the house now! Darah has even taken to hanging up the art I made in my room, which totally makes me smile. She wants me to be proud of my work, too! 🙂 I am planning on buying the first grade Home Art Studio DVD once we are finished with the Kindergarten set. This is some truly fantastic material, whether you are homeschooling or simply seeking some enrichment opportunities. It is doing wonders for my daughter, and it’s doing wonders for me, too. First grade art, here I come! 😉
Win it! One VERY lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win the entire Home Art Studion curriculum collection (DVDs for K-5, which is a $180 value!). You can work your way through them with your kids or grandkids, and then pass them on to someone else to enjoy. It’s like a gift that keeps on giving!
Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of the blog.
Kindergarden sunflowers
We’d love the kindergarden set… looks amazing!!
Kindergarten Sunflowers.
since my daughter is going into the 3rd grade this year she would love the Optical illusion Lesson.
MY DAUGHTER loves art so much I would love to win this for her..
My daughter enjoys doing art work so this would be perfect for her to work with.
1st Grade Aboriginal Dot Painting looks so nice
My kids would love to make the Three Dimensional Oil Pastel Flower.
My kids and I love being artsy!
I am always looking for more ways to let my children be crazy and crafty! I feel like these would help me help them!
This would be great to keep my nephew occupied. he would have a lot of fun with this.
I love that the DVD that comes with it features a actual art teacher. My son and daughter would both enjoy this as I admit I would too.
I would like to use these DVDs for inspiration for projects for my kids. I’m always looking for rainy-day activities to entertain them.
I would get the Kindergarten one! This would be so awesome for my son! He is so artistic. I love to do things like this also. It would provide some great bonding time 🙂
This is super cool! My kiddos love doing art projects.
love to try the giraffe painting/drawing lesson
I would choose the 5th grade package.
My kids are always creating. I would love for them to have a more formal instruction to further cultivate their skills!
My love son loves anything to do with art. He would love this.
This is an amazing kit!
My granddaughter is very creative and would love this. I am the least arty person on the planet so I need this 🙂
What a fun kit! Anything that can encourage creativity and the arts is a winner in my book!
It would be great to have projects to do when my grandbaby visits.
What a fantastic set of supplies. We could get really creative with all of this!
Love to win this my daughter loves making thing and drawing for me .
This would be so much fun. I can think of tons of stuff we could do.
This looks like so much fun for small children.
i want to try the 2nd Grade Three Dimensional Oil Pastel Flower Lessons
art is hard for me too, but it is a lot of fun and it is great for the kids!
My daughter would love this! She’s a huge craft fan!
Great post! Love the pics!
Oh my goodness, this would be so helpful to our homeschool. I really stink at art. My kids love it, but I just don’t know how to teach them.
My kids are super artistic. I just love all the things they create.
Great stuff!
This is so cool
Great for winter 🙂
My husband is an art teacher so we encourage our girls to be creative. These sets look like they’d be so much fun for kids (and maybe adults, too!).
We would like to try the 2nd Grade Three Dimensional Oil Pastel Flower Lessons.
What an awesome idea to have an art space at home for the kids and adults!
This would be so much fun to do with the kids. We could have hours & hours of fun.
3rd Grade Optical Illusion Art.. looks so cool
Forget my son, I would love this! Lol but I know he would very much enjoy this also.
I would love to try the 3rd grade Optical Illusion Art please. kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com Thank you.
My niece and nephew would LOVE this!! I’m not good at art either, so I feel you. Maybe this would help them. Have you seen the coloring books for adults, by the way? They use colored pencils and they turn out AWESOME!! You might try that too. kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com Thank you.
I love this. We homeschool and sometimes it’s difficult to teach real art and not just crafting.
My son would love this!
My granddaughter would love this
This is amazing would love for my daughter and my nieces!
My kids would absolutely love this! We do crafts atleast twice a week. We make all kinds of things, paperbackswa monsters, bookmarks, and popsicle stick homes 🙂
My niece would enjoy this
This is so great my son just turned 4 it would be perfect to start this… I love art.
I love the 2nd Grade Three Dimensional Oil Pastel Flower!
the 3rd Grade Optical Illusion Art looks really fun for both the kids and me!
what great products–man, I want to keep some of this for myself!!
These look great! Thanks so much for the chance!
My kiddos would have such a blast with this I would love to try Kindergarten Sunflowers
This looks like so much fun! And perfect for Home schooling
My daughter loves art she would be thrilled to have this
all of these look fantastic!
I love how there are different types of things to create art with besides the usual suspects(crayons,markers). This would be great to introduce to my child and her friends for a fun creative day!
I would love to win this. My little one won’t have art in school next year and I have been looking for something we can do together.
I would love to do this with my Grandson Landin!
pattifritz2000 at yahoo dot com
I would love to win this for my grandchildren
Kindergarten Sunflowers
1st Grade Aboriginal Dot Painting.
My kids love art.
I homeschool so this would be fantastic. Thank you
This would be great to have a deeper art experience and learn more
3rd Grade Optical Illusion Art!
This looks like something kids would really enjoy!
I would love to try the Kindergarten Sunflowers
My son has loved to color and draw and paint since the day he grabbed his first crayon from his big brother. I think this would be wonderful for him.
Wish we did more art projects (I’m a little intimidated by them.)
This “art start” for a child would be a great stepping stone to enjoying art, and the enrichment would be priceless!
I would love to do this with my Grandkids!
What a fun family activity!
What an amazing art set! My boys would love this.
I’d love to win something like this to use with my two nieces. I’m not artistic at all. They love to do crafts and are more artistic than I am. My sister, their mom is an artist. She does it as a hobby and she does beautiful work so I tell my nieces that’s where they get it from.Thank you for the chance 🙂
they would like to try the free 5th Grade Clown Fish
my older grandchildren would love this,they are very good at art
I am like you and not one for art, I am the least artistic in my family. One sister who is crafty, one who sings and plays instruments, a mom who sews and quilts and does crafts. I got none of that. But my girls love crafts, I just never participate. This would do it, if it tells me what I need and what to do I could probably even become somewhat crafty. Thanks for sharing this! 🙂
Wow! The kids would think this is great! They’re already taking art classes and this would be a wonderful addition 🙂
My oldest would love to do the 3rd grade optical illusion lesson with me (looks pretty difficult, though!)
I love doing art with my kids. Cleaning up the mess afterwards, well, that’s a different story. This curriculum looks amazing!
Three Dimensional Oil Pastel Flower
Wow! I love how it encourages art in such an enriching way!