We love art and working on art projects. When the opportunity to review a project DVD from See the Light came up we were all very excited. We received the Dreams of Joseph DVD. This is from their Art Projects line. These DVDs are $14.99 each or $12.50/month for a 9-month subscription. You can also purchase a 9 DVD set for $99.99
We have really enjoyed working through this project DVD. The project is divided over four lessons. The DVD has a menu so it is easy to jump right to lesson you need. In addition to the actual art instruction, we also learned about famous artist Marc Chagall. I really liked this art history/art appreciation addition to the lessons. Our favorite extra to “just art lessons” was the inclusion of Scripture. Relevant passages from Scripture were read by the instructor. These extras were woven throughout the lessons naturally and not something you often see (but should) in art instruction.
We watched the whole DVD through in one setting before we began. I’m glad we did. We have an ample stock of tempera paint which the webpage for this project lists in the supplies used. Upon viewing the DVD, the instructor, Pat Knepley, explained why the craft paint is preferable to the tempera paint. We chose to use posterboard for our project. This is easy to find and I cut each piece into four equal pieces. We’ll be using posterboard for more projects because this was so easy – easy on the budget, too!
You can break up this project in whatever way works best for you. You can choose to do one lesson per week, or do it all at once. You will need to allow drying time before you proceed to the next step. With the humidity, we found we could only get two lessons done in a day. After the initial viewing of the video, I felt comfortable letting my children do this on their own. They set up their paint palettes (paper plates) and all the tools they needed. The recommended age for this project is 10 and older. All of my children wanted to paint, but only the older three (9, 10 and 12) actually followed the instruction.
If I had walked through this with my son (age 7) he could have done this, too. He wanted to do his own thing the first two lessons, but then wished he had followed the instruction when it came to painting Joseph’s colorful robe and the details. The great thing? We can pull this out anytime and do it again. He can follow the directions and the older girls can do a new project. We can take the style learned, another Scripture passage for inspiration and make a new piece of art.
There are many ways to use these Art Project DVDs from See the Light. You could add a project as the featured artist ties in with other studies. You could use the subscription plan and have art covered for the school year, doing a lesson a week. If your family attends traditional schools but has had art cut like so many schools have, this would be an easy way to add it in on your own. Art is something all children enjoy and should be encouraged to explore.
Other Schoolhouse Review Crew families reviewed various Project DVDs. Be sure to check out all the reviews to learn more about what is offered.
Thank you See the Light!
