Homeschool Curriculum Review - See The Light Art Lessons

Several weeks ago I came across the site See The Light Shine and their art curriculum.  From the previews of the art DVD's this curriculum looked like something my daughter (and I) would love, and I am pleased to say, we do love this curriculum very much!  I wanted to give you an honest review of it in case you are looking for an excellent art curriculum for your student.

The first thing I love about the See The Light Shine Curriculum is that it's integrated with the Bible.  Their Bible Story DVD's teach art by taking kids through Bible stories and having them illustrate scenes or concepts from the story.  We have the 'God's Runaway' DVD which is about Jonah.  There's an illustrated Bible story (my 6 year old loved it and watched it 3 times before we even got to the art lessons, and I was impressed with it's quality), and then there are three lessons based on the story, as well as extra videos.  She especially liked the lesson on creative lettering, where she drew a whale and wrote 'Obey' in it's mouth.  See The Light Shine's other DVD art courses also integrate the Bible even though they may not be based on a specific story.

The next thing I love about these art DVD's is how easy they are.  My 6 year old loves to draw but has never had any instruction in drawing before.  The lessons are so easy and step by step that it's impossible not to be able to follow them.  Our next purchase from them will be their Year 1 Art Class Fundamentals set, which starts out teaching kids how to hold a pencil for drawing and how to make certain types of lines, and works all the way up to more advanced skills.  You can check out one of the lessons below:

Some of the lessons on the God's Runaway DVD were a little too involved for my 6 year old, but she was able to get through a lot of it.  The main reason we didn't complete one of the lessons all the way through was just because we didn't have the black light, which you can buy for just a few dollars from the See The Light Shine website.  Instead of using the blacklight and neon colored pencils, she chose her own colors of colored pencils, and completed the art project that way.  She loved the result, and it now hangs on the fridge where she shows it off to anyone who comes over.

Because it's video instruction, I set her up with her art supplies and turned the DVD onto the lesson she wanted to do.  I gave her the remote and she was able to pause it when she needed to so she could take her time to follow the step by step instructions.  When she was ready to move on, she would hit the play button and keep going.  Because we started this DVD in the summer instead of during our regular school year, she's had time to watch the lessons several times and has enjoyed doing the art projects over and over, getting better results each time.  She actually prefers watching the lesson once all the way through without her art supplies, and then watching it again with her art supplies ready to draw so she knows what's going on and what she's expected to do.

I want to mention here how positive the teachers are in these courses.  They make it fun to watch and easy to follow.  I don't know if I would recommend the courses for someone under the age of 6, but I would definitely recommend the See The Light Shine curriculum to students ages 6-19.  I think that even students who have had some instruction in art before would benefit from these courses.

My daughter and I are both looking forward to doing the Art Class year 1 course this year for first grade, and as soon as we're done with those we'll get some of the Art Project DVD's like the one on cartooning.  I'm also looking forward to the art history she'll be learning throughout the year in these courses.

To recap:

The Positives

- Easy step by step that kids ages 6-19 can follow

- Bible integrated

- Interesting art projects and subjects

- Builds precept upon precept so kids start out with something easy and work up to more in depth techniques

- Positive teachers

- Can use similar art supplies if you don't have the exact ones they ask you to use

The Negatives

 - There really aren't any that I have found aside from that it's probably not suitable for children under the age of 6.

If you have any questions that I haven't answered, I'd love to answer them for you.  Leave your questions in the comments below.

Note: This is an honest review.  I have not received payment for this review.  I did receive a review copy of God's Runaway.

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