Homeschooling and Creativity Go Hand-in-Hand

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Art has always been one subject our teenage son has been interested in but – after an overview and history of art course in public school – we were afraid he had lost interest in the art world. It turns out that he would rather work with a camera and photographs at this time in his creative life. So I was very excited to discover Image Editing and Creation from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. This 36-week online course is geared for grades 6-12 and teaches the basics of editing and manipulating an image. The course uses a free software program – GIMP – at the core to teach the students about image editing and creation.

Photo unedited 

Our son has been working through the 36-week lessons, learning about the basics of GIMP, color alteration, and the sharpening and blurring of images. In order to take the course, we had to download GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) onto our desktop. This process was very easy, especially considering a recent computer crash resulted in our "new" computer being one put together from many others. Once our son familiarized himself with the program through the early lessons, he has enjoyed the different assignments. He edited a photo that he took of his younger brother to create a series of color altered photos as well as edited some at my request for this post.

Color Enhanced 

What We Added 

So far, the only thing I have added was quizzes that I created based upon the vocabulary in the lessons. I haven't felt the need to add any other other assignments at this time.

Our teen has used both images from the Internet and photographs he has taken himself in the course. I find this provides a perfect opportunity to discuss copyright and plagiarism with him as well as to introduce him to sites that offer free images for commercial use. 

SchoolhouseTeachers.com – A Great Resource to Foster Creativity 

Every Subject! Every Grade! Every Student! 

Image Editing and Creation is just one of the many great elective courses available at SchoolhouseTeachers.com. They offer a variety of unique elective courses including courses available in other subjects that are often used as electives: art, computer and technology, drama and speech, health & fitness, and music!