Art History for All Ages: A Review of Have I Got a Story For You! Downloadable Art History Video Series (Renaissance)

 

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this digital download from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Are you looking to incorporate art history into your homeschool curriculum? We found Have I Got a Story For You! to be a wonderful way to introduce art history curriculum into our homeschool lessons without too much muss and fuss. And because Have I Got a Story For You! is designed to be used with children across multiple age ranges, I am able include both our children in the lessons. 

"Mrs. Beth and her animated drop of paint, Gasfy, will introduce your students/children to artists that influenced these art periods. Through creative storytelling and silly antics, Mrs. Beth and Gasfy make the artists and their masterpieces come alive."

About Have I Got a Story For You! 

There are four different art history curriculums from Have I Got a Story For You! available through Timberdoodle, including the Renaissance Series, the Baroque Series, the Impressionist Series, and the Post-Impressionist Series. We were able to review the Renaissance Series in our homeschool. 

The Renaissance Series includes:

• One introductory video, "Who Needs a Flea Collar?" 
• Five videos on da Vinci
• Four videos on Michelangelo
• Two videos on Raphael
• 12 lesson plans that align with the videos 
• "Name that Artist" PowerPoint Game
• Downloadable Flashcards (da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, instructions for the Flashcards, and Flashcards cover)

How We Used Have I Got a Story For You! in Our Homeschool 

I have introduced this art history curriculum into our daily routine a few days a week. We watched the video one day and worked on one of the suggested art activities. I then choose other activities in the lesson plan to do throughout the week. 

Our Thoughts

I remember taking an art history course in college to fulfill my art requirement. We studied ancient art from prehistory through Roman history. We spent a lot of time reading about the pieces, but I don't really remember a lot from the course itself. The things I remember the most are those which brought life to the art pieces, which included two field trips that students took on their own to local museums (without the teacher).

Have I Got a Story For You! art history course jumps to life with the powerful stories shared by Mrs. Beth and Gasfy. Even though our children are not seeing the Renaissance works in person, they are seeing a variety of pieces through the video lessons, and we have the opportunity to further research using the lesson plans. 

I also appreciate the fact that this course is not just about art history. There are also plenty of opportunities for our children to learn new art techniques and put those skills into practice. For example, one of the first activities we did was to draw pictures after we learned about perspective. 

Lesson Plans 

What do the lesson plans bring to this art history curriculum? They are a valuable part of this fun video series! 

• Great table of contents in the Lesson Plans PDF 
• Objectives included for each episode
• Multiple art and extracurricular activities to pick from (including group activities and activities for advanced students) 
• Vocabulary word list (great for spelling lists) 
• Critical thinking questions that could even be developed into essays
• References to the HiGASFY Pinterest board in the activities 

Art and Extracurricular Activities 

Just what types of activities can you find in this section of each plan? How can you incorporate these questions into your homeschool day? 

• For those students who want to practice art skills, there are multiple art activities, including drawing, painting, sculpting, and even creating a fresco! 
• Hands-on activities are included, such as creating a buckler, making paper airplanes, and more. 
• History-related research projects
• Geography 
• Science activities that ask your students to make their own play dough, make a slingshot, or examine the illnesses of the 15th century. 
• Writing activities that include critical thinking questions with each lesson.

Video Component 

One of the best parts of this particular art history curriculum are the videos with Mrs. Beth and Gasfy. They are delightful and engaging. The videos are clear and easy to watch. I previewed the first several ones before sharing with our children. I found that the second time I watched them, I picked up more information. I love homeschool curriculum that allows you to learn more the second time you go through it. 

Final Thoughts 

Our children are really enjoying this art history curriculum from Timberdoodle. They think Gasfy is just the cutest thing. I really appreciate that Mrs. Beth is introducing difficult topics (studying the Black Death is no easy task in elementary school) in an interesting way. Our children have been able to learn about the Renaissance time period while incorporating new art techniques into their repertoire. 

I would recommend Have I Got a Story for You! (Renaissance Series) for families who are both homeschooling and those who have children in public or private school. The work is fun and interesting while teaching art history. The lessons are easy to add into your regular homeschool schedule, or they would be perfect for a summer break where you want to continue schooling on the light side. Your children will learn more than they realize by watching the videos and completing activities you assign them. This is a very easy art history curriculum to make your own. 

Art for the Whole Family: A Review of Beyond the Stick Figure Art School

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

For the past several weeks our family has been working through the Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course PLUS 3 Bonus Courses together. These courses are offered by Beyond the Stick Figure Art School and can be by everyone in your household. It is designed to be used as a daily program for the homeschool year but we have been working on different parts in a quicker fashion as fits our needs and homeschool style. With over 60 lessons, we can incorporate art into almost every day of our homeschooling week.  

What is Beyond the Stick Figure Art School? 

Working on the premise that famous artists use techniques and skills that they have learned and practiced, your family will learn the very basics of drawing that they then can take with them into more artwork. The person behind Beyond the Stick Figure is Sally who is from England (so expect an English accent while you are learning your art!). She homeschools her children and wants to share her passion for art with other homeschooling families. 

What Are the Courses? 

There are four courses that we have access to for the review: 

• The Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course 
• The Complete Pen & Ink and Watercolor Course
• Introduction to Acrylic Course 
• Introduction to 3D Design Course 

The courses focus on techniques that you can use to develop your drawing skills using various materials. In the first drawing course, the short videos are sometimes accompanied with PDFs to download for drawing, tracing, and practice.

There is a list of materials that you will need to purchase before you begin creating your art that is now available before you start looking at any lessons. You can then view specific videos within the courses that show and discuss the necessary materials. (For example, Acrylic Part 2 Materials, you can view the video that shows the paintbrushes, paints, and other items you will need to create a beautiful brown and white lake scene.)

We had to pick and choose which supplies to purchase for the review of Beyond the Stick Figure courses. As our teenager was going to be working on the painting portion of the course with me, we spent the money we allocated to the course on those supplies. In the future, we will purchase the marker set but with the current state of things we were unable to purchase them. We also had to substitute a few other things (like picking a different color paint) due to being able to go to the craft stores and online supplies being limited. (Personally, I don't think using a different color for our watercolor painting was too detrimental.)

The picture was supposed to be drawn with a black fine point sharpie marker but I couldn't find ours anywhere in the house!

How are the courses set up? When you log into the site, you will see that you need to go through each lesson and watch the videos and then mark them as complete. You cannot skip ahead to the further courses (I went through and marked the courses as complete so we can do the different drawing and painting lessons. This was a bit time-consuming.)

Here you can see the parts of the course are listed to the left side of the screen.
There are a couple of ways to navigate once you have checked off courses as completed. 

But beyond getting the materials you need ready (purchasing or printing out documents) and have accessing to the lessons online, Beyond the Stick Figure Art School can be very easy for homeschooling parents. There is no need to write out lessons or spend time doing the teaching yourself. The instructions are provided in each video.

How Are We Using the Courses in Our Homeschool? 

Our younger children and I are working on the beginning Drawing Courses. There are three parts to the Drawing Course which focuses on the basics of drawing. Our children have been drawing straight lines, curved lines, circles, and dots. They then took those skills and worked on drawing abstract pictures and flowers.

I really like that the children work on 8 x 11.5 papers cut into fourths. It makes it a lot easier to provide them with page after page for drawing as well as being less intimidating, as is talked about in the lessons. (You aren't staring at a huge drawing page that you have to fill.)

For many of the beginning lessons, our children worked on mastering drawing lines and shapes.

There were also some parts in the early lessons of the Drawing course where children practiced dots, circles, straight lines, and curved lines. We printed out the pages for our younger son to complete included pages that examined primary and secondary colors.

I watched and completed the first Pen & Ink drawing myself. I plan on working on the second one from Part 2 but I need to purchase tracing paper prior to completing the tree scene. I also went through and watched the Introduction to Acrylic Course videos.

I am really looking forward to completing this painting. I just need the tracing paper!

I am looking forward to painting with acrylics. 

At the end of each course, there is a rubric that you can download so you can determine how well you think you did during the course. The rubric focuses upon self-reflection. So, if your children are younger, you may want to complete it with them.

Our teen and I sat down to complete the watercolor course together. As we did not have access to the recommended gray color paint, we each choose a different color to create our small painting. I think I will have fun practicing this painting more and more to get the technique and details to my liking.

What Are We Looking Forward To?

Our teen son and I are looking forward to working with acrylics. This part of the course is in three parts. We have about half of the supplies we need but with the current state of affairs, it has been difficult to get all the materials suggested or needed. I have gone through and watched them. I can't wait till I can start to practice painting a lovely sky, a mountain scene using brown and white, and another lovely countryside scene.

The final course, which we have not started, is on 3D Design. There are three parts to this course. I think our children will enjoy working on this part as they will get to create an animal.

There are a few things that I feel could make the online courses even better that mostly deal with navigation. I wish that the lessons were labeled with more detail. As in Watercolor Part 1, Day 9: Foreground. It would make it easier to navigate back to lessons when taking a break. And while I understand the skills taught in the courses are meant to build upon each other but it is difficult when one child wants to work on art while another is more interesting in painting. We had to go through and click complete on parts of the courses we actually had not finished yet. Perhaps each course could be individual rather than be grouped together.   

The lessons are full of some great advice – including a video just for moms (or dads) that encourages us as parents to not crush the spirit of our children when they are going through the lessons. Another piece of advice I enjoyed hearing was that of not squeezing the paintbrushes in the paper towel. Never thought anything of doing that till watching the videos at Beyond the Stick Figure. I really think everything is presented in a very clear manner to help those who are not used to drawing or working with the different types of paint or clay used in the courses. If you are looking for a beginners course to help you or your children get started as artists, Beyond the Stick Figure Art School will be a great resource for your homeschool.

Do You Want to Learn More?

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There were many families who had the chance to review the Beyond the Stick Figure Art School courses. Be sure to check out the Homeschool Review Crew reviews!

Art of the Ancients – a Review of ARTistic Pursuits Inc.

Looking for a fun and creative way to bring art into your homeschooling experience? ARTistic Pursuits Inc. is "the curriculum for creativity!" Choosing from several different volumes (K-3rd Grade Level, Volumes 1-8), families can easily bring art into their home even if they are not artistic or creative. Last year, our family reviewed the introductory volume, Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary and this year we are using Art of the Ancients, K-3 Vol. 2 to learn about the ancient Mediterranean World and create art representative of the styles of Ancient Greece, Egypt, and other cultures of the time.

It is recommended that one starts with Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary, K-3 Volume 1  and then you can either follow chronological order through volumes 2-8 or you can skip to any historical period that interests you or your children. These volumes from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. provide families with a four-year course from kindergarten to third grade with one art lesson a week planned for you with text and video lessons.

All the materials needed are laid out in the beginning of the book. I simply took the book with me to the arts and crafts store to purchase the items we required. While some of the suggested brands are not always found at your local store, we found what we needed on this trip so we could get started with the lessons.

What Do You Get?

One hard cover volume
2 discs (one blu-ray and one DVD)

Instructions for 18 projects
12 Text Lessons
6 Video Lessons

A list of materials needed from the art materials that we purchased (such as a soft pastel set, 5 lbs. of gray self-hardening clay, and a wire clay cutter) to household items like paper towels and hairspray.

Many of the text lessons also provide instructions for teaching the lesson outside of the home environment to a group of children.

How Much Time Does It Take?

"Each lesson is simple. It takes only ten minutes of your time, and yet your involvement is crucial to learning."


Reading through each lesson with your children and watching accompanying video lessons does not take a lot of time. The majority of the time will be while your children are creating their art. During this time, you can either observe, help, or join in like I have in the past.

Depending upon how much time and effort your child puts into each art project, the lessons can take from 15 minutes to an hour or more. Our five-year-old son usually spent about 30 minutes or so on each project from start to finish (not including the time we sat together and read the background history information). If your children are older, they might spend more time to perfect their art masterpieces.

How Did We Use Art of the Ancients in our Homeschool? 

Even though the lessons are geared for Kindergarten to Third Grade, our preschooler also joined in on the lessons as she likes to do everything her older brother does while homeschooling. The lessons themselves are not very difficult to adapt to complete with both our five-year-old and three-year-old. So, we focus upon the history-related information with our son and our daughter can join in with the drawing and sculpting.

The book is designed so you can do one lesson a week over the course of 18 weeks. We did not space it out in the same manner during our review period. There were some days where our children would happily do two lessons in one day – they were having so much fun!

As we had not used soft pastels in our home yet, we watched the first video lesson twice which instructed us on how to use them to draw pictures. This information would be invaluable for the next several lessons. Soft pastels were used in the lessons on European Cave Drawings, Minoan Fresco Painting, and Art in Pyramids (although we used regular crayons for this project) that we have completed so far.

Some of the kids' artwork using soft pastels 

Another art material we had not yet used in our home was the gray self-hardening clay. (The kids have played with play dough but not a more official art clay.) Our five-year-old son and my husband watched the video lesson together and then made their own hockey player as we love ice hockey (not football).

Art in Minoan Palaces lesson – our son chose a sheep to draw with the soft pastels.

What We Liked 

Just as with the review of the first volume, Art for Children, I really like that Art of the Ancients is a mix of video and text lessons. This provides a great way to meet the needs of a variety of learners. The video lessons are quite clear and both our five-year-old and three-year-old sat and watched the lessons together.

One of our son's favorite lessons was Clay: Slab Building. We watched the video and then with the help of Dad, he started creating his own figure – a hockey player. We had to make some adjustments as we did not have canvas or a rolling pin to use but everything still worked out okay. The only problem we had was that the arms and hockey stick did not adhere to the body figure. Perhaps they weren't scored properly as instructed in the video?

If we had used canvas as suggested in the video, our clay would not have stuck so badly.

Putting together the hockey player.

A finished project! 

The bright colors and images included with the text lessons make it easy to teach the lessons as if reading a story book. Our five-year-old son and I sat together on the couch and read through the history information before working on the art project. For example, before creating an Egyptian-inspired mural, we read the background information on art in pyramids and examined the mural Harvesting and Pressing Grapes using the questions provided in the book. Some of those questions include:

• How do men carry grapes from the vineyard? 
• Can you find jars used for storing the drink that was made from the grapes? 

After answering the questions, our son then made his own mural (inspired by a video game he has been playing lately).

Drawing one of the people on his wall mural.

Coloring in the first scene on the wall mural.

Working on the second scene on his wall mural.

The inclusion of objectives at the end of the book is a fantastic bonus for the homeschooling family. If you want to look for a particular art skill or history topic, you can review the 18 objectives and then pick the lesson to study. This would be beneficial in planning your homeschool schedule. 

I also like the inclusion of a bibliography and the fine art credits so if we wish to look for more information we have a starting point. 

How We Will Use Art of the Ancients in the Future 

As our two younger children get older and their art skills progress, we will be able to revisit the lessons in Art of the Ancients, K-3 Vol 2 as well as expand upon the history presented by doing additional research. Although I know the next project we will probably be doing is that of the Roman Portrait Paintings because our daughter has asked to draw pictures of ourselves. 

Our teen will be studying World History next homeschool year, so I will be able to incorporate some of the art projects into his lessons if he wishes to continue his pursuit of art. (He did join in the art projects last year when we reviewed Volume 1.) So even though the book is for grades K-3, we will be able to use the video lessons to review art techniques and then our teen son can create a clay relief as we study Mesopotamia or draw a portrait as we study Roman mummy portraits.

Art of the Ancients, K-3 Vol 2 is a wonderful hardcover book packed with 64 pages of great information and wonderful visuals! As each lesson includes a sample created image (either by Brenda Ellis or a student), children are sure to see that all art can be beautiful.

If you wish to learn more about ARTistic Pursuits Inc. and the other volumes in the series, you can visit the following sites including reviews by my fellow members of the Homeschool Review Crew.

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Reviewing ARTistic Pursuits, Inc.'s Art for Children

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew. 

Our family loves art. In fact, our teen has thought about a career in the arts, so we were very excited to review Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary from ARTistic Pursuits, Inc. There are several volumes available in the ARTistic Pursuits Art Instruction Books with DVD and Blu-Ray series including the one we reviewed (Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary). This provided a perfect opportunity to incorporate more formal art lessons into our homeschool day.

In the first lesson, our sons created drawings of two toys -
a mermaid and a knight using watercolor crayons.

Volume I is written with grades K-3 in mind and provides children with lessons that will build their visual vocabulary. It is suggested that students start with Volume 1 and then there are two options:

1. Follow history in chronological order through volumes 2-8 
2. Skip to any volume that features a historical period that interests you and your children

Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary contains a total of 18 projects that your children can create by following along with 12 text lessons and 6 video lessons. The text lessons are laid out with a title, notes for preparation, materials necessary, information, and sometimes master works along with student examples. The video lessons include an overview from Ariel Holcomb and actual step-by-step instructions from Brenda Ellis.

In order to start our lessons, we needed to make some purchases:

• Watercolor crayon set (which none of the arts & craft stores near us carried so we needed to order online) 
• Oil pastel set (which was available in each of the arts & crafts stores) 
• Watercolor paper pad 

We had the other necessary materials since our teen is interested in art and taking an art class in high school. While I knew we would need some supplies, I wish the first lesson would have started with something that only required a pencil and paper as we needed to wait for the arrival of our supplies.

The book is quite beautiful. I would say it is itself a work of art. It is a sturdy, hardcover book that comes with plastic pockets on the front cover for the DVD and Blu-Ray discs. The pages are of great quality and thick. When we lay the book open for a lesson, Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary lays flat with only a bit of pressure. 

Video Lessons 

The art instruction books contain both DVD and Blu-Ray discs so we were able to watch it on both our television and my laptop. The lessons are presented in an easy-to-follow and easy-to-remember format. In fact, each time we have worked with the watercolor crayons, our five-year-old son repeats the tips and instructions from the first video lesson. We are reminded to use the crayons gently, to not use too much water, to move the brush in one direction, and to clean up when we finished our project.

Looking through the book while waiting for the video lesson to start.

Lessons 

Personally, I love that each lesson stresses that our children's completed projects will be unique and look different from the sample projects. Often times, children can feel frustrated that their artwork does not resemble the sample but with this laid out clearly in the lessons, it provides an opportunity to talk about creativity and uniqueness.

Throughout Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary, there are discussions of what the arts are, how to compose, and how to observe, texture, shape, and form. I would have liked to have seen a separate glossary with some of these terms – perhaps to accompany the well-laid out objectives in the back of the book. 

Our son using watercolor crayons to draw his birthday party complete with Minecraft guests.

In addition to completing projects with our five-year-old and three-year-old, our teen participated in some of the projects – as did my mother, my husband, and me. We all liked the video instruction and the text instruction. 

Creating our art projects using the Construction Paper: Cut Lesson and video # 3.

During the review process, we completed six of the 18 projects including: 

• Introductory lesson to watercolor crayons with the first video lesson 
• Artists Compose using watercolor crayons 
• Artists Imagine using watercolor crayons 
• Identify and Mix Colors with video lesson number 2 (my children wanted to watch this lesson multiple times!) 
• Construction Paper: Cut with video lesson number 3 where we saw how Brenda created a landscape with construction paper, scissors, and glue
• Introductory lesson to oil pastels with the fifth video lesson 

Our son's watercolor crayon drawing of our house, from Lesson Two.

Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary introduces children to several artists and master artworks including:

• The Birthday (1915) by Chagall
• Flower Day (1925) by Rivera 
• The Sunflower (1906-1907) by Klimt



Our son's car drawing using oil pastels and following the
instructions from Lesson 11 and Video #5.

• Blue Dancers (1898) by Degas 

In the final lesson, children are taken through the steps to drawing a self-portrait using oil pastels. First you will take a look at Henry VIII by Holbein the Younger, answer several questions about the painting, and then they will draw their own portrait. I can't wait till we get to this lesson and to see how our children view themselves! 

Our five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter have both enjoyed completing the different art projects. In fact, our daughter has thanked me on more than one occasion for "doing art" with her.  

What I also like about Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary is the fact that it is very easy for parents to supplement the art projects and lessons. With the artists included, parents can share other artwork for further examples as well as ask their children to read biographies of the artists. 

In addition to a glossary, I would love a transcript of the videos or a set of instructions to accompany them. As a someone who prefers to read instructions, it would help me be a better teacher for my children.  My only other criticism is that it was very difficult to navigate the Blue-Ray disc. I had difficulty seeing which video lesson was selected. I did not find it any easier to use the DVD with my laptop but I think that is a matter of the program I was trying to use to access the video lessons. 

Even with a few minor difficulties, I would still heartily recommend Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary from the ARTistic Pursuits Art Instruction Books with DVD and Blu-Ray series. In the future, we will definitely be keeping an eye out for other works produced by ARTistic Pursuits, Inc. including Art of the Ancients and Art of the Middle Ages as we love history in our household! 

To learn more please visit: 

Website – Facebook – Twitter – ARTistic Pursuits Art Instruction Books with DVD and Blu-Ray

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