I love homeschooling Grasshopper, but I’ll admit I don’t know everything! Art is one subject where quite frankly, I don’t have a clue. My artistic abilities don’t go beyond drawing stick people. Therefore, my ability to teach art lessons is seriously lacking. Art was a course I knew I would need to outsource for our homeschool.
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Homeschoolers today have an unbelievable amount of resources readily available at our fingertips for these types of situations. The resources we have access to today really means our inability to teach a subject really shouldn’t prevent us from homeschooling. Let’s be honest, if I were to teach an art class it wouldn’t go beyond mixing colors and drawing stick people. Our kids deserve better art lessons than I could offer. This is why I was thrilled when I learned of Sparketh Online Art Lessons.
Our kids deserve better #artlessons than I could offer @sparketh was the answer #ihsnet #homeschoolart Click To TweetThe Need for Art Lessons
Grasshopper has a very creative mind (common for dyslexics). On rare occasions he would color in coloring books, but he always preferred to make his own creations. He loves to draw. In fact in preschool he went through a phases of drawing transformers. He had so many drawings his bedroom wall was literally covered in them!
I’ve come to realize that art is a calming outlet for Grasshopper. When you find a calming outlet for an out-of-the-box kid like Grasshopper, you embrace it.
While his art skills did improve simply with time, I knew I needed to find a way to bring art lessons to our homeschool.
Our Unique Needs In Art Lessons
Due to Grasshopper’s ADHD and the fact that he can be overly critical of himself (sometimes I would say perfectionist), we needed a gentle approach to art lessons. We needed a program that would keep him on track without a lot of downtime. I was also looking for art classes that didn’t push perfection.
Also, because of his characteristics, I wanted a program where we could pick and choose which projects or lessons we would take. Forcing a particular lesson on him when he wasn’t interested in it, or was too complicated for him would end in a meltdown.
Since I obviously wasn’t teaching Grasshopper any art previously, we also needed something that taught at the basic level.
How Sparketh Online Art Lessons Met Our Needs
Sparketh is a pretty new resource for online art lessons. It was launched in July of 2015, but they have an amazing amount of content on their site. Plus, they’re are continuously adding more courses for all levels of ability. Grasshopper has yet to get bored with this program (which is saying a lot).
What I loved most about these online art lessons was the way the courses were set up. First, you can pick and choose which lesson you want to take rather than being forced to draw what the lesson plan said we need to do today. This is huge for Grasshopper. He has no interest in drawing flowers, so forcing that type of a lesson on him would not go over well. However, he did enjoy picking the course on drawing an airplane. See the difference? He’s still learning art skills, but on a project he would enjoy!
Sparketh art lessons also kept up a good pace. If you have an ADHD child, I don’t have to explain to you how a couple seconds of downtime can really derail your child’s focus and interest! I love how the courses kept a good steady pace, yet it was easy to pause the video to allow Grasshopper to catch up to the instructor.
Another key factor was the gentle instructions. The instructors of the art lessons were informative but also allowed for the students to add their own twists with things like color choices and adding backgrounds.
Grasshopper never got frustrated when following along with the art lessons. He never felt inadequate or that his creations weren’t good enough.
I Don’t Feel Clueless Anymore!
Even I participated in an a couple art lessons myself. I have to admit, I really enjoyed doing them (and I am not an artistic person). It has been a fun activity to do along side Grasshopper, and I’ve learned a few basic art techniques myself.
We will definitely be adding Sparketh Online Art Lessons to our Third Grade Curriculum.
Want a Free Trial?
Who am I kidding? Everyone loves a free trial before purchasing a curriculum! If you think your kids would enjoy these online art lessons as much as we have, you can sign up for a free one month trial.
If you want to know more about Sparketh Online Art Lessons, follow them on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
It’s nice to be able to pick the art lessons you would like to do. I encountered the same thing when an art class had my sons paint flowers. The pictures came out great, but they preferred to paint something like “Starry Night” by Van Gogh.
I love “Starry Night” one of my favorites!