Up until now, art has always been a subject that we covered very haphazardly and with no plan at our house.  I would typically wake up one day and think, "We should do an art project today."  So, then, I would go and grab some art supplies from around the house, plunk them on the table, call the kids to come sit down, and just kind of wait to see what happened.

     We received a CD of Spears Art curriculum, a complete art curriculum for K-8th grade.  I was initially slightly overwhelmed by all of the projects included, but once I calmed down and realized that these were simply a large variety of options rather than a burdensome checklist of everything I needed to do, it was easier for me to handle.  I like the cd format, because I don't need more paper cluttering up my house!  However, if you are a person who prefers a hard copy, you can get that from them as well or print out hard copies yourself and put them in a notebook.

     The lessons are organized around the calendar, which I like because it makes for great seasonal decorations as well as great art lessons!  I also love that the curriculum is biblically based and focused on honoring God as our creator and reflecting His creativity by creating art.  Another nice thing is that art appreciation is included right alongside the projects.

     All of the projects can be completed with common art materials, so you don't have to hunt down obscure supplies.  This is a huge help to me as a busy mom who doesn't always plan ahead to go out and buy supplies!  The cd is $39.95, which comes out to less than $5 a year if used k-8th grade... I dont think I am going to find a better deal than that!  I felt it was flexible, too, to fit a variety of homeschooling styles.  A very structured family would likely appreciate all of the lesson plans and schedules of projects.  A more spontaneous family like mine might just pick and choose projects as they went along.  I feel it is a strength of the program that it could be used by pretty much anyone.

     I would love to get it together enough to have art, music, foreign language, etc.  all scheduled in to our regular homeschool week.  But, for now, I am still struggling to just get all of the "basics" in!  So, we will probably continue my haphazard method of the "Let's Do Some Art Today" approach.  But, instead of running arund gathering supplies, plunking them on the table, and saying, "Go to it, kids!", I will have actual projects we can work on with some actual learning about art involved.  So, for that, I thank Diane Spears for this great currciulum!

     Spears Art has a wonderful website you can view here, and as always, take a look at the rest of the Crew's reviews here.  Thanks!