ARTistic Pursuits | A Review

My family had the chance to review the ARTistic Pursuits art curriculum over the past few weeks.

My son loves art so we were thrilled to be given this FUN opportunity!

For our review, we received the Early Elementary K-3, Book 3: Modern Painting and Sculpture by ARTistic Pursuits. This book is geared towards children ages 5 and up who are in Kindergarten through 3rd grade. The curriculum currently costs $47.95. This price includes just the book, not the art supplies.

What Is ARTistic Pursuits?

ARTistic Pursuits is an art curriculum geared towards use in the home, perfect for homeschools. The curriculum covers art history as well as art techniques.

The ARTistic Pursuits Early Elementary K-3, Book 3: Modern Painting and Sculpture contains 36 lessons with projects. The book contains an entire school year of content if one lesson is completed each week.

Each lesson contains about two pages of art history, discussion questions, extra book and video suggestions, and an art project.

In the photo below, you can see that the art history section of the lesson is brief, making it easy for children with short attention spans to remain interested. The extra book and video suggestions are located in the red box at the bottom of the first page. The discussion questions are located after the reading at the end of the second page.

The third page contains the art project. The materials are outlined in the blue box making it easy to see what supplies to gather for each particular project. The examples are clear and the illustrations are colorful.

Our book covered Impressionist Painting and Sculpture and Modern Painting and Sculpture.

Some topics covered in our text included Cubism, Expressionism, Realism, and Fauvism.

Some of the artists featured included Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cassatt, Van Gogh, and O’Keefe.

How We Used ARTistic Pursuits

My kids were so excited about using this curriculum that we started each day off with an art lesson during our review period!

I used this curriculum primarily with my 3rd grader, although my preschooler loved participating in the lessons with us as well.

I read the art lesson aloud and then we answered the discussion questions together. The questions presented are usually answered by studying an artist’s work. The questions would prompt us to notice details and techniques in the masterpiece that we might not otherwise have noticed.

After the reading, we got out our art supplies and started the hands-on project!

Although the list of art supplies needed is extensive, the lessons and projects themselves are self-explanatory and easy to teach, not requiring any preparation work on the part of the teacher.

My kids enjoyed the lessons and the projects and created a wonderful variety of artwork!

They enjoyed working with new art supplies such as gouache paint and oil pastels.

This art curriculum helped my kids go beyond their comfort zone, explore new techniques, and grow their abilities.

My Final Thoughts

We really enjoyed the lessons and projects included in this art curriculum. My kids loved starting out our day with a fun art lesson. It was a treat for them as well as for me. This curriculum is a great way to incorporate more art into your day.

My favorite thing about this curriculum is that it’s an open and go type curriculum. No preparation work is required on my part. The lessons were clearly laid out and it was easy to get started immediately.

My biggest disappointment with this curriculum was the text itself. Although the front of the curriculum says “newly expanded and revised” there were spelling errors and typos riddled throughout the book. As seen in the photo below, commas were missing in places that desperately needed them in order to make sense of a statement. Some sentences were broken in the middle, missing the entire second half of a sentence. I also found spelling errors and typos.

Lastly, for a book that is almost $50 dollars, the quality wasn’t what I was hoping for. The pages were not printed back to back. Each page was printed on only one side. It looked and felt as though it had been printed on a home printer.

Although we enjoyed the activities, I’m not sure if this is the right art curriculum for us. I think I need something a little more professional and polished. The typos I encountered really bothered me and tripped me up. However, if you can overlook the imperfections this curriculum may have, you may find that this art curriculum is a lot of fun! 

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