Art Projects Review: Sunflowers {+Giveaway}

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I can still remember career day in my 5th grade class. We had the cool teacher – she was a bit of a hippy. If we worked quietly, she’d play John Denver albums while we worked. We learned to square dance in her class. And, we had career day. I came dressed in an over-sized shirt and a red beret.

I wanted to become an artist.

I never did become an artist. I didn’t even take art class in high school. (I wish I had since I’ve learned, in the intervening years, that artistic ability isn’t all an inherited trait. It can, to an extent, be taught). Now, however, as a homeschool mom, I get to enjoy art with my kids…and we have enjoyed several Art Projects DVDs from See the Light.

Art Projects Review Sunflowers

Art Projects for Homeschool Art Lessons

The latest DVD project we’ve enjoyed is Sunflowers, a lesson in oil pastels in the style of, you guessed it, Vincent Van Gogh. You may or may not know that sunflowers are my favorites, so I particularly enjoyed this project.

As a mostly-unrelated aside, the Sunflowers art lessons gave me a great excuse to go buy a really pretty artificial sunflower. Because it was so pretty and so realistic-looking, I decided to just get an entire vase of them. Now, thanks to a couple of 40% off coupons and the Art Projects DVD, I get to enjoy beautiful sunflowers all the time – and my husband is so amazing that he still buys me the real thing from time to time.

sunflowers

But enough about me and my sunflowers. If you’ve seen my previous reviews, you know that each Art Projects DVD focuses on a different artist and a different artistic medium or style. We’ve done: Paper Jungle and the Tiffany Stained Glass project, as well as the cartooning DVD.

A bit unique among other types of art lessons, each See the Light lesson also seeks to point young artists to Jesus Christ by tying each lesson to a Biblical truth.

Because of Brianna’s work schedule and Josh’s serious lack of interest in art (he’s more of a musician), Megan and I tackled this project on our own – you know, mother/daughter bonding time.

Lessons Learned with See the Light Art Projects

Like the other DVDs in the series, Sunflowers has four lessons, each a little less than half an hour in length. Students will learn about art history and the life of Vincent Van Gogh while also exploring concepts such as:

  • Layering and composition
  • Negative space
  • Value
  • Working with oil pastels

As with the other projects we’ve explored, the materials needed are pretty simple and inexpensive. If you don’t have oil pastels or pastel paper, those will probably be your biggest expenses – unless, you know, you feel the need to buy yourself a vase full of big, beautiful sunflowers, but that’s completely optional.

Megan, typically, is a little disappointed that her projects don’t turn out like she envisioned. However, due to adding new layers of color each lesson, by the time this project was finished, she was really pleased with the way it turned out.

homeschool art lessons

She said that she liked learning the different techniques of using the oil pastels. I think that, ultimately, because you’re layering the colors, this medium may be a bit more forgiving than some of the others we’ve tried.

If you’d like to try the Art Projects Sunflower DVD, here’s your chance! The folks at See the Light are giving away one copy of the DVD to one Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers reader.

Follow the directions on the RaffleCopter widget below to enter. (RSS and email readers will need to visit the blog to enter.)

Rules: This giveaway is open to United States residents, ages 18 years and older only. Giveaway ends on Monday, September 2. The winner will be selected at random using Random.org via RaffleCopter.

The winner will notified via email and given 72 hours to respond. You must enter a valid email address to win. In the event that the winner cannot be contacted by email or does not respond within 72 hours, the prize will be forfeited and and alternate winner selected.

Click to read the complete rules. By entering this giveaway, you indicate that you have read and agreed to abide by these rules.

I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it.  I received no other compensation for this review.  The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions.  Your experience may vary. Please read my full disclosure policy for more details.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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61 Comments

  1. I’m really ready to try these DVD’s with my 7/8 grader. I’ve been to their website to check it out.

  2. This sounds like a great project for me! and the kids of course. They are more artistic than I but as I get older, I’ve tried more and more to let my inner artist come out. need to check this DVD out.

  3. What I wanted to be when I grew up was to be a happy loving mother. I think I have done that I’m happy most of the time my kids and I are doing fun thing all the time.

  4. I like the idea of the layering effect and progressive learning process – I think my homeschoolers will love it!

  5. I wanted to be a police officer (while I watched Chips or Miami Vice), a truck driver (while I watched BJ & the Bear), and a small-town Redneck (while I watched The Dukes of Hazzard)!…I guess the last one sort of stuck. (ehem)

    Love the layering and progressive-style teaching!…And I also have a big bouquet of sunflowers in my kitchen.

  6. I wanted to be a doctor so bad! When I got older, had to be in a hospital, and hated the atmosphere so bad, (the smell alone) I wanted nothing to do with medicine at all!

    My daughter would love this! thanks so much for the opportunity!

  7. I keep seeing reviews of this, but I’m not sure our family would do well. We are not terribly artistic, and so art falls by the way side. I’d love to use these, I’m just sure they are worth the investment.

  8. I love art! We’ve never found a great program. I’m always looking for something fun for my creative kids.

  9. I wanted to be a nurse in early elementary. Then I wanted to be a vet. For as long as I can remember I knew I wanted to be a wife and mother before anything else.

  10. I always wanted to be a nurse. I had horrid high school science and never felt comfortable pursuing that. I did become a high school teacher and now teach my own four children. These art DVD’s look awesome! Thanks, Ann

  11. I always wanted to be a Doctor, went to school to be a nurse….Now I am a stay at home mom/teacher 🙂

  12. I always wanted to be a singer. I sang my heart out in the privacy of my own room, many a night as a teenager!

  13. I have wanted to be so many things, but teaching has always been at the heart of nearly everything I ever wanted to do. Share my knowledge and help others get the learning bug too.

  14. I love sunflowers too! One day I will plant some in my yard…. Thanks for the opportunity to win this DVD!

    When I was little, I wanted to grow up to be a professional ballerina. I gave up on my ballet dream as a teenager but I’m still dreaming about who I can be now in my mid 30s. 🙂

    1. I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up – that’s funny though seeing as how I cannot follow directions right? : )

  15. I wanted to be an artist when I was very little. As I grew older, I wanted to do something having to do with languages, translating in business or for travelers. What I ended up being was sort of both – as a mom, I led my family and raised my daughters by creatively using language to teach and love them into being fine grown ups with kids of their own.

  16. So neat! I am not an artist at all, so teaching art is a bit of a struggle (so much more the musician). Sunflowers have been a hit here lately, we just learned that women rights leader, Elizabeth Cady Staton used the name ‘sunflower’ as her pseudo name for a newspaper she wrote for

    1. Oh, and I wanted to be a teacher, then a nurse… so much so that I am going back to school for the next year, starting in 9 days!

  17. I wanted to be a teacher and have been blessed to homeschool my 3 children for the last 10 years 🙂 looks like a wonderful product. Thanks for the chance to win.

  18. This DVD art series looks really great! My three homeschooled daughters and I have tried some of the free lessons. I’d love to win to try one of these out. Thanks for the opportunity.

    1. Me, too! That came later, after the artist thing in elementary. I took some classes to become an interpreter in college, but never finished. Now, sign language is something my oldest and I are both interested in. I’ve been researching options for us to learn together.

  19. I wanted to be a teacher, then I wanted to be a lawyer, then I wanted to be an astronaut but quickly moved back to my law dreams. I received a degree in psychology and studied photography as well. And now, I’m a teacher to my girls. Funny how things come full circle!

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