Have I Got A Story For You! (A REVIEW)

I love doing art in our homeschool, and I love finding great programs to help us get excited about art history too!  That is why I am thrilled to be talking to you about the HiGASFY Art History Video Series. This great video series of 4 different art history time periods features an art teacher and her little paint drop friend telling stories about artists and paintings in fun and interactive ways.

Mrs. Beth and her paint drop friend "Gasfy."

With the art history bundle that we received, we also had lesson plans to go with each video, and other helps like "name that artist" powerpoint presentations to help reinforce the artwork the kids saw throughout the videos. There are many ways to view/purchase these videos. All of the DVD's can be purchased for each art history time period, or there is also a monthly subscription. We received a 3-month subscription. So, we were able to watch all of our videos through YouTube links given to us. That allowed me to cast it anywhere (laptop, computer, TV) there was an internet connection. We usually chose to watch it together on the big screen.

Mrs. Beth telling a story. She really does a great job making stories come to life.

All three of my boy's grades 3, 6, and 8 watched the videos together. I, of course, did too! The videos are fun and educational for about grades 1-8, although my 8th grader did think he was a little too cool for it he still watched anyway (and he learned too). There's a great deal of artwork and artists to learn about, so it's packed with information. There's no shortage of great classical artwork and stories all throughout the videos. I feel like this is one of those curriculum choices that you can use for such a wide range of ages. While my 8th grader is at the end of the age-range for this series, I think he still got a lot from it especially since he hasn't really studied art history too much before.

As I mentioned earlier there are 4 different periods of art history videos that we could choose from. We started with the Impressionist period. Within each period there are 16 lessons and 12 videos to watch, so there is a video to watch with most of the lessons. Here's how a lesson works: watch a video, pick one or two of the suggested activities to go along with it, discuss critical thinking questions, look at the vocabulary, and complete a short writing assignment. Not every lesson has a video and some don't have writing, but that's the basic flow of a lesson if we are following the lesson plan.

The beginning of one of the videos shows the cute little paint drop.

I tried to incorporate as much of the lesson plan into the art history lesson as the boys would sit for, but the part they loved the most was usually the suggested activities. I thought the vocabulary/art terms were important to go over, so I wrote them on a whiteboard for all to see.

Art history has vocabulary too!

One of the best "suggested activities" for the Monet lesson was to paint outside. My boys absolutely loved this activity. After watching the video, we gathered our paints and went outside. It really was a life-changing experience as it was for Monet!

My 3rd grader just loved painting outside like Monet.

I had some old canvases that we hadn't used yet, and lots of paint from past years, so we just brought everything to a local park. I let them decide what they wanted to paint, whether it was something from the park, or whatever they could dream up. The whole point of the experience was to just be outside in fresh air painting. Although, I did encourage them to pick something from the scene around them.

My 6th grader did a big canvas and a tiny canvas for fun.

We tried a few different ways of painting because we only had one real art easel. First, he tried painting on this easel, but it didn't work. Getting comfortable painting outside is a good idea.

So he ended up just laying it flat on the table...

My 3rd grader chose to paint the park scene with the dinosaur bones and trees.

We spent at least 90 minutes at the park, and these boys were patient enough to see their work through to the end. They were both proud of their work! (The 8th grader didn't join us for this activity)

3rd grade finished product

6th grader finished product.

Aric, the 6th grader decided not to do a scene, but to do some abstract art instead, and as you can see I had some fun painting the apron while the boys were doing their art pieces...

I decided to paint "HIGASFY" on my apron. It made the boys smile, and now I will have a fun story to share every time I paint with my apron!

Overall, I love the HiGASFY Art History Video Series! It is engaging, fun, and really inspiring. I highly recommend giving this a try if you want a fun way to teach art history in your homeschool.

HIGASFY website

If you'd like to see what other crew members had to say about this curriculum you can click on the image below.