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  Mar 6, 2010
  This is a great curriculum with lots of good ideas & Internet links. Art appreciation, art history, & drawing are all well covered in three different options, as well as a study of several classical composers. The 3 level options are helpful & give plenty of choices if you want to mix & match the different levels. I love the fact that this is a download. It makes it easy to print off the pages for the children to fill out. It also makes it so easy to click on the links that take you directly to the Internet sites without having to type them out. The artists covered start toward the end of the medieval period with Giotto whose work marked the beginning of Renaissance art & the beginning of artists using the techniques that produce art with more of a 3 dimensional look. This goes very well with Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad used in Option 2 of the program. I used Option 2 with a co-op group of 7 girls ages 8 to 13. It was no problem including the wide range of ages.... More > Since we are studying the Middle Ages & Renaissance this year, the curriculum fit together so nicely with our history studies. It saved me tons of time in both researching & preparing for my art class. We used option 2 that follows Draw Squad for the drawing lessons. Since these girls like the messy art projects, we added that in. I tried to do projects that were related in some way to the artist or his work. We only had art once a week, but there is so much material that more time would have been nice. The girls enjoyed this course & they progressed well in their drawing abilities.< Less
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  By Robin Reitler

  Oct 15, 2009
  "Harmony Fine Arts - Medieval and Renaissance Middle School Art" I cannot say enough about this wonderful product by Harmony Fine Arts. I have 4 children who are very excited about art and music thanks to this resource. Every week they study art and music appreciation with each artist and composer featured for four weeks. The program is well organized and is easily implemented. Families have 3 different options in studing art appreciation with basic picture study in level 1, art appreciation / history / technique in level 2, and additional hands on projects in level 3. Again, this is very easily used by multiple children and busy families. The resources for these studies are readily found and inexpensive, with a majority available free online. In our family, we place each week's portrait onto our computer wallpaper until the end of the week when we do a short study of the portrait. We also complete the suggested readings about the history of the artist and the time period... More > each week as well. Finally, at the end of the fourth week, my children use a photo editing program to create a collage of all the pictures including a portrait of the painter himself. On the back, they complete a short biography of the artist including the names of each of his pictures. They enjoy being able to remember painting names as well as facts about the artists during this project. The music appreciation is just as easy to incorporate into our weekly studies. We listen to the recommended CD's about the composer's life and works and complete a listening log each week and a short biography at the end of the four week cycle. The children are exposed to a variety of composers and enjoy being able to recognize a particular composer on the radio. I truly feel the children are retaining information in a way that I never did growing up. I don't have an extensive experience w/ classical music and art and I still don't feel overwhelmed at all. In fact, I am enjoying this program as much as they do. I especially appreciate the way the program is logically and thoroughly layed out so that I do in fact use it regularly and stress free. I also enjoy that there are different options to use so that if we can only do a picture study that week, I don't feel guilty or that I've wasted my money. The program is extremely affordable and nonconsumable so my other children will use it as well. I also appreciate that Artistic Pursuits and now Draw Squad are broken up into manageable lessons so these get accomplished as well. This program is a very easy and yet valuable study of the fine arts!< Less
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