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  • Home
    • Disclosure Policy
    • About Me
  • What's New! (Blog)
  • Low-Carb Lifestyle!
    • Trim Healthy Mama-inspired Grocery Lists
    • THM-style Beverages >
      • Mock Starbucks Mocha Frappuccinos
    • Family Favorite Recipes (Not Low Carb) >
      • Snacks >
        • Delicious Homemade Gooey Granola Bars!
        • Healthy Peanut Buttery Treats
      • Soups and Stews >
        • Jamaican Seafood Chowder
        • Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
      • Salads >
        • Red Cabbage Coleslaw
      • Main Dishes >
        • Beef >
          • Beef Stroganoff
        • Chicken >
          • Chicken Fiesta
          • Chicken Nachos
          • Marinated Zucchini and Chicken Sandwiches
          • Chicken or Turkey Enchiladas
          • Hungarian Chicken Paprikash
          • Green Chili Chicken Lasagna
        • Lamb >
          • Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder
        • Seafood >
          • Chilled Quinoa and Salmon Salad (E)
          • Shrimp and Zucchini Tostadas
        • Pasta Recipes >
          • Baked Lemon Pasta
          • Paccheri (Pasta) with Cauliflower and Tomatoes
      • Desserts >
        • Cookies >
          • Free Christmas Cookie cookbook download!
          • Healthier Gingerbread Man Cookies
          • Healthier Holiday Cut-Out Cookes
          • Maple Leaf Cookies - YUMMM!
        • Donuts
        • Frozen Desserts >
          • Lemonade Ice Cream Pie
    • Recommended Ingredients and Foods >
      • Inspiration Mixes - Gluten/Dairy/Caseine/Wheat Free and delicious!
      • Organic Maple Syrup
  • Homeschooling
    • Homeschool Curriculum & Product Reviews >
      • Homeschool Curriculum Reviews >
        • Art >
          • ARTistic Pursuits
          • Simply Draw!
        • Grammar >
          • All About Homophones - (Marie Rippel)
          • Time 4 Learning
          • Daily Grams
        • Handwriting >
          • Cursive Handwriting - New American Cursive
        • History >
          • The Mystery of History >
            • MOH vol. 3 Audio MP3's
          • Tapestry of Grace History
          • U.S. History >
            • America, The Last Best Hope (William Bennett)
          • Winter Promise
        • Latin >
          • Latina Christiana, by Memoria Press
          • Visual Latin
        • Literature-based Unit Studies >
          • Beyond Five in a Row
          • Further Up and Further In by Diane Pendergraft
        • Logic and Reasoning >
          • Building Thinking Skills (Critical Thinking Skills Co.)
        • Math >
          • Math Mammoth
          • Math Tutor DVD.com
          • MathRider: Horselovers' Math Facts Software Game!
        • Music and Composers
        • Online Educational Courses >
          • Aleks Online Courses
        • Science >
          • Apologia Science >
            • Apologia Science's Notebooking Journals
            • Zoology 1 - Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day
          • Science Weekly newsletters
        • Spelling >
          • Phonetic Zoo (by IEW)
        • Writing >
          • The Write Foundation: Level 2 - Paragraphs
          • WriteShop's StoryBuilders
      • Homeschool Product Reviews >
        • eBooks >
          • College Success Begins at Home (TOS eBook)
          • Dreams and Designs—Homemade Supplies to Complement Your Homeschool
          • Help, Lord, I'm Getting Ready to Start Homeschooling My High Schooler!
          • The 2010 Schoolhouse Planner
        • Online Educational Website Memberships >
          • KB Teacher
        • Science >
          • Polymer Crystals
    • Driver's Education for Homeschoolers
    • Foreign Language >
      • Latin >
        • Christmas Songs in Latin
        • Latina Christiana (Level 1) >
          • Latina Christiana Level 1 Lesson Links >
            • Charts and Helps
            • Year One Sayings
            • LC1 Intro and Lesson 1
      • Latina Christiana (Level II) >
        • Latina Christiana Level 2
        • LC2 Intro and Lesson 1
    • Forms and Charts >
      • "Week At A Glance" Planner
      • 2012-2013 Homeschool Attendance Form
      • 2012-2013 Homeschool Attendance Form
    • Free Audio Books to Download
    • Free Homeschool I.D. Cards!
    • Government and Civics
    • Handwriting
    • History: Classical / Chronological >
      • The Mystery of History, by Linda Lacour Hobar
      • The Middle Ages (MOH vol. 2)
      • Ancient History (MOH vol. 1) >
        • Ancient Rome >
          • Roman Architecture
          • Roman Houses
          • Roman Town (software game by Dig-It)
          • Roman Trade and Commerce
    • Language Arts
    • Science
  • Free Printables
    • Holidays >
      • Christmas
  • Book/DVD/Audio Reviews
    • Children's Movie/DVD Reviews
    • Other Product/Company Reviews
  • Home & Family
    • Frugal Living
    • Gardening and Herbs
    • Marriage - God's Way
    • Life at Home
    • Godly Kids & Teens >
      • Godly Womanhood
      • Sharing God With Your Children
      • Training Our Daughters to be Keepers at Home >
        • Keepers At Home - "Beginning of Club Year" Helps
        • Keepers At Home - "End of Club Year" Helps
        • KAH Skills >
          • Bible Memory >
            • Memorizing New Testament Books and Their Meanings
            • Proverbs 31:10-31
          • Cake Decorating
          • Card Making >
            • Stitched Cards
          • Computers
          • Character Studies >
            • Contentment and "I'm Bored" phrases
            • Willingness
          • Decoupage
          • Hospitality
          • Library Skills and Literature Pins
          • Sewing >
            • Beauty and the Pig - Goldie Doll
            • Edwardian-Style Aprons
            • Paper Piecing
      • Children >
        • Bible Study Bookmarks
        • The Church History ABCs (for kids!!!)
        • The Lord's Prayer - copywork
        • Some Thoughts...Family Bible Time
        • Running Away...with permission
      • Young Adults (Teens) >
        • Stepping Heavenward, by Elizabeth Prentiss
        • Deeper Roots: Discovering Our Amazing God
  • Frugal Family Trips to Washington, D.C.
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Simply Draw - with your family!

8/14/2010

4 Comments

 
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This page contains affiliate links.

     I draw about as well as a four-year-old.  I have never developed an "artist's eye" for perspective, shading, and highlighting. 

      Plus, a few other important details, but we won't go into all of that.

     I'm artistic in other ways, like in selecting colors that go together well.  I even took decorative painting classes for a few years before my children were born, and I was able to paint some beautiful pieces...but I traced on the pattern, and I had an instructor who was very gifted in showing us the tips and tricks on how to use paintbrushes for their intended purposes.

     But drawing?  Sigh.  I'm hopeless.

     My girls, however, enjoy drawing - a lot.  I finally bought them each a bound drawing book (9" x 11") so they could keep their multitude of drawings there.  It's been fun to flip back through their drawing books and see their progress.

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     Timberdoodle recently sent me a new drawing program to use with our family and review it here for you. 

     Simply Draw...with Bob Parsons includes:
  • 200-page unbound book, 3-hole punched, ready for a 3-ring binder
  • DVD-ROM containing almost three hours of instruction
  • PDF files containing all of the printable practice pages from the unbound book, so I can use these with more than one child in my family at a time.
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     I have to admit that when the girls and I sat down with Simply Draw...with Bob Parsons the first time and glanced through it, they weren't very excited.  Mr. Parsons is an excellent artist; his talent is obvious.  However, his style of drawing is not anything close to what my girls are used to doing.  His drawings have a cartoonish, caricature-style to them. 

     When I mentioned that we were going to work through some of the lessons from Simply Draw...with Bob Parsons, one of the girls began reading through the book on her own, ahead of time.  She hadn't got out any art supplies, but she had read through half of the book before we sat down to begin working on a lesson!

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     The lessons started out simply and progressed step by step.  The directions were written very clearly; we all thought that they were easy to understand.  The lesson page above shows the skill of learning to draw short parallel lines, or SPL.  This was a new term and concept to my daughters. 

     The enclosed DVD contained video clips which were showing Mr. Parsons demonstrating how to do the various techniques.  The videos that we watched were short, to the point and easy to understand.  The quality of the video was not as good as I've seen in some curricula, but it was acceptable.  There were a few skips in the audio, like a syllable or word missing a couple of times, but the videos were clear enough to demonstrate the techniques.

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     Below, you'll see a lesson page that contains a sample drawing on top, and then my daughter's drawing, below, of a cup that has been shaded using SPL (short parallel lines). 
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     At first, Kelsi wasn't all that impressed, although I was!  I think she was too close to what she had drawn, and needed to take a step back and look at it again.

     About an hour after she completed the page above, she walked through the schoolroom and glanced at her drawing again.

     "Hey, Mom!  Now I actually think that my drawing looks pretty good!"

     I agreed.  The girls decided that this was an drawing curriculum that they could enjoy using.  Maybe they wouldn't be cartoonists or draw in exactly Mr. Parsons' style of drawing, but they figured out that the techniques in Simply Draw are those that can be applied in many types of drawing in the future.

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     From a frugal perspective, I like the fact that this curriculum also comes with a DVD that not only contains the video lessons, but it also has PDF files that contain all of the reproducible pages that students would need to use with this program. 

     Instead of printing off the reproducible pages with normal photocopy paper, I chose to use cardstock like the pages in the Simply Draw curriculum. 

     You will need your own 3-ring binder for this curriculum, and a few basic drawing supplies, but it is a relatively inexpensive drawing curriculum.

     I was impressed with its ease of use, the ability to use it with all of the children in your family, the inclusion of the video demonstrations, and the quality of the cardstock used to print the actual curriculum - something that is rare to find in my experiences with a variety of curricula.

     I recommend Simply Draw with Bob Parsons for these reasons, and if you have been looking for a drawing curriculum for your children, this is one that takes little to no parent preparation...in fact, your children can work through this independently and be fine!

     You can find Simply Draw with Bob Parsons here.

     Timberdoodle not only carries excellent curricula, but they also carry a wide selection of toys, games, models, and art supplies.  We have purchased several Color Combi Pencil Sharpeners over the years (a MUST if your children use and need to sharpen high quality colored pencils). 

     Timberdoodle's art supplies are great, as well.  You can find those HERE.

Picture
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Timberdoodle has provided me with a complimentary copy of Simply Draw...with Bob Parsons for the purpose of writing an unbiased review of this product.  No other compensation has been provided.

4 Comments
Lisa
8/15/2010 12:47:43 am

Thanks for the product review. We'll be checking into this. Both of my children have inherited the artistic gene that runs in our family (that way surpasses my abilities :)) We had tried a few different art curriculums for my son, who is now 15. They do range in quality, age-appropriate, skill level, instruction and quality. To date, our favorite has been Thomas Kincaid's Drawing basics with 5 workbooks and a DVD for ages 8-12. Both the DVD and the workbooks were a hit with my kids. My daughter was 5 at the time wanting to follow along. It is a great introduction to art history, drawing basics and shading, perspective, how to self critique. It generally runs about $50 but you can usually get a 30% through Alpha & Omega Publications/SOS School house during their Spring Sale. They also have other sales throughout the year if you're on their mailing list. Another option is seeing if the curriculum is avaiable through an online vendor on Ebay. The biggest praise I can give this program is that it took my son from a "gifted" level to an even higher level with more skills, practice on aspects of art he wasn't familiar with, to being inspired to practice more in his sketchbook. Thanks again for a great review, we'll be checking this out for my daughter!

Reply
Julieanne
8/15/2010 01:08:07 am

Hi, Lisa! I've been interested in taking a look at Thomas Kinkade's art program as well, and it may be more in-depth than "Simply Draw", but I did also like Simply Draw. How nice that your children can also draw well and are artistic. It truly is a gift!

Thank you for your comment!

Julieanne

Reply
Jennifer @ The Toy Box Years link
8/16/2010 11:23:12 pm

Hi Julieanne!

First, thank you for visiting my blog and entering my giveaway!

Second, I LOVE your entire site and blog and was wondering if I may have your permission to link up some of your articles to my MOPS blog. I think some of our MOPS mommies would LOVE you as well! Please contact me at booklover1212@yahoo.com

Thanks again!

Reply
Julieanne
8/17/2010 05:15:21 am

Hi, Jennifer,

Thank you so much for visiting. Feel free to link up to anything you want here. I've placed everything here for the express purpose of being helpful to others...since so many have been helpful to me over the years!

Julieanne

Reply



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    ​​Hi!  I'm Julieanne!
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