How Artventure Nurtures Talent

*Disclosure: We received a subscription for this program in exchange for our honest review. This post contains affiliate links. All opinions expressed in this post are our own based on our family’s experience regards the program and service.

Nurturing creativity is valued in our home, various resources are always accessible and when the desire to create is present, time to do so is made available. Formal lessons with an art teacher are an experience in our distant past. Since then any teaching has come from our many ‘how to’ books. So when references to Artventure began surfacing on social media we were intrigued. Our thoughts were that undertaking art lessons online might bring ‘new life’ into our artistic endeavours and develop skills in previously unexplored areas. Artventure has surpassed our hopes, the quality of the ‘masterpieces’ created have been outstanding.

 

What is Artventure?

Kirsty, the creator, teaches children to draw and paint via video lessons. The children watch the video through once, then again, this time using the pause points and following along creating step-by-step. The drawings and paintings the children produce are impressive!

Artventure consists of not only the video art lessons but also includes resource plans for primary schools and teachers. As a home educator this isn’t so relevant for me but would be of fantastic benefit for other educators.

Who is Kirsty? 

Kirsty is an Australian, Adelaide based, artist, art teacher and mother. She has had several exhibitions of her own artwork and worked at ArtHouse Gallery with some of Australians most successful artists. Kirsty has worked with many children exploring art, then one day she was asked to teach three classes of children at once, deciding it would be easiest for that many children to see her via video, Artventure was germinated.

 

What materials do we need?

Paper, oil pastels, watercolour paint – powder based discs, and a paintbrush. For country town Australians like us finding watercolours is a challenge, we eventually found ours at Big W and the Reject shop.

What ages are the lessons aimed at and how long do they take?

Technically the lessons are aimed at primary aged children, 5 -12 year olds. So just perfect for our 5, 8, 10 & 12 year olds. However our teen has also enjoyed a few lessons, as has our 2 year old who insists on participating, admittedly her skill level isn’t there. She startled her Daddy late one night with, “I want to paint a watercolour.”

The lessons take 8-12 minutes each, sufficient time to explain the lessons in a straightforward manner the children understand and to create their masterpieces.

 

How hard/ easy are the lessons, how many lessons are there?

Each lesson is rated from 1 to 5, easy to difficult, once you are logged in you simply select the level of difficulty you want. Our  5 & 8 year olds at this stage are undertaking all the easier lessons and whilst our 10 & 12 year old have also enjoyed the easier ones they’ve ventured into trying the harder lessons too.

There are so many lessons and every week a new lesson is being added to the video library of lessons. We certainly haven’t achieved all of them yet and our children have been painting regularly since signing up.

Do I need to be connected to the internet to use the lessons?

Yes. Pros – being online allows you to have full access to all the lessons. Cons – for Australian country/outback families whose internet is insufficient this will draw substantially on your data allowance.

 

I’m not in Australia, can I use Artventure?

Certainly, Artventure is used worldwide, in fact in 146 countries.

 

How does Artventure work and what is the quality of the customer service?

Our family has a log in family name and password that we all log in under. Initially there was a

limitation of three logins at one time but when I explained that each of our children have their own computers, tech service was able to increase the number of logins allowed to accommodate us. The children find it very simple to log in.

Any time I have needed to contact Artventure, the response has been quick and helpful.

 

How much does it cost?

$29 for 3 months, $49 for 6 months and  $79 for 12 months in Australian dollars!

Homeschoolers can use the discount ARTVENTUREHOMESCHOOLDISCOUNT2016 to receive 50% off! This discount is not a ‘one off’ but valid for each subsequent year when signing up.

 

How do I know this will suit our family?

A valid concern and our question too, we’re always selective as to where we devote our energies and dollars. Thankfully the free trial, of 24 hours, enabled us to see if this art program was the right fit or not.  It was and we were hooked!

 

 

 

 

Our experience with Artventure has been extremely positive and we are immensely impressed with the quality of work our children have been producing and the enthusiasm in which they have embraced the program. Accolades to Kirsty!