Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Chris V
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Posted: June 14 2012 at 11:01pm | IP Logged Quote Chris V
The Homeschool Buyers Co-Op has a deal on Meet the Masters Online Art Curriculum. Are any of you familiar with this program?

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SeaStar
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Posted: June 15 2012 at 6:41am | IP Logged Quote SeaStar
I bought it last year and have used it off and on since.

Pros and cons (for my family)

Pros:
I like the on line slide show... having kid-friendly bio of the artist presented along with his/her works and sometimes music

Everything is spelled out as far as what to say and do, so there is little prep

There is a nice choice of artists, and the program is very adaptable to use with different ages at the same time.


Cons:
You almost need two computers to present a lesson. The script that you read to the kids during the slide show is not accessible at the same time as the slide show. So you either need a second computer to read the script or you have to print out the script beforehand and read it while viewing. The scripts are long- around 10 pages. I disliked having to print out that much each time

The lessons are, IMO, too long to complete in a week. There is the slide show, then the practice pages, and then the project. To do it in a week would require at least three art sessions a week. So instead I strove for one lesson a month, but then that felt like things were really dragging out. I believe the program does suggest one lesson a month, so a week would be rushing, but somehow we seem to lose steam after lesson two with the practice pages.

The art projects are fun but really have very little room for individual creativity compared to the Artistic Pursuits program that I have also used. With AP, the project might be to do a watercolor wash. The kids all use the same technique, but they pick their own subject and create their own painting. The results are very individual.

With MM, all the finished products look pretty much the same. But, I guess if you are striving to do your own version of Starry Night, then that would be a good thing.

For some reason, my ds intensely dislikes this program. He is not a worksheet fan, and there is a whole section to each lesson that involves doing practice sheets to learn the artist's style. I am bummed about this, because I think the sheets are a neat idea.

Finally, I find the website very tough to navigate. To get into each section of the lesson that I need each time can be tricky. Argh. I think they were trying to work on that and improve the clunkiness.

Overall, I do like the program, and we will continue to use parts of it. Would I buy it again? Knowing what I know now, probably not... only because it is not the best fit for my family.

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