On again, off again is sadly the way we do art. We will plow through an entire year’s worth of curriculum in one semester and then just not really touch formal art for a year. It’s not that art doesn’t happen. My kids are always knee-deep in some creative project or another. It’s just that we don’t spend a specified portion of time studying art technic. Whenever I have the chance to review an art curriculum, I welcome the chance to focus on this oft neglected subject. I purchased all of the supplies for God’s Special Surprise ($14.99 – ages 6+) by See the Light before the DVD arrived so that we could dive right in. I was fully expecting my two elementary-aged children to enjoy See The Light.
The very first thing we did was watch the story of Moses come to life in the opening video. One of the artists drew the story of Moses as it was being told. We have a few artists at our church who will do this during special services and I love it! Even my little guys (age 4) were drawn in by the vibrant pictures and story telling. The story also caught the attention of my twelve-year-old and as we started our first art project he was right there with us setting up his own corner of the table. That caught me by surprise!
The first art project was a replication of an antique chiseled look for letters. The children each copied the alphabet chisel style, highlighted it with fluorescent pencils, and finished it off with some decoration of a special word. All three of the kids could do this project very well. The second project was a chalk drawing of Moses in his basket in the Nile with Pharaohs’ daughter. My seven-year-old gave up on this one half way through, deeming it too hard. The others loved it. The third project on the DVD was a watercolor project of the Pyramids on the Nile with baby Moses in the basket gain. This one was really mixed media since they used black marker to offset the watercolor. I absolutely loved the way this one turned out!
Each of the projects on God’s Special Surprise was presented by a different artist and they each had a different style. It was really neat to see different people who were so talented at art that they do it for a living. My twelve-year-old son said “This guy is really good, he probably practiced for a long time!” We did find that we had to pause the video and catch up often but that was to be expected and even recommended. Some of my children found it frustrating to get behind the video or have to wait for a little brother. Good character training in either case.
The highlight of each lesson came at the end when we got to take our pictures in a dark room and look at them under a blacklight. The kids knew that it was supposed to make them glow, but they had no idea how cool it was going to look until we got a glimpse of the first project. It blew them away. After that experience, getting them to finish the last two projects was easy! No leg pulling here. We did find the second lesson to be more advanced and difficult to follow because of camera angles. The artwork still came out beautiful in the end though. (Yes! All the artwork featured in this blog post was created by one of my kids!) I also love to have the chance to remind my kids “This is your art, it doesn’t have to look just like the video!”
At the end of the video was a beautiful presentation of the gospel message featuring vibrant blacklight art, and children sharing the gospel message with an adult narrator to help. Once again, even my little ones gathered around to listen and were captivated. When I asked my children if any of them wanted more See the Light videos they did not even hesitate to say “Yes!”
I’m not going to say that God’s Special Surprise was perfect, because it wasn’t. We had a few technical difficulties like not being able to figure out how to rewind the videos and not being able to see some of the work being done due to camera angles. However – the art projects in God’s Special Surprise were fun, exciting, and covered many art techniques. All three lessons captured the attention of my children and got them thinking about art. The finished products looked amazing and made my children happy!
My Bottom Line: My children are already looking forward to the next See the Light DVD. This one will certainly not be our last.
