Courses · Art · Kindergarten to Grade 12
Art
Nine years of art, one for each grade, then a high-school career pathway. Each K–8 year returns to the same building blocks: line, shape and form, color and hue, light and shadow, the materials artists use, texture, space and composition. Each time they go a little deeper, and students learn from the masters who used them best. In high school, the Graphic Design & Illustration pathway turns those skills toward a trade.
Choose a grade
Ages 5–6
Kindergarten
Lines, shapes and the colors of God’s world; crayons, paper and clay; first looks at great paintings.
Ages 6–7
Grade 1
The color wheel, warm and cool colors, light and shadow, crayon resist, pinch pots and big-near, small-far.
Ages 7–8
Grade 2
Tints and shades, complementary colors, watercolor and oil pastel, symmetry, mosaics and stained glass.
Ages 8–9
Grade 3
Drawing from life, the 12-color wheel, a five-step value scale, pigment and binder, clay slabs and horizon lines.
Ages 9–10
Grade 4
Hatching and stippling, hue, value and intensity, one-point perspective, printmaking and illuminated manuscripts.
Ages 10–11
Grade 5
Sighting and proportion, reflected light, where pigments come from, two-point perspective and Renaissance sacred art.
Ages 11–12
Grade 6
Portraits, hue, value and chroma, chiaroscuro, charcoal and graphite, the golden ratio, Byzantine and Gothic art.
Ages 12–13
Grade 7
Drapery and the clothed figure, acrylic painting, grisaille, how paints are made, landscape and the Baroque masters.
Ages 13–14
Grade 8
Glazing and tonal painting, making your own paint and ink, architecture, lettering and a capstone portfolio.
High school: the career pathway
Grades 9–12 · Full year · 50 lessons
Graphic Design & Illustration
A job-pathway year: drawing, composition, typography, color, layout and print production, the digital studio (all free software), professional illustration, branding, screen design, and the business of getting hired — ending in a ten-piece portfolio.
How every lesson works
Each course is one school year: 8 units of 4 lessons, one lesson a week in two short sessions. Every lesson has the same parts, so students and parents always know what comes next.
- Warm-up. A few minutes of drawing or careful looking.
- Watch. A hand-picked YouTube video that teaches the lesson’s idea, with a note on when to watch it.
- Learn. Key terms and short, clear teaching a parent can read aloud.
- Picture study. A public-domain masterwork to look at closely and talk about.
- Studio project. A materials list, step-by-step directions and a checklist for finished work.
- Sketchbook practice. Small exercises that build skill between lessons.
Each unit ends with a short review and a portfolio piece with a simple rubric. In the last week, hold a family art show.
Every course can also be downloaded as one printable PDF, with the video links printed in each lesson.
Videos open on YouTube. Each one was checked for the lesson and for the content, but YouTube shows its own recommendations and ads around them, so parents should stay nearby.