Graphics Toolbox

At a local homeschool support group meeting one night a member coined the phrase, "tool in our toolbox" to describe an opportunity from which she had benefited. I remember thinking it a great phrase to share as all homeschool families do not look alike. Curriculum, field trips and other opportunities which seem amazing and irreplaceable for some may seem boring or frivolous to others. Graphics Toolbox is an incredible graphic design program currently being marketed to the homeschool community, but it may or may not be a "tool for your toolbox".

I received a free copy of Graphics Toolbox as a member of the Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for this review. Initially overwhelmed by the program I had the opportunity to attend an extremely informative training session offered by program creator, Lynda Holler. The training was offered to help me ease through the learning curve of becoming a graphic designer. Holler recorded her training sessions with the crew and offers them free of charge on the Graphics Toolbox website, http://www.greatsoftwaretools.com/.

"Graphics Toolbox is my brainchild. I worked for over 25 years in NYC's fashion industry and I used the apparel and textile software Colour Matters for all my design and presentation needs. I also used it for all my personal graphics needs, like making invitations, thank you notes, photo editing and more....About three years ago a lightbulb went on and I realized that most people didn't own a professional-level graphics program that was easy to learn and use", said Holler in a recent press release.

"I began working with William Tsao, the developer of Colour Matters to create Graphics Toolbox. We removed most of the fashion features leaving the intuitive and creative graphics tools, while adding new functions that could benefit the personal user like our Daily Life Color Cards, Fancy Lines and Colorful Ribbons", she added.

Graphics Toolbox is a comprehensive design program that operates with a raster graphics editor. This means Graphics Toolbox is similar to Photoshop and Paint programs which work with a grid-like template enabling users to design in pixels. According to Holler, Graphics Toolbox works at a 300 dpi; a very high resolution equal to a photographic quality resolution. Controls and design options within the program are extremely visual making use of symbols instead of words. Holler explained this was purposeful so students would not have to be familiar with design terminology in order to use the program.

In addition to helpful training videos on the Graphics Toolbox website, a complete training manual is included with the program. Users only need to right click their mouse to find a help message linking them to page 2 of the users manual; a PDF file linked to various topics. For example, if struggling with re-sizing an image, right click, choose "re-size image" in the index, click on the topic and instantly access the portion of the user manual which explains how to complete the task.

When I first looked at Graphics Toolbox I had a hard time imagining using it in our homeschool. Even after my helpful training session I felt overwhelmed and a bit intimidated. I understood Graphics Toolbox could help my children create wonderful school reports, play with photos, design personalized invitations and other stationery and even be used for blog design elements. I was however, having a hard time embracing the technology so I did what every smart homeschool Mom does and assigned my 12 year old daughter to the task.

Micah is our family's designated card maker, bread baker, and constant source of creative entertainment. She loves to work with digital photography to create unique still photos, gift cards and mini movies. Feeling helpless to offer instruction I simply told her to visit the Great Software Tools website for training. She watched three different videos and chose to create an invitation as her project. She cut an image from an old photo, added ribbon elements and shadowed text to test out the aspects of Graphics Toolbox. It took her 3 1/2 hours to create her custom invitation shown below.

I interviewed Micah so she could share her experience as a student with Graphics Toolbox.

How would you compare this program in relation to traditional scrapbooking or card making ?

"I could have done most of this project with scissors. I guess the only thing I couldn't have done is save paper and ribbon".

Do you think you will use Graphics Toolbox again for projects?

"Yeah, I think so, because I can access everything really quickly like the pictures and ribbon and words. Some things I could have done on Microsoft Word, but Graphics Toolbox lets me do everything in one program".

What aspects could you not have done with Microsoft Word?

"Cutting out images, adding a shadow effect to the words, things like that"

What do you think about the learning curve needed to become familiar with Graphics Toolbox?

"I guess it really isn't that hard, but finding the right buttons and the right frame took me some time at first. Some things were a bit overwhelming until I got the hang of it."

How long would a project like this take you next time you used Graphics Toolbox?

"I'd say about an hour now that I've learned how to use the program. When I got stuck in certain parts it took me a long time to figure out what I was doing wrong and find the answer. I think that's why it took me so long the first time."

What is your overall impression of Graphics Toolbox?

"I like that you can cut out certain pictures. For example you could have a human head on an animal or you could put people in photos who weren't really there. My little brother loves Ben 10 so I could use this program to put his head on Ben 10's character for his next birthday card. I also like all the colors and choices for ribbons. It's definitely worth using Graphics Toolbox for projects for school and making cards for other people".

Graphics Toolbox retails for $149.00 on the Great Software Tools website. Its unique features can be put to work for business or school use. For those interested in trying before buying, Great Software Tools offers a FREE 30 day trial of the software accessible through instant download.

Although I am still struggling to understand how to incorporate Graphics Toolbox into our homeschool my children are not. They are ready to make it a "tool in their toolbox" as they bring fresh ideas and creativity to their school projects.

Homeschool In the Woods: New Testament Lapbook

Whenever I wax philosophical about homeschooling my daydreams take on a very definite form. I picture my children and me enjoying great literature, discussing literature and history over tea and biscuits, and creating beautiful projects that mirror our great insight. We discover, explore, and wonder while birds sing and butterflies dance around our heads. It is very Charlotte Mason-esque (is that a word?) and although never reality, fun to dream.

Homeschool in the Woods, a company dedicated to bringing history to life for children, offers beautifully designed time-line figures, unit study kits, and lapbook activity packs that easily support my daydream. Homeschool In The Woods is owned and created by Amy Pak, artist and homeschool Mom of four who says she fell in love with the topic of history while homeschooling her children.

“As we studied history through living books, drama, writing, etc., I fell in love with the topic of history, as it had become a new and exciting venture to be explored--far different than the boring textbooks I remembered in high school!”, says Pak on her website.

While teaching her children she discovered she couldn’t find images for timelines that she appreciated. “I had been a graphic designer/illustrator both in an agency and as a free-lancer for several years, and my choice of art was rather picky. I vowed that, Lord willing, someday I would create figures that were classic and realistic in illustration. With young ones and a lot on my plate, the time was not to be then."

In 1998, Pak created a website to offer families resources for unit study education, but in 2002, she began researching and illustrating her hearts desire, figures for the timeline project. With the creation of the timeline figures, the Lord provided a time and purpose for completing them and Homeschool in the Woods was born.


When I first viewed Homeschool in the Woods products I couldn’t resist their charm. I purchased every packet of figures available at the time and began using them in our homeschool immediately. As a long time unit study family, Pak’s products were a delightful, fresh new resource for us designed by a company that understood my non-text book mind set. In addition, Pak’s attention to detail and comprehensive instructions and ideas offered me the expertise I needed to create beautiful projects with my children with a minimal effort and time commitment. What more could a busy homeschool Mom ask for in a product?!

Homeschool in the Woods timeline figures are extremely detailed and come accompanied with a brief description of the event or character. They are designed only in black and white which encourages children to personalize them in color. Pak sells beautifully designed timeline books for those wishing to place figures in a notebook format. She includes dated timelines in her packets of figures so that families may also create a time-line wall. This visual reminder of history cements dates, people and events in the mind in ways no amount of quizzing or memorization can. I have found it to be a powerful teaching tool and terrific discussion starter, not to mention quirky way to decorate the living room on occasion.

As a TOS Crew member I received Homeschool in the Woods New Testament Lapbook activity pack for review. It is one of three of the company’s “Hands On History Activity Packs” available for purchase as a downloadable product for $18.95 or a CD for $19.95 plus shipping. With either purchase selection customers will want to make friends with their computer, have cardstock and copy paper ready and a full supply of ink to print off as many copies as needed to complete lapbooks and projects for each student. It is designed for grades 3-8 to use independently, but my 1st grader started the project and with a little direction is completing a lapbook too.

For those unfamiliar, lapbooks are a special project made from common office supplies centered on a common theme or topic. Little mini-books/activities are created by the student as they study different aspects of the topic at hand and are eventually displayed in a finished product; the lapbook. The best way to explain, lapbooks is to see them. The screen shots below are from the New Testament Activity Pack.

The New Testament Activity Pack contains 15 mini-book projects for a finished lapbook designed to take the student through the history of the New Testament. In addition to the lapbook, The New Testament Activity Pack contains directions to create “The New Testament News” and an “Armor of God” poster personalized with your child’s photo. Beginning with the Birth of Christ and ending with Paul’s Missionary journeys the projects provide a delight-filled comprehensive educational experience for students. The New Testament Activity Pack is designed to be used as a stand alone unit study experience or supplement to Bible study. All projects are complete; including detailed directions, examples of the finished projects, and Bible verse references for deeper study. The homeschool teacher need only supply basic school supplies and encouragement.

My daughter Micah, age 11, and daughter Sierra age 7 and a half both used the New Testament Activity Pack for my review. I printed off two copies of each of the necessary pages, noting when asked to print some on cardstock and others with regular weight copy paper. After about a half an hour of printing, all the copies were made and I placed them in two different colored file folders for storage. The colored file folders will later serve as the covers of their lapbooks. Since Micah will complete the lapbook project on her own I made a copy of all directions and samples of the mini books for her reference; three hole punched and placed the paperwork in a 1” three ring binder. My total prep time was probably one hour.

Over the past few weeks, we have made several of the mini-books. Micah easily completes one in about 15-20 mins. of time, but Sierra and I take closer to a half hour due to my 40 something brain that seems to suffer from short-term memory loss and cannot remember directions any longer than 10 seconds. Both Micah and I agree the mini-books are beautifully designed; artfully crafted and help even the artistically challenged in the home create a colorful, keepsake treasure filled with well researched information and illustrations.

“I think the activity pack is a lot of fun and it is really easy which makes it even more fun. I like doing crafts like this because you have all the supplies already in the house. I can’t wait until I do the next project and the next one after that, because they are always so pretty when I finish them. It will be nice to look at my finished lapbook at the end of the school year,” said Micah.



To view all that Homeschool in the Woods has to offer visit their website at http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/ . Refreshing, informative and meaningful, their projects, timelines, unit studies and new activity packs just may help your homeschool daydreams translate into real school time.

Artistic Pursuits-The Way They See It

I really love the idea of completing big, messy art projects with my children. However, there is nothing I let slide off the radar at my house more than completing big, messy art projects with my children. Artistic Pursuits may very well be the stimulus I need to launch into regular art projects and lessons especially with my little ones. Offering art curriculum for ages pre-school - high school, Artistic Pursuits promises to "meet the specific needs of homeschoolers at home".

Our family received Artistic Pursuits latest release The Way They See It: A book for Every Parent about the Art Chidren Make. The art course is written to the teacher of children aged 3-5 and offers insight and encouragement for guiding young children through a variety of artistic processes. From the first page of, The Way They See It, parents recieve great insight into the artistic development of young children. According to author Brenda Ellis, "Children become quite focused mentally by the process of creating. For the child, it's about the process not the results. This is old news in children's art education, but not many art teachers or parents grasp the importance of allowing children to experiment and enjoy the process of working with materials. I hope you begin to ponder the idea now."

Included with each "Grown Up Talk" lesson is a simple art activity for young children. Divided into 18 different projects plus a section titled "First Skills", focused on teaching children to properly handle art supplies like scissors, crayons, etc., this 73 page spiral bound text is filled with color, creative font type, simple easy direction and instruction, and adorable sample artwork from pre-school students. In addition Ellis offers practical sound advice in regards to art supplies including some great recipes for home-made products.



My four year old son Aidan and I dove into The Way They See It on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Aidan loves creating art in any form and as I read through the philosophy of Artistic Pursuits, pre-school curriculum I knew we had a great match. We completed the first art activity together which included studying a full color print of a famous work of art included on the project page. I read the script below the print and we discussed the work of art by identifying colors and objects in the art work. Following our brief discussion it was Aidan’s turn to create a colorful picture with crayons on paper. A simple reminder to me, his teacher, was included to check his grip on his crayons as he drew and correct any issues he might display. Below is a photo of Aidan’s enthusiastic rendering. He titled it “Aidan Space Artist” and eagerly narrated a very detailed story of his work. I was thrilled by Aidan’s passion for this very simple project and noted how confident I felt in having a successful artistic learning experience for my son.


Choosing a different medium on another day, Aidan and his 7 year old sister Sierra completed activity 3, “A Mark-Making Project” with fingerpaint. We had some old fingerpaint in our closet, but a basic recipe was included for fingerpaint in case our cupboards were bare. Aidan spent only a few minutes “making marks” completing his artwork in record time. Sierra, always the consumate artist, spent nearly 45 mins. adding and subtracting paint, swirling it to many hues and thoroughly enjoying her artistic experience. Comparing my student's experiences helped me realize the beauty of the flexibility of the Artistic Pursuits projects. Whether you have a speedy artist or a child who wishes to create art for hours on end the projects are easily adapted to satisfy each personality.

Artistic Pursuits curriculum texts are offered for preschool, K-3, 4-6, Jr. High and Senior High levels for $42.95 each. All volumes can be purchased at the Artistic Pursuits website, http://www.artisticpursuits.com/ along with art supply kits for each of the volumes and direct links to other art supply on-line stores. Sample pages from each of the volumes can be viewed at the website along with helpful articles regarding home education art instruction. A list of convention stops for this year is posted for those wishing to see Artistic Pursuits, up close and personal.

With beautifully designed affordable texts, encouraging and simple information to help me become a better teacher and easy to implement projects, Artistic Pursuits has earned a spot in our homeschool journey. My budding artists are excited there will be many more days filled with color, design and learning to see the world through the eyes of an artist.

Core Learning--- Crayola Art Studio Computer Program

As a kid, my favorite part of going back to school every year was shopping for a brand new box of Crayola crayons. I would always hold my breath as I begged for the really big box with the sharpener in the side. Usually my mom would understand the need to have at least 64 colors with sharpener at my disposal and the box would be mine. I had a "back to school" flashback when I opened the Crayola Art Studio program published by Core Learning for the first time. The colors, the possibilities, the potentially endless hours of fun!

Core Learning, an educational publisher of software, books, multi-curricular projects and on-line learning has a mission of “providing effective learning solutions for the development of fundamental knowledge and skills to support higher order thinking and life skills”. Their products are targeted for elementary and middle school, although the Crayola Art Studio I received for review could satisfy creative urges in people from 3-100.

Aidan's Animals by Aidan age 4

The software requires Windows 98 and up, 96MB RAM, 400MHz, CD-ROM Drive, 125 MB hard drive disk space, VGA display, and 16 bit color with 800 X 600 resoultion. Luckily, my "old bessie" computer could meet the requirements and after a few minutes the program was loaded and ready to go.

The first order of business for me was to take the program's "Quick Start Tour" tutorial, but I have to admit my curiousity won out first over the practical and I began creating with the program before I had actually received my tutorial education. Testing and playing with the different art media is half of the fun of this program as my kids demonstrated too when it was their turn to use the product. My 7 year old artist in residence heard my "oohs and ahhs" when I first began using the program and was instantly drawn to my side asking, "Can I try it?"


After leaving her to discover and create for 15 mins. I asked for her opinion of the Crayola Art Studio. She replied, "I thought it was pretty cool! I got to put lots of colors on the paper. I like how it has decorations (stamps and stickers) for the paintings. I will play this again!"

Sierra's Colorful Creation-- age 7

Crayola Art Studio offers digital artists the opportunity to draw, paint, sketch, design, and color in as many ways as your imagination will take you. The software allows you to choose between paints, color pencil, markers, oil pastels, charcoal and crayon to create your art work. The colors mix on the page just as non-virtual products would if held in your hands. The process is extremely gratifying as no real mistakes can be made. Color choices appear nearly limitless as well. The opportunity to try new techniques is encouraged by the ability to simply click "undo" to rid your paper of them if they present unworthy. After reading through the "Activity Guide" included in the program I discovered use of the computer program could easily be adapted into a full fledged art curriculum for the homeschool.

The "Activity Guide" provides basic lessons in using the paint program for the creation of digital art along with basic drawing lessons. The first few lessons of the guide are especially helpful in familiarizing students with all of the tools and options of the program and their hidden potential. Other activities include:

*Learning to draw with the mouse
* Exploring color and the color wheel
*Using patterns, shapes, and stamp buttons in the program
* Using proportion in drawing
* Repeated patterns
* Light and color
* Drawing Using Foreshortening and Drawing Grids
* Perspective- using vanishing points and horizon lines
* Light and Color in nature
* Human Figure- Advanced Drawing and Coloring Features
* Human Face- More about Drawing with Proportion
* Keyboard shortcuts

I was amazed at the ease of use and sheer entertainment value contained in this little program. The user friendly nature of Crayola Art Studio, its instant kid appeal, the hidden art lessons within, the no fuss, no mess nature of creating with digital art and the ability to save a portfolio of your child's art work in files in your computer are just a few benefits for the homeschool teacher. I am not a computer savvy person, but this program brought virtually no frustration to me as I worked away; believe me when I say that is amazing. Even better is the built in confidence and self-esteem boost of correcting any "mistakes" within your masterpiece with a simple click of the mouse.

Crayola Art Studio sells for $24.95 and is available on the Core Learning website. You will want to take the time to preview other Core Learning products on-line. They include software to aid kids with mathematics, language arts and health education. The Crayola Art Studio in particular is a wonderful value which has lit an artistic spark in my family since our first use. Personally, I haven't had this much fun with a Crayola product since the last time my Mom bought me my brand new box of 64 colors with the built in sharpener.

Micah, age 11

Spears Art Studio--a Homeschool Art Curriculum for high school!

According to Howard Gardner, educational research scientist, fine arts instruction leads to better brain development in children. If a child’s education is lacking in the arts it will diminish his education in creative thinking, problem solving, discernment, etc.

Our family has always agreed with the findings of Gardner and valued arts education for our children since they were small. Dance, visual arts, and music instruction have ranked very high in our educational expenses budget. While most would consider them extra curricular, my husband and I have always believed the arts to hold the same value as math, science and language arts.

Unfortunately, in 14 years of home education I have never found a high quality, intelligent and user friendly visual art instruction curriculum designed to be used in the home. This being the case I have had to out source this part of my children’s education; never an easy task due to time and financial constraints.

Frustration has ended with the discovery of Spears Art Studio Christian Art curriculum. Diane S. Spears, Doctor of Christian Education and artist has developed a thoughtful, user-friendly step by step approach to art education offering it in two age appropriate levels. Customers of Spears Art Studio can choose from K-8 or high school level courses to teach their children. I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of the high school survey course on CD-Rom to review along with the help of my 17 year old daughter, Samantha.

The high school course consists of 36 lessons divided into seven units. The program covers art elements, principles of design, perception skills, drawing, painting, sculpture, fiber, printmaking, and graphic design. The seven units are divided under the topical headings of line and shape, shape and space, space and volume, color, color and texture, form, and the printing process and graphic design.

Each lesson contains a scripture to reinforce the concept of art with a Christian worldview, a brief art history commentary, a sketch book assignment, vocabulary words to define and visual memory exercises. Also included are student evaluation sheets, complete lists of supplies needed to be purchased separately, a brush chart, question and answer section, glossary, unit tests and answer keys. A detailed description of how to teach the course, evaluate student work and award high school credit is given in the introduction section of the course and is described as a “must read” for all teachers.

Spears Art Studio high school level survey course is a full year program that can easily be extended to two if desired. If dividing the course, Spears recommends completing the first 18 lessons consisting mainly of drawing exercises the first year and then saving lessons 19-36 for more in depth study the second school year. Spears states, “The goal is for real learning to take place and not to simply rush through the work.”

I had Samantha, a talented dancer and singer, but self-proclaimed non-artist of the visual arts test drive the curriculum. Surprisingly despite her resistance to learning to draw, she gave it rave reviews.

“I found it to be a very user-friendly curriculum. The activities are interesting and worthwhile. I liked the creative activities the most. It really gives you the ability to develop your own unique style with the projects.”

Sammi really liked Spears’ recommendation to pace yourself through the curriculum enabling the student to keep a balance in their schedule with other academics and activities. “It really doesn’t seem like this course would consume large amounts of time”, she said.

But what is a typical lesson like? The first lesson titled “Art Element: Line and Shape” begins with brief instruction regarding drawing and the importance and definition of line. The first section of the lesson lists a scripture citation, in this case Psalm 119:73. Two thought provoking questions are asked relating to the scripture for the student to answer in his journal below his copy of the scripture. A vocabulary section follows with six words which should also be defined in the journal. Next, a small art history section is written with three simple hands-on research projects requiring the use of the library or internet for completion. Now the student is ready to tackle the sketchbook assignment which in this lesson consists of using the newly learned concepts to create a decorative cover for their brand new sketchbook. The last sections of assignments are filled with visual memory exercises. These are designed to train the student to see as an artist sees. These particular assignments for lesson 1 utilized working with the student’s signature and initials to experience and experiment with the different types of line. The appendix of the curriculum contains additional visual memory exercises which are completed by staring at a design for a specific period of time and then attempting to reproduce the design in your sketchbook without looking at the original design. It sounds easier than it is and both my daughter and I thought this quick and painless activity very interesting.

Other sample lessons for both the elementary and high school level curriculums are available at Spearsartstudio.com. Although Spears recommends purchasing art supplies locally she does have a handy shopping device on her website for those wishing to purchase on-line. Simply click on the Diane Spears wish list and it will link you directly to http://www.dickblick.com/ art supplies store. The entire supplies list for K-12 will appear on your screen and you can then decide how much of each item to purchase. Simply click “add to shopping cart” and you have purchased all the necessary art supplies in record time. Dickblick also offers free shipping for orders over $200.00, a real plus in my book.

The cost for the curriculum is minimal. A CD-Rom version of the high school curriculum is available for $29.95. Every student will also need a hard-copy, but the CD-Rom is printer ready. If you prefer to let someone else print your copy you can purchase a combo pack of hard copy and CD-Rom for $84.95. For those not wanting to have the CD-Rom at all a hard copy of the curriculum is available for $69.95.

My daughter is excited to incorporate this art curriculum into her future studies and I am thrilled to have it available to us. I think Sammi summarized our family’s experience with the Spears Art Studio best by saying, “This curriculum could help anyone interested in an art education. It is for the beginning student or someone who already has a passion for art. It will help everyone with the basics of art in order for them to pursue whatever media they want to study in the future”.