Draw and Write Through History
Preparing Hearts for His Glory (PHFHG) through Missions to Modern Marvels (MTMM) include Draw and Write Through History assignments. The directions are given one step at a time, and each step is simply sketched in pencil. The illustrations are easy to follow, and they even include pictures of the final coloring using colored pencils to finish the project.
Each of my three sons vary greatly in natural artistic ability. However, as high school and college students, each can now draw and color well. This is largely due to Heart of Dakota’s (HOD’s) Draw and Write Through History assignments.
Have a little perspective!
One of my sons struggled with perspective. He made the drawings small, and though he followed the steps exactly, the drawings were tiny and didn’t fill the page. I remember his elephant drawing being particularly small – as in small enough to fit in a two-inch by two-inch section. When I pointed it out, he told me he followed the directions exactly! (He is my very logical son, and he is excellent at following directions step-by-step.) I told him the point was not only to follow the directions. It was also to fill the page. I sketched the first few steps for him, to draw his attention to the importance of the size of each part of the sketch, and that was all he needed to improve his drawings.
 
Color within boundaries and within the same direction!
One of my sons struggled with coloring. He did not notice boundary lines and often colored outside of them. His hand tired easily while coloring, which is probably why he chose to use fairly large crayons. He also chose to color in sections – not sections that made sense though. Rather, he’d just randomly choose a section and color in one direction. Then, as his hand tired, he’d switch directions. Up and down… left and right… outside the boundary lines. We definitely needed to make some changes!
So, after he sketched, I outlined it for him in a fine-tipped black marker. I told him not to go outside the black lines. They were like stop signs! I had him switch to colored pencils for small areas. He used crayons or medium-sized watercolor markers for larger areas. I also told him to color in one direction and keep coloring in that same direction, even if he rested his hand a bit in the middle of it. That was all he needed to improve his drawings.
Enjoy your drawing and coloring, but finish it outside of school if you’re going to take forever to do it!
One of my sons was a natural artist. He had an eye for color, and his sketches looked wonderful right from the start. His perspective was just right, and he never colored outside the lines. In fact, he loved shading, mixing colors, and drawing and coloring expansive backgrounds in addition to the main Draw and Write History step-by-step focal drawing. He did not like drawing faces, but other than that, he truly enjoyed every little aspect of the drawing and coloring. What’s not to love, you ask? Well, it took forever! Twice as long as it should have. He would spend a fair share time choosing just the right shade of green. He’d even ask me which green I’d prefer! Homeschooling was taking him all day, and though he adored his Draw and Write assignments, he did not adore finishing homeschooling right before supper.
So, we set the timer for a reasonable amount of time to complete the Draw and Write assignment of the day. When the timer rang, if he was not done, he set his work aside and moved on to his next subject. Then, at the end of his homeschool day, he could take as long as he wanted to finish it. This helped him decide if he truly wanted to spend that extra amount of time on it or not. It also helped my homeschool day to be done on time, so I could make supper!
In Closing
I just wanted to share these simple steps for those of you who are using Draw and Write Through History. No matter how artistic your child is now, I think you will see marked improvement in the Draw and Write Through History assignments in PHFHG through MTMM! Just keep encouraging your children, and keep having them do the assignments, helping as needed. Remember, skipping assignments just means skipping skills, and that never helps develop those skills in the long run! So, just keep right on encouraging, and you are going to see such improvement over time!!! Hope this helps!
In Christ,
Julie
