Our Story
Hi there! My name is Alexandra, and I am a second generation homeschooler, turned homeschooling mom looking for ways to inspire my kids to be happy, healthy and confident learners! Through my love of art and books, we found our unschooling rhythm to spark curiosity in our kids. Here is our story about how we began to create The Build Your Masterpiece Class Adventures…
Our family was just beginning our homeschooling journey, when our 6 year-old daughter asked a question, “Who is the Queen? Why is Canada a country?” These questions sprouted further research, and thought.
How was I to teach my young child about our country, when she did not fully understand the origins, and what Europe was? Soon after that, I became interested to learn more about the countries of Europe, and we soon began our journey into Italy through books.
“Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks.”
— Dr. Seuss
One year later…
I began to compile all the ideas and information that we had learned, about Italy, France, England, Scotland and Ireland and began writing what was soon to become my biggest obsession since planning summer day camps for kids in my neighborhood as a young girl!
I had found something I really loved, and was passionate about, along side my first passion, which was home educating my children. Soon, I had created a full plan for five countries, with multiple Artist Spotlights, a collection of recipes to test, and boy, was I really excited!
Here’s what our experience looked like while creating the class 2 years ago…
The Read, Paint, Cook Experience…
I found that including the three subjects of books, art and cooking was something I found joy in, as well as my kids. These types of activities, seemed to really spark a desire to learn in a hands-on way with my children!
“When the atmosphere encourages learning, the learning is inevitable.”
— Elizabeth Foss
The Books…
With three years of blogging and book reviewing experience, my desire to search and find children books that really brought the learning to life and spark a desire to learn and create art was really important to me. With each Adventure, the children’s books suggested for you to read have been kid-tested and loved.
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
― Pablo Picasso
The Art…
I always loved art and having the opportunity to simply dive deeper and find out more about myself as an artist, woman and mom was really empowering to me, while learning about the Countries of our family history and beyond.
One of my goals is to help homeschool moms bring art into the homeschool with the most basic of supplies, for a wide range of ages. This lead us to find a very talented illustrator who creates the colouring pages!
Each custom colouring page is created with both parent and child in mind, to inspire the creation of art that sparks the memories of what they learned, while stregthening fine motor skills and memory retention.
“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”
— Federico Fellini
The Cooking…
We test every recipe that we include in our Adventures, to make sure it is a success for you and your kids, and the process is incredibly fun for us! Learning a new skill of following a recipe, creating something new that tastes good, and relates to the new culture is so much fun!
“Curiosity about life in all of it's aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”
— Leo Burnett
Multi-age Learning…
I realized that many moms were looking for a solution for teaching their children together, no matter what their age. It was what I was looking for as well. Art, food and culture can be that bridge between grade level, into a single commonality of ideas.
It is my goal for homeschooling parents with multiple aged children who want to learn together, about art, culture and food, with kids aged 3 to 13 and beyond!
Product Beta Testing…
We found a handful of homeschool mamas who wanted to give our adventures a try with their families and loved the idea of learning with a multi-sensory approach. Our beta testing team was born!
Ever since then, we have been continually tweaking and reworking the Build Your Masterpiece Class to what it is today; a series of ‘bite-sized’ European Adventures, available for purchase and digital download in our new Shop! Check out whats new now -->
What’s to come…
There are plans of releasing more Adventures in Europe, and beyond! We are starting with Italy, and will continue with, France, England, Scotland and Ireland, just to name a few!
We will be releasing the initial five countries, and continue creating more Adventures. You can expect very fun and exciting things still to come! Learn more about the Masterpiece Class →
Ready to begin your next Adventure? Start with Italy #1:
Begin your #readpaintcook adventure with our first Adventures in Italy with the Build Your Masterpiece Class. Color the map of Europe, find Italy, learn all about the Flag, history, pizza and so much more with our 26-page bite-sized adventure for ages 3 to 13 and beyond.
What’s included:
3 Lesson Plans and additional learning resources with QR Codes
4 coloring pages, Map of Europe, Italy’s Map, Flag Printable, Pizza Coloring Page
3 letter pages, I is for Italy, F is for Flag, P is for Pizza
Italian Poetry Copywork and worksheets, related to one of the book titles, “Caterina the Clever Farm Girl bt Julienne Peterson. Italian Poetry by Corrado Govoni, 1884-1965
Italian Flag Art Project
Homemade Italian Pizza Recipe
The Build Your Masterpiece Class Passport and Stamp #1 to collect!
Thanks for visiting today, if you are looking to begin a #readpaintcook adventure with your kids, you have come to the right place!
~Alexandra
Home Educator + Art Enthusist