Drafting and Design (Blogging Through the Alphabet)

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After so many years of homeschooling, I've had plenty of opportunities to try curriculum and explore all kinds of resources, so during this Blogging Through the Alphabet tour, I'm highlighting some of the many homeschooling resources that have been stand-outs. Sometimes it will be a walk down memory lane as I share something we enjoyed many years ago, and sometimes it will be something we're using currently. Sometimes I'll focus on a specific curriculum, and sometimes on a subject area. And I imagine I'll have to be a bit creative with a couple letters of the alphabet! This week I'm looking back at a couple of interesting elective courses my boys did, and wondering whether my daughter will do at least one of them as well.

A number of years ago I stumbled upon a couple of fascinating workbooks at a homeschool curriculum fair. I think it was an art supply vendor who had two titles from Insight Technical Education -  Practical Drafting and Practical Graphic Design. Practical Drafting is a course in technical drawing, the kind used in engineering design and technical manuals and other settings. Technical drawing, with or without a computer, is an important skill used in all kinds of engineering, construction and technical fields. Practical Graphic Design teaches the basics of page layouts and effective use of elements like fonts, headers, graphics and designing logos in practical applications.

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This course is a good choice for a student needing a technology credit course, or for an elective that may help a student prepare for or choose a career. The book is self-paced, with some shorter lessons, and others involve reproducing drawings. The assignments require some time and attention given to getting it just right. The student is supposed to learn by observing and coming up with their own solutions, as well as by doing real work. It introduces the basic principles of drafting, and the practice can be done by hand drawing, by using a computer drafting program, or a combination. Even if you have CAD software, it's recommended that the student do the drawings by hand using traditional drafting tools before doing them using CAD.

The supplies needed are pencils, erasers, and basic drafting tools such as a T-square and isometric circle template. The student does some of the drawings right in the book, and for some they'll want a graph paper pad to work on.

Lessons begin with line weights and developing an easy to read style of lettering. There's a big emphasis on the importance of neatness and uniformity. (Bonus: their hand writing may improve) Students get practice in sketching in perspective, in multi-views, in isometric drawings, and in break-away views and sections. Dimensioning and annotation are studied and practiced, and the student is introduced to tolerancing terms and concepts. The student gets practice in reproducing schematic drawings showing threads and fasteners, and welding symbols and joints. Gears, piping, and electrical drawing are also covered. In addition, students will do things like reproducing drawings in the sheet metal and planar developments and then construct the 3D objects to prove that they are proportioned correctly.

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The Practical Graphic Design book is humorous and gives tools and ideas for designing ads, business cards, presentations, and all kinds of documents.  It also gives ideas of the many career options that involve graphic design.  Students learn how magazine and newspaper pages are put together; and how fonts, graphic elements and layout are combined to create promotional products with maximum appeal. Topics include design rules, page layout, repetition, dominance, rhythm, unity, contrast, and balance. This book is also self-paced, and all the lessons may be completed by hand or using graphic design software.





Insight Tech Ed also has courses in Practical Accounting Fundamentals, Practical Business Launch, and an introduction to technical drawing course for younger students called Complete-A-Sketch. There's also Complete-A-Sketch Advanced, Complete-A-Sketch Professional (for classroom use), and Complete-A-Sketch Vision-Dexterity-Focus (designed especially for challenged learners).

Practical Drafting and Practical Graphic Design are also available through Amazon.

   

Blogging Through the Alphabet again? Yes, I'm taking the challenge, along with several other Crew members, including our three co-hosts for this round - Amanda at Hopkins Homeschool, DaLynn at Biblical Womanhood, and Kirsten at DoodleMom's Homeschooling Life. The link is open from Thursday to Wednesday each week, so join in if you'd like!

This post is linked at Blogging Through the Alphabet for Week 4, Letter D.

This post is part of a #breakthrulinkup at Breakthrough Homeschooling - Join us! This post is also linked at the Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop hosted by Apron Strings & Other Things; at Homeschool Blog & Tell at The Homeschool Post; and at the Homeschool Linky Party on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.



   

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