I am a fan of Charlotte Mason, but there’s an area of instruction that in the past I have pushed aside. I am all for living books. In fact, I really need to get more bookshelves. My kids love notebooking. We use watercolors to paint and colored pencils to draw. Then my boys write what they have learned. I also have my kids do copywork. They copy poems and Bible verses. That’s easy to do, right? But what I have found intimidating is doing a picture study.
Why? Well, because I am so unfamiliar with art. In fact, in college I was relieved to know that I didn’t have to take an art appreciation class. At the time, I had little knowledge of artists. It seemed better to stay away from the unfamiliar world of art. Fast forward twenty years later (yes, I am rather old now), and I am homeschooling and making brave attempts to appreciate art with my kids.
Maybe there’s a fellow mom out there who likes Charlotte Mason, but finds it hard to go about teaching art appreciation to her children. I have had practice with picture study, but I wouldn’t say I am much good at it. It sounds intimidating to hold up a fine piece of artwork and hope that my children will have some remote interest in it. However, I have learned that even the minimal effort of just looking at artwork with my children and talking about what we see does increase their appreciation. Here are some things I have learned.
Look and Share
Charlotte Mason has a really simple method for looking and talking about artwork. First, you show the artwork to your child or children. All they do is look at the painting for a few minutes until they have studied all the details and can picture the image in their head. One challenging aspect is lengthening the amount of time spent looking at a portrait. At first, it was only a few seconds, but we have made steady improvement.
Also, if the painting is interesting, then it’s easier to stop and stare. When we studied hummingbirds, we looked at John James Audubon’s Anna’s Hummingbird. It caught my kids’ attention because you see a female and two male hummingbirds, a nest, and one of the male hummingbirds flying upside down. There was a lot to talk about. They had trouble being quiet and looking at it because they immediately wanted to talk, but not everything will be perfect, will it?
Remembering Paintings
We did Treehouse Schoolhouse Nature Study a few years ago, which includes picture study. That’s actually where I first learned how to do a picture study. I don’t think I did a great job, but we have pulled some painting from that nature study and my kids always say that they remember this painting and that painting.
It surprises me because I know I didn’t do a great job, but somehow my instruction kind of worked. My point is this: You don’t have to be good at picture study to grow your child’s appreciation of art. You can do a picture study even if it’s out of your area of expertise, which is probably most homeschool moms. You can grow into your role.
Creating a Replica
The hardest part of a picture study is making a replica. I am currently working on getting my kids to make replicas of paintings we study. Perfectionism runs strong in my family. When you tell a perfectionist that they are to create a replica of a masterpiece, they know they can’t live up to Rembrandt or Monet, right? Why bother if it won’t be perfect? That’s such a hard mindset to break out of, but a picture study is great tool to break that way of thinking. We aren’t great at making replicas yet, but we might be in a year or two….or three. I have found that letting my boys copy one part of the painting can help make the whole ordeal seem less scary.
Increased Attention
I said earlier that I have seen an increased ability in my kids to stare at a painting for a long time. We started at about ten seconds to about a minute and a half. That’s improvement! Staring at something not on a screen AND taking note of all the details, well that’s certainly discipline. What an age we live in where we can scroll on our phone and hardly pay attention to much of anything. I think a picture study fights against the inattention problems phones and screens have created.
Final Thoughts
Homeschooling takes you out of your comfort zone. Moms (and dads) begin teaching content that weren’t actually trained to teach. I have never taken an art class, but I can still talk about art with my children. Doing picture study with your kids may take time to get the hang of, but it’s pretty neat when your kids can name famous works of art. Even if picture study doesn’t go as planned, keep at it. Fruit doesn’t come quickly.
Carly from DesertHomeschoolDays.com
