Is Art Appreciation for Young Children? - Homeschooling Curriculum ...

At What Age Does Art Appreciation Begin?

As I have grown in my homeschooling skills and knowledge, I have been purposely moving toward incorporating more than just the basic subjects into our school day. Math, science, language arts, and history will necessarily be the core of a child’s studies throughout their life in school. But my desire has always been to teach my children so much more. Feeling overwhelmed with how to do this, my husband wisely reminded me that it is all about exposure in the younger years. We don’t believe that it is about regurgitating specifically memorized facts. It is about igniting their interests as they grow. In their older school years, that early exposure will serve them well as they focus in, learn more details about any given topic, and especially learn to think critically.

Armed with this goal, I recently began to delve into the philosophies of Charlotte Mason, a British educator around the turn of the 20^th century. Her belief that learning should be “a delight” and that you should “spread a wide feast” of learning experiences for children spoke to me in a way that at first made me doubt that I had been doing anything right in my own homeschooling endeavors. But more importantly, Charlotte’s philosophy gave me the inspirational message that I can do this! I can make my children’s learning delightful, inspiring, and contagious. I wasn’t crazy to think that school is more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. Learning is life. Life is learning. Learning doesn’t and shouldn’t stop with graduation.

Reading what Charlotte Mason taught her students was enlightening. It truly was a feast of information and ideas, all at the developmental stage of each child. Foreign language, great literature, poetry, art appreciation, music study of the great composers, learning the old (and almost forgotten) hymns, good habits like always giving your best attention, Scripture memory of especially the Psalms and parables, and spending time observing our beautifully created natural world. These were not overlooked subjects that were “fit in” as time allowed. These were a primary focus of a well-rounded education.

“The question is not, – how much does the youth know when he has finished his education – but how much does he care? And about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? And, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” – Charlotte Mason

In this article, I want to focus specifically on one of those things: art appreciation. It’s not a new subject to me. I studied art in high school as well as college. I was never very good at it! But I can definitely get behind the appreciation part. My parents took our family on a trip to Paris when I was 17. I’ll never forget walking the halls of the Louvre. I don’t think I truly understood what a gift that experience was at such a young age. As a college student and later on as an interior design student, I would take my student pass and get into art museums for free. I didn’t always know what I was looking at, but I always loved the experiences. Art is about making an observation about life and doing it in a visually compelling way. Art appreciation is about paying attention to detail (a great lesson for kids), and looking beyond our own parochial experiences to see something new and different.

I want all of those things for my children. But art is...well...a hard pill to swallow for a conservative mom like me. The R-rated escapades of mythological creatures, nudity, and weird religious imagery, are just a few of the questionable art themes. My children are young and still naïve to the harsh realities of our world. How and more importantly why would I choose to expose them to those realities by exploring art appreciation at this age? My husband suggested that I just bypass this part of the “wide feast” of their education at this age. But I couldn’t let it go. I still remember the emotions that “Two Young Girls at the Piano” by Renoir inspired in me as a girl. I have very fond memories of exploring Renoir and Monet art books with my friend Mindy. To this day I still compare every abstract nature piece to the work of Georgia O’Keeffe.

Charlotte Mason suggested taking the time to study one artist at a time with the goal of immersing children in their artwork so that they could distinguish it from others, as well as from work of lesser caliber. I like this idea. It’s similar to bankers studying, holding, and examining real money in order to recognize a counterfeit. With this in mind, I began sifting through artists and ruling out many as inappropriate for my children. Artists with all the questionable themes were obviously out, but so were Renoir, Monet, and O’Keefe (at least for now). I can just hear my boys balking at the “girly” themes throughout their paintings. With so many criteria, did anyone make the cut? I’m happy to say, definitely yes! Art appreciation can be for little boys!

Frederic Remington was an American artist in the 19^th century who is most well-known for his scenes of the old west. Think cowboys and Indians and you will have it right. Yes, cowboys and Indians! What boy wouldn’t love that as an introduction to art appreciation? Ding, ding, ding…we have a winner! Action scenes of shoot outs, rearing horses, buffalo chases, and battle scenes are a major feature in his art at a time when the rest of America and the world still romanticized the old west. If you are familiar with the gun world, you may recognize the name from Remington Arms (producing more shotguns and rifles than any other US company). It was actually Frederic Remington’s cousin Eliphat who created this company in America when he became a gunsmith in 1816.

We will also be studying John James Audubon who devoted his artwork to documenting the different species of birds in America and Winslow Homer known for his realistic scenes of marine subjects and life in 19^th century America. That’s it for this school year with one artist per term, making a total of three per year. We will read a little about their art and life, and then enjoy their work throughout the term. I plan to borrow coffee table style art books devoted to each artist from the library. The book will stand open on the piano music stand so that we can examine their art throughout our school week. It seems pretty simple, but remember that the goal is all about exposure. My library also has several books from author Mike Venezia (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists), which are excellent beginning resources to teach children about individual artists.

One of the beautiful things about homeschooling is being allowed and even encouraged to cater our children’s learning experiences to things that are meaningful to them. I get to enjoy this every day. Just this afternoon as the boys and I sat down to lunch, I listened to a barrage of questions and thoughts about whether or not Ellen would make it to Elizabeth- town, and what my boys would do if they were in her shoes. They both agreed that Kaleb (my feisty youngest) could definitely run all ten miles! (We are enjoying “Toliver’s Secret” by Esther Wood Brady as a resource in our studies about the American Revolutionary War.) That’s what makes learning enjoyable for both parent and child and I have more and more of these kinds of moments as I learn to spread a wide feast for my children.

Jaimie is a writer and vlogger for AnAmericanHomestead