Picture Study

When I was at the homeschool convention, I picked up the book "How to Use Child Size Masterpieces" by Aline Wolf. It gave me new ideas of how to do picture study. Previously I'd done more of a Charlotte Mason approach, which involves observing similar pictures together so that the child can see similarities in the pictures. The Child Size Masterpiece method has the child start working with sets of similar pictures with sets of totally different pictures so the child can see similarities and differences.

I decided to build my own collection of child sized masterpieces. I got public domain images of works by famous artists and had them printed at Sam's Club for thirteen cents each. (Far cheaper than buying the actual books!) I also got only one print of each painting, as matching identical paintings is too easy for Sparkle.

Here's our first time using the photos. I selected twelve prints by four totally different artists and had Sparkle sort them. She found the activity easy, but it was still hard enough to be fun.


Then we played the observation game with one set of paintings. Sparkle picked the Van Gogh paintings, because of the "In the Garden With Van Gogh" board book that we picked up at The Huntington four years ago in California. Then I had Sparkle pick out one print to use with the "Picture Study" notebooking page that I got from http://notebookingpages.com/. Finally, we set the three Van Gogh pictures on display in the hallway.

I'm feeling optimistic about this method of picture study for the coming year, combined with the picture study that we'll be doing with out homeschool group. I see myself getting lots more thirteen cent prints.