We enjoy CHC products a great deal because they fit naturally into our homeschool and family life. This little art appreciation course is no exception.

Arranged around the liturgical year, the package includes ten beautiful 8" x 10" full color, masterpiece reproductions featuring ten different artists (e.g. Michelangelo, Botticelli, Rembrandt, da Vinci) and a 25 page art appreciation guide. The guide provides excellent suggestions for teaching art appreciation in general (those who are familiar with the Charlotte Mason approach will be right at home) as well as specific suggestions for individual masterpiece focusing on content, line, color, pattern, and design. The information gleaned from this guide can easily be applied to other works of art you may already have in your home too.

In addition to the general use section, the guide devotes one page per month to the study of a particular masterpiece. A monthly theme is suggested along with ideas for integrating the study of the particular artwork into family life. Like other CHC products, this package has incorporated Catholic ideals into a program that is enlightening and edifying while remaining something that real families can easily work into their daily school and family life.

When we first received our package I immediately put all of the pictures into a frame, with the June masterpiece on top. I made a pocket on the cardboard backing to hold the booklet and we have weekly discussions about the picture that now hangs in our living room. Occasionally I take the booklet out of the pocket behind the picture and flip to some discussion prompts about line, form, etc. The children enjoy the looking at all the details in the picture while I ask questions and my husband is delighted to have a variety of religious pictures to brighten our room.