If you’re interested in homeschooling in the Charlotte Mason method, you probably know how important art appreciation is to that curriculum style. In our homeschool, where we’ve always leaned toward Charlotte Mason’s methods (but have never done it justice — five languages by graduation!), I’ve never regretted a moment spent over a master’s work. Just this afternoon, in looking for a work from Leonardo da Vinci for the graphic above, I stumbled upon his drawings of unborn babies and printed them out for our high schooler to see. Later when I went to her room, I found her researching da Vinci on her own – he, she informed me, drew a helicopter, airplane, and tank before they were even invented!
A homeschool blogger, Practical Pages, offers free Charlotte Mason art lessons through traced outlines of famous paintings. Using tracing paper, she creates the drawing, then prints it out for her students to then fill with color. On her site, she has free printables of several traced outlines she has done, for her most popular post, Van Gogh’s Starry Night , and for several other artists. She also teaches you how to create your own traced outlines.
Visit Practical Pages for the free art appreciation lessons; you’ll need to scroll down until you see Art Appreciation Lessons.
Learn how to make your own traced outlines of the master’s paintings.
If you’d like to know more about how our homeschooling family naturally teaches art (as in, without much effort!), here’s what I wrote about it.
Thank you so much for your links to my Practical Pages’ art lessons.
I love that your daughter was inspired to find out more about Da Vinci — that is true, delight-directed learning! She is really talented in her art.
I have seen my younger two daughters grow as artists with almost no help or training and they are fueled by their passion! Since completing high school, my middle daughter started work a graphic artist — all self-taught.
May your children continue to grow and flourish in their gifts and passions.
Blessings, Nadene