Secular Charlotte Mason

Has anyone tried this?

I was reading an article about detectives being trained in observation using fine arts, and I started to wonder whether Jack would be more interested in picture study if we "played detective".

We could take turns picking a picture and describing it so well that the other one can pick the picture out of a set.  In the beginning, the pictures wouldn't have to be too similar, but as he/we gets better, it would be good to have some very similar subjects, but I think it will be LONG time before we're ready to tackle the impressionist paintings that were painted by two artists of the same scene at the same time. 

If anyone has tried it -- or simply knows more about art than I do -- maybe you could give me some ideas, either of what makes it work better or of some not too disimilar paintings that we could use...

Thanks!

Sounds like a great idea Misti, I am not having too much luck in getting Ham excited about picture study.  I've used the "Can You Find It?" books from The Metropolitan Art Museum.  It's like "I Spy."  He did one and then announced he was done.

I could try this idea with him perhaps even using those books because all the paintings are different styles.

Honestly, at the younger ages my kids would not have been too keen on picture study either. For preschool and grades k-1 we did hands on projects for art history. When it comes to art or music appreciation I would go with whatever turns the child on since forcing them to do a method they dislike (ie. picture study) do the opposite of what you want. Sometimes just having the art, or music, in the house and informally talking about what *you* like about it is enough. That seems to be how my girls have developed an appreciation for classical music. I didn't force it on them but I made sure to do *my own* appreciation when they were around (in this case in the car lol). I also noticed that in grades k-2 my girls strongly preferred the more abstract modern artists (Kadinsky, Pollock,, etc.) and then moved on to the Impressionists. Perhaps it's just the style of artwork that isn't catching his attention? My kids loved Kandinsky because he painted music and that is way fun to replicate. Let me know if you want more details on "doing Kandinsky".