Art Appreciation for Families: A Charlotte Mason Picture Study Curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books
After more than a decade of homeschooling, our homeschool has changed a lot over the years. At first, it looked a lot like the public school system. We had a school room full of gorgeous desks, bookshelves and perfectly sharpened pencils.
But as the years passed, I realized something beautiful: our school didn’t need to resemble public schools at all. In fact, I was exhausting myself and making the kids miserable by trying to recreate something that wasn’t working.
We were a few years into homeschooling when I discovered Charlotte Mason. And it was love at first sight. I longed for the relaxed approach and adding beauty into every single aspect of our day. Nature studies, high quality books and learning together as a family felt like a dream. And afternoon tea time was an added bonus.
I received this product for free and was compensated for my time using and reviewing this product.
All opinions are my own and based on our family’s experience.
After a year of struggling to figure out how to transform our homeschool into a Charlotte Mason dream, I realized I wasn’t cut out for it.
I needed more guidance. I set out to find curriculum that would help bring my dream of slower days and a more relaxed approach to life.
The truth is, putting together a Charlotte Mason homeschool was hard for me. While it seemed so simple, I just didn’t know where to begin and I felt myself start to stall.
Important topics like geography, art and music were being missed because I was spending so much time looking for the perfect books. What I needed wasn’t more ideas: I needed a curriculum that could guide us.
That’s when I decided to become “Charlotte Mason-ish.”
And now our homeschool is much more peaceful, enjoyable and I’m not running around trying to create my own dream curriculum.
Instead, I’ve learned to incorporate trusted companies to do the dirty work for me.
Beautiful Feet Books has made my life 100% easier by creating thorough and delightful learning opportunities within their curriculum.
Homeschool Art Appreciation Curriculum for Families
When I started looking into how I could easily add art into our day, I knew I would need back-up. After all, the idea of studying art was pretty foreign to me. I had never done that in my public school education but I knew it shouldn’t feel so overwhelming.
I was so happy to find Beautiful Feet Books’ Art Appreciation course. As with all of Beautiful Feet Books products, I was blown away at just how thorough and easy to use their Art Appreciation course was. It was something I knew I could handle teaching confidently.
The course is literature-based and includes carefully selected books, teacher guides, and notebooks that help parents teach confidently. For me, it was just one purchase, minimal prep and my entire family learns how to truly enjoy art.
One of my favorite things about Beautiful Feet Books is their ability to leave me feeling confident in topics I honestly don’t know much about. They truly have a way of making the “hard” topics seem so much more manageable!
3 Things I Love About Art Appreciation With BFB
Family Style Learning
Homeschool art history has always been tricky for me to teach. I always felt like I needed to spend more time guiding my kids and that felt like a chore for me. And, if you’ve been around here for very long at all, you know that when something feels too daunting, it tends to get pushed to the back burner and eventually forgotten.
One of the biggest benefits of this homeschool art appreciation curriculum is that everyone can participate together. Beautiful Feet Books designed Art Appreciation as a family study, which means I don’t need separate art programs for each child. We can read, discuss, and enjoy great works of art together while still allowing older students to go deeper when they’re ready.
No matter how many kids, or their ages, you can learn together. (Technically this curriculum is designed for 5th-12th grade but I think younger kids could benefit from listening to the conversation about art. Just don’t expect them to participate on the same level as older kids.)
There’s something truly beautiful about seeing your family gathered around the kitchen table, discussing beautiful works of art and the history that surrounds it.
If this feels like something that your family would NEVER enjoy, you’re not alone! I thought the exact same thing. That’s what made it extra special when I realized my family IS the type of family who could enjoy art together.
Open-and-Go Format
There’s few things I appreciate more as a homeschool mom than an easy-to-use curriculum. When that curriculum teaches something that I struggle so much to teach independently, it just makes it that much sweeter.
Beautiful Feet Books’ Art Appreciation course has done all of the hard work for me. All I need to do is decide how deep we want to dive into each lesson.
And trust me, there’s plenty to dive into! Each lesson is divided into sections that create all sorts of engagement:
- Read
- Discuss
- Record
- Play
- Explore
- Rabbit Trails (My favorite!)
The curriculum is basically self-contained. Aside from Art Appreciation, all you need are 2 books and some basic art supplies. I love having all of the necessary materials in one handy curriculum! Between the Book of Artists, Teacher Guide, Art Notebook and the set of 36 Art Cards, it makes our Charlotte Mason picture study a breeze!
We love making games out of the artist cards! Today, I asked Barrett to simply choose his favorite piece of art and this is what he chose!
Flexible and Fun
When I started talking about introducing art appreciation into our homeschool, Bear groaned. He had absolutely no interest in learning about “a bunch of weirdos who draw for fun.”
But a few days ago, I overheard him telling his sisters about “this guy who had to sit still for 20 years. TWENTY YEARS!!!” I smiled, knowing exactly who he was talking about! I walked into the room and explained to the girls that Bear had learned about Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Valazquez. (Okay, in all honesty, I just said “an artist named Diego somethin’-somethin’.”)
In all reality, I think Bear’s favorite thing about Art Appreciation is hearing me struggle to pronounce the artist’s names…followed closely by the cookie recipes that are included!
I absolutely LOVE that we are learning more than just art. As we study, we are diving deep into the world that surrounds the works. The people who created them, the time in history and the emotion that went into creating the work… it all ties into it!
With 64 lessons, Art Appreciation is the perfect addition to our homeschool. In true Charlotte Mason fashion, Beautiful Feet Books has provided a spread of activities to enjoy and it’s up to us which ones we want to do. If we tried to do all of them, this 2 year course would easily take double the amount of time to get through! Instead, we dig deeper into the artists that Bear shows interest in and move quickly through the others. Isn’t the at the joy of homeschooling?
Whether you’re looking for a homeschool art appreciation curriculum, a homeschool art history curriculum, or simply a meaningful way to bring more beauty into your homeschool, Art Appreciation from Beautiful Feet Books is worth exploring.
If you’ve ever wanted to include a homeschool fine arts elective but felt unsure where to start, Art Appreciation makes it surprisingly simple. Beautiful Feet Books has already selected the resources, planned the lessons, and organized meaningful activities. Instead of spending hours researching artists and creating lesson plans, I can focus on enjoying the learning experience alongside my children.
If you’d like to explore Art Appreciation for your own family, be sure to use coupon code IHN26FS for free shipping on U.S. orders through July 31, 2026.
If you’re ready to add art appreciation for families into your homeschool routine, take a look at Beautiful Feet Books’ Art Appreciation course and see how it can help your family learn together.
Simple questions like “Which child do you think has the easiest life? Which kid do you feel most connected to?” can open up so many great conversations and help kids notice all the tiny details.
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