If you are looking for a way to gracefully expose your young child to artistic masterpieces, you might want to consider Child-Size Masterpieces by Aline D. Wolf.
This program is a wonderful opportunity for children of all ages to explore works of art.
Want to know more about it? What follows is my review of Child-Size Masterpieces.
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What Are They?
Child-Size Masterpieces is a collection of postcards of masterpieces that go along with a series of activities. The cards come in a book and need to be cut apart with a scissors or paper cutter. The pictures are printed on nice, heavy quality card stock. The back of each card is labeled with the step (more on this later), and information about the print including the title, artist, nationality, and years the artist lived. In later steps, there is also background information about the work of art.
Teacher Guide
Aline Wolf wrote an instruction guide for her Child-Size Masterpieces. It’s called How to Use Child-size Masterpieces for Art Appreciation. Wolf offers good tips for presenting the cards to your child. She explains the activities for using the cards and shows you how to make mini folders for them. She includes a pronunciation guide for the artists’ names.
I found the instruction book to be very helpful. I made the mini folders myself without any problems thanks to her good directions. The pronunciation guide was invaluable. I would have had a tough time with names like Gauguin and Modigliani without it.
Learning the Masterpieces Step-by-Step
The most intriguing aspect of Child-Size Masterpieces is the way Wolf organized the activities and cards into progressively more challenging steps. The 8 Steps cover these skills:
- Step 1 – Matching identical works of art
- Step 2 – Pairing paintings by the same artist that are similar
- Step 3 – Grouping 4 paintings by the same artist
- Step 4 – Learning names of famous artists
- Step 5 – Learning names of famous paintings
- Step 6 – Learning about various schools of art
- Step 7 – Sorting paintings into schools of art
- Step 8 – Putting the masterpieces on a timeline
Within the first 3 steps are also 3 levels: Easiest, Intermediate, and Advanced. These help the child progress smoothly from one step to the next. The early steps are perfect for Preschool. Later steps can be used with children in Kindergarten on up.
Easy to Use
The Child-Size Masterpieces are very convenient for families to use. They take little preparation. The activities are nice for independent practice. The postcards definitely make looking at works of art a more pleasant experience for children. Big art books can be very heavy and cumbersome, but the postcards are perfect for child’s hands. Aline Wolf also saves parents a lot of work by finding appropriate works of art for each step. The program can also be easily expanded by buying postcards from an art museum.
Versatile and Evergreen
These Masterpieces can be used for more than just simple matching activities. They are ideal for starting discussions in art appreciation. They can be used as examples for teaching subjects in art such as portraits and still lifes. As I described in another article, 30 Creative Writing Ideas to Inspire Your Child, works of art can stimulate a child’s creativity in writing. You can add them to a timeline to supplement your history curriculum.
These postcards are evergreen. Not only can they be used by children of preschool and elementary age. They could potentially be used for middle school and high school for teaching art appreciation, art history, styles and schools of art. Older students could be challenged to recognize a work of art and name it and its artist.
Who For?
If you are interested in an art appreciation program that grows with the child, then this program is for you. If you like hands-on activities that your child can do independently and encourage exploration, then you will like these postcards.
If you want a more formal and structured approach to art appreciation, then you may not like the Masterpieces.
The Cons
The instruction guide could be a little more detailed. Sometimes the directions aren’t as clear as they could be. Also, I think the cards in the first three sets could be sold as packs by Step instead of by Level. It would be less confusing.
Our Experience
Overall, my kids really enjoyed these cards. They had fun matching the paintings when they were young. It was excellent practice in visual discrimination for them. I think that they were given a nice introduction to great works of art at an early age. The Child-Size Masterpieces made a trip to the art museum a more interesting and meaningful experience for them.
Ethan says
We have an art box as well in our dine-in ktchien that also doubles as a family room. I have to say that while it worked great in the beginning, Anna sort of got lukewarm to it pretty quickly. She is not exactly an artsy type and the only thing that she consistently gets excited about is those premade kits from Michael’s and other places. She especially likes those that involve painting on wood.