School Disguised as Gifts: Art Calendar

We are totally those “mean” parents who give school items as Christmas, birthday, and Easter gifts.  We enjoy fostering a lifestyle of learning for our children and they don’t really know otherwise.  Some of my blog friends have asked me to share these “extras” and I considered doing a 31 Days series of Homeschool Extras, but decided to do a weekly series instead; this is a busy time for us!

Today, I’m going to start with the gift from whence the idea sprung.  We have enjoyed introducing our family to the fine arts – music, art appreciation, artistry.  One of the best ways I have found is the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Page-a-Day Art Calendar.   (I’m sorry to see the exorbitant price on Amazon at the moment! When I ordered in August, it was much more reasonable ) (Corrected the link thanks to Anna’s comment below. Thanks, Anna!) We have ordered this calendar for the last 4 years, and because some big name artists are included (Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Cassatt, etc … no skimping!) our children are conversant with and recognize their works.

The calendar boasts a variety of artists, styles (carving, painting, sketching, fashion, etc.), and periods (from early BC to very modern). Some things we don’t like, but we talk about them.  Some things we don’t display (there are occasionally paintings of an unclad model).  That being said, not only do we keep getting one for the children at home (and wrapping it under the tree), Jason gets one for his desk at work and we give one to my Mother-in-Law for Christmas each year.  I think she has even framed some of the prints as the quality is quite good.

At this point, I display the current and previous year in the kitchen.  We enjoy comparing and contrasting the style and what the publishers chose for each day (it is different each year). The calendars have been discussion pieces over the course of the years.  Here’s yesterday’s display:

I suspect I’ll be posting about games next week, but maybe I’ll consider something different by then!

Here, I’ll link the other posts in the series: