80: Easy Picture Study the Charlotte Mason Way, the simple way to organically add art appreciation to your homeschool

Are you looking for a simple, beautiful way to bring fine arts into your homeschool without adding hours to your already full schedule? In this episode of the Music in Our Homeschool Podcast, Gena Mayo introduces you to one of Charlotte Mason’s most beloved practices: Picture Study. This gentle yet powerful habit takes just minutes a week, but its impact on your children’s attention, observation skills, and love for beauty will last a lifetime.

You don’t need to be an art expert to get started. Picture Study is accessible to every homeschool family, no matter your background or experience. In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The history of Picture Study in the Parents’ National Educational Union (PNEU)
• Why Charlotte Mason believed art shapes the heart and mind
• How to do Picture Study step by step in your homeschool
• Creative tips for displaying art in everyday spaces so your children encounter beauty naturally
• Simple ways to add depth—such as artist biographies, sketching, or historical connections

Gena also shares how Music in Our Homeschool Plus makes Picture Study easy with ready-to-print Fine Art Pages, available each month for members. These resources save you time and ensure your family is consistently surrounded by beautiful, high-quality artwork.

Whether you’re brand new to Charlotte Mason education or simply looking for a manageable way to bring more fine arts into your homeschool, this episode will inspire and equip you to begin right away. Just 10 minutes a week can transform the atmosphere of your homeschool and nurture your children’s lifelong appreciation of art and music.

Discover how easy it is to start Picture Study the Charlotte Mason way!

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here:  https://musicinourhomeschool.com/easy-picture-study-for-every-homeschool/ 

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Transcript

E80 Easy Picture Study the Charlotte Mason Way

[00:00:00] Hello, Harmony Heroes. Welcome back to the Music in Our Homeschool podcast. I'm Gena Mayo, your guide to bringing joy, beauty, and consistency to your homeschool through music and fine arts. Today we're diving into one of my favorite Charlotte Mason inspired practices-- Picture Study. This gentle but powerful habit is so easy to start and so rewarding to keep. You don't have to be artistic, you don't have to know all the right art terms, and you definitely don't need to add hours to your homeschool day. In fact, Picture Study can be done in just minutes a week, and yet it can lay a foundation of beauty, attention, and love for art that lasts a lifetime.

If you are a homeschooler looking for ways to easily and affordably include a quality music education in your homeschool, you've come to the right place. This is the music in our homeschool podcast. I'm Gina Mayo, [00:01:00] homeschooling mom of eight, a music teacher for over 30 years.

What is Picture Study? Picture Study has its roots in the Parents' National Educational Union, founded by Charlotte Mason, the British educator that so many homeschoolers love, in 1888. It was founded to help parents educate their children's whole nature, physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually.

And yes, that included the fine arts. The basic practice was simple for Picture Study. Give a child a copy of a single work of art, let them look at it quietly for several minutes, and then turn it over and describe everything they remember.

One teacher at the time, Ms. O'Farrell, explained, "Every little detail is noticed. The position of the woman sitting on the chair, the key hanging up on the wall, and the vine leaves creeping in at the window." [00:02:00] This wasn't just about memorizing what they saw. It was about training their powers of observation, giving them time to notice beauty, and inviting them to think about what the artist was saying through his or her artwork.

Why does it matter? Well, Charlotte Mason said, "We cannot measure the influence that one or another artist has upon a child's sense of beauty. He is enriched more than we know, in having really looked at even a single picture." She believed that beauty isn't just decoration. It shapes the heart and the mind. When children grow up seeing great art, they learn to recognize excellence, to think deeply, and to appreciate the world around them in new ways.

In fact, one of my favorite quotes from the PNEU comes from Ms. Hammond in 1901. She said, "We want to open their eyes and minds to appreciate the masterpieces of pictorial art. [00:03:00] A love and admiration, which are the response of heart and intellect to the appeal addressed to them through the senses by all great works of art." Picture Study helps children appreciate beauty, moving from, "That's pretty," to "This is meaningful and well-made."

Art often carries ideas, stories, and emotions. Children learn to ponder these, and children observe closely. The habit of attention and focus spills over into nature study, reading, math, and all areas of their life.

Now let's talk about how to do Picture Study, step by step. And spoiler alert: it's easier than you think. Step one: Choose one piece of art. Select a single piece to focus on for the week. Charlotte Mason recommended studying one artist for a whole term. That's 6 [00:04:00] to 12 weeks, so children really get to know their style. If you want to do this, you might choose Monet for spring, Rembrandt in the fall, o r Georgia O'Keeffe for a term focused on flowers.

If you a member of the Music in Our Homeschool Plus membership, any of the tiers, you get a new set of Fine Art Pages every single month. So this decision is made for you, and all you have to do is print out the pages and put them up.

And that's step number two: Display it. Don't keep these pictures tucked away in a folder someplace. Post them where your children will see them naturally: on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, in a hallway. Let it live with you for the week, for the month, for the term.

Step three is to observe quietly. When you sit down for your official Picture Study time, spend three to five minutes just looking at the picture. [00:05:00] No one talks during this time. The silence really helps everyone to see and to focus.

Step four is to narrate from memory, cover the picture, and invite your child to describe it in as much detail as possible. If they get stuck, you can gently prompt them with, "What was the lady holding? What colors did you notice in the sky? Were there any animals in the scene?"

And then step five is to look at the picture again. After narrating, uncover the picture and look at it again together. And this is where your children will often gasp, "Oh, I missed that!" The moment of discovery is where the magic happens!

If you want to skip the time it takes to find high-quality prints, you will love the Enrichment Studies Fine Art Pages, which are available through Music in Our Homeschool. We do all the work for you. You get large, beautiful images [00:06:00] organized by artist or style or theme, such as Seascapes or Still Lifes. These Fine Art Pages include the title, artist name, date, and medium, right there on the page, and many also come in the version of full Fine Art Pages where it's just the picture.

There are over 100 sets available. Everything from impressionist landscapes to Biblical art, which includes Scripture on it as well. There are seasonal prints for Easter and Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can print these yourself or order them pre-printed.

Here's one of my favorite tips for where to display your Fine Art Pages. Put the week's picture on your kitchen table under a clear plastic tablecloth, or you can laminate it or simply slip it inside a clear plastic sleeve. Your children will see it multiple times a [00:07:00] day without you even saying a word about it. Put some others next to the bathtub or the toilet, put them on doors and next to their bed, everywhere you could think of. And your children will see the beautiful art just naturally, organically.

Here's some ideas if you want to add depth. You can go to the library and check out some fun picture books about the artist and read a short biography. Compare two paintings by the same artist, or two paintings that are similar, but by different artists. Sketch or color a simplified version of the piece. Discuss the historical time period of the artwork and connect it to your history studies.

We even have Daily Art courses that pair artist biographies with weekly Picture Study for those who want a little more structure. There are five different daily art courses available at Music in Our Homeschool,

Picture Study is [00:08:00] just one part of Charlotte Mason's fine art approach. She also encouraged Composer Study, which is listening to a single composer for a whole term to get really familiar with his or her style; Hymn Study, singing hymns together as part of worship and musical formation; and Folk Song Study, which is learning the songs of a culture, often through singing. And if you're interested in adding this musical angle to your Charlotte Mason homeschool, you'll love the course A Year of Charlotte Mason Music Lessons, which includes Composer Study, Hymn Study, and Folk Song Study all in one place.

So let me just encourage you, as we're wrapping up today, you don't have to be an art expert to do Picture Study. Just be willing to show your children great works of art and give them time to think and look. The beauty will do the teaching. Even [00:09:00] just 10 minutes a week, five minutes for a piece of art, five minutes for a piece of music can change the atmosphere of your homeschool and give your children something beautiful to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

If you're ready to begin, grab a free set of the A Father's Love Fine Art Pages at MusicinOurHomeschool.com/FineArtPages, or for a full year of music and fine arts planned out for you, you will want to join the membership at MusicinOurHomeschool.com/Membership.

Also visit the link in the show notes or description to get links for everything that was mentioned in today's episode. If this episode inspired you, will you please share it with a fellow homeschooling mom? /That would mean so much to me. And until next time, keep making your homeschool a place of beauty for the eyes, ears, mind, and heart.

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here:  https://musicinourhomeschool.com/easy-picture-study-for-every-homeschool/