Christian Art History Course

Homeschool Review Crew

Recently we took part in trying out a new Christian art history course with the Homeschool Review Crew.  We received the digital edition of both the Teacher’s Guide and Textbook for The Master and His Apprentices: Art History From a Christian Perspective.  This course is through the parent company of The Master and His Apprentices.  I particularly love that we did receive all print/photocopy rights for our whole household so I can easily use it with all the kiddos.

About the Curriculum

While we received a digital edition (download) of this course all materials also may be purchased in print format as well.  If I purchased this I would definitely go print as I love the feel of paper!  The textbook contains 380 pages packed full of information on both art and the history of art.  This course covers both art and history but definitely does not focus on doing arts and crafts.  It’s qualified as a history course if you need a place to put it for records with elementary to middle school.

High school parents take note!!  This course does count as a credit for high school art history.  From my understanding this can be put under history if needed but also qualifies as an art appreciation type course so a Fine Art credit.  While we’re not quite to high school yet I’m definitely starting to familiarize myself with how things work. 

As a curriculum it is broken down into periods of art history.  These periods include Ancient Cultures, Classical Antiquities, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque and Beyond.  Recommendations say to start at the beginning and work your way through.  This makes the most sense to me as well.

Over 600 works of art appear in the textbook.  Never being a huge art fan I can even appreciate all these as I am a lover of history!

How We Used The Curriculum

We started with page one since that seemed a good place to start!  I cannot say how much I love that Biblical events are put up against world events on the art history timeline!  Huge kudos to that from me.  I love when history and Bible can be combined to show us what was really happening at any given time.

We have not made it a great distance into the course yet.  In fact, we’re still on the first history period of Ancient Cultures.  I am using this with my two who are doing 6th/7th grade coursework.  Their ages include just turned 13 and 11.  As we don’t technically do “grade levels” it was hard to decide whether this would be an amazing course for them but I definitely am glad we decided to give it a try. 

Normally I print everything off.  This time I printed off the textbook and put it in a three ring binder.  But I did not print off the entire Teacher Guide.  Within the Teacher’s Guide you’ll find all the worksheets, discussion questions, and exams.  I chose to print the things off as we needed them because I was running out of ink.  But I definitely wanted all those gorgeous art pieces in the textbook printed out in color so that took priority for us this time.  As we work through areas of the course I think I’ll go ahead and print off the Teacher’s Guide as well for this amazing Christian art history course.

Some Thoughts

At this point in my life I’m pregnant and don’t like having to create my own curriculum so I really appreciate that this includes a syllabus with details on what to do each week.  I just look at it and go!  No real prep and no real effort required on my part other than making sure I also read the textbook so we can have intelligent discussions.  I think that’s our favorite part of the course is being able to discuss this together and really go deep into what was going on during these eras and how it affected the art being created.

Because my two using this course are not high school yet(we’re definitely saving and using this more indepth in a year or two when we hit high school) we did things a bit differently.  I am not making my kids do all of the worksheets.  Instead we’re focusing more on discussion and really getting into what they like about each period.  Oh and definitely oohing and aaahing over all the art pieces.  This course has definitely turned me into an art appreciator instead of just a meh it’s a painting type of person. 

Another part of the syllabus is writing.  My kids need more writing practice so we are taking extra time on these.  Each time period in the Christian art history course requires four papers written.  This part is where most of our focus is going.  The writing of papers that show depth and actual learning and explaining.  I can say that my kids are definitely going to be amazing paper writers by the time we are done!  And they’re actually not complaining too much because they like the content.

Learn More

Want to learn more?  Make sure and view all the other Crew reviewers posts linked up to the Main Blog Post on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.  While we all received the same course we used it with different age groups and all have our own style as well.  You can also find The Master and His Apprentices on facebook and pinterest.  You’re going to want to check out this great Christian Art History Course full of information.