All four of my daughters absolutely love art! So I was thrilled to receive the Art Appreciation (Family Study) from Beautiful Feet Books for a product review. Since my daughter, Miranda, is currently in High School – I decided to start using it with her.
Disclosure: I received this product free of charge for review purposes and was compensated for my time. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and I was not required to post a positive review of the product..
Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I receive a commission if you make a purchase.
Homeschool Art History Curriculum
This is my very first time using Beautiful Feet Books (BFB) with my children, even though I have been homeschooling for over 20 years! I had not heard of them in my little section of Wisconsin. My first impression with the Art Appreciation (Family Study) is that the materials are very high quality.
Someone at BFB took a lot of time and research to find great visuals and put together this amazing curriculum that brings everything together in such a nice way. It seems like other curriculums feel so disconnected. You get a tidbit here or there and can't really see the full story on the artist, what they looked like, an artistic technique used, a little about their back-story, and examples of their art – unless you get a full biography book on each artist. With this Art Appreciation Curriculum, everything is done for me and brought together so we can learn about each artist in a timely fashion.
What You Get:
- Art Notebook
- Book of Artists
- Art Appreciation (A Family Study) Teacher Guide
- Beautiful Art Print cards
- Links to additional resources
Parents Can Choose To Have No Nudity
Amy, are you serious? An Art History Curriculum without nudity? How can that be possible? I know it sounds crazy, but believe it or not, to sum up the “Start Here” and “Thoughts On Nudity In Art” pages in the Teacher Guide, what your child will see in the printed materials does not have nudity. There are links, videos, etc. from QR codes or the website listed in the Teacher Guide in case you prefer to show some of this type of Art. Icons in the Teacher Guide as well as notes on the links page make it clear which videos should be approached with caution, especially if you are using this with young children. Some tips are also given on how to approach this topic with older children in the best way. Choosing to have no nudity, is one thing I love about this Christian curriculum.
Built With Families In Mind
BFB gives families real curriculum for the subjects they love most but are often hard to teach. Art and music appreciation, state history, nature study, geography. These are the subjects that make homeschooling come alive! BFB builds structured yet flexible, literature-based programs for exactly those subjects, with teacher guides, notebooks, and carefully chosen books so a parent with zero background in art history or Texas history (for that matter) can teach it with confidence.
Everything is designed to be done together as a family. A Beautiful Feet Books product isn’t a workbook you hand to one kid while you teach another. It’s built so parents with multiple children of different ages can sit down together with the same great books, the same art cards, and share in conversations. That is rare. BFB’s family study model means one purchase, one prep, and everyone at the table. For a homeschool family with three or four kids, that is not a philosophical nicety. It is a practical gamechanger. Yet, it could easily be used with one child as well.
Homeschool Fine Arts Elective
I realized there is enough material in the Art Appreciation (Family Study) to count as a full credit for an elective in Fine Arts, which I do need for Miranda's High School years. So, I am currently using this with her.
How It All Goes Together
It's really much simpler than it looks! How I use it is I first check the Teacher Guide for what needs to be done in today's lesson. I start at the top where it says, “Read” and work my way down. I know that I am in control and I know my child. Let's use Lesson 12 as an example. You can see in the photos what I will use for this day.
Read
I will read out loud to Miranda about two artists. I read about one, then do “Discuss” and “Record.” Then I read about the next artist and do “Discuss” and “Record.” The artist that is shown in the photo is Sandro Botticelli, on the left and there is an example of his art on the right. When possible, BFB will include the artist's self-portrait, which Miranda and I think is great! Sometimes, Miranda decides she wants to read from the Book of Artists to herself.
Discuss
Next, I hand Miranda an art card from the card pack, in this case the art work is done by Sandro Botticelli. I will then questions about it that are prompted in the Teacher Guide, such as “What is happening in this scene?” I just have her think of these answers in her mind, rather than tell me, because that is what she prefers.
Record
Often the Book of Artists will give a new word we have not heard about and will give a hint at what it means. The Teacher Guide in Lesson 12 says to “look up the following term in the glossary of the Book of Artists and record the definition in your Art Notebook” then it gives the word, “vanishing point.” Miranda doesn't enjoy writing out the full definition, so I let her write part of it or what it means to her.
Inside The Art Notebook
Above is a peek inside the Art Notebook. As Miranda looks at the art cards and answers in her mind the questions I am asking her, she uses the Art Notebook to fill in the little stars with her rating and writes a few notes about her opinion of the art. Sharpened color pencils work really well for this and the color can be changed as desired.
For my children that are closer in age to each other, when I someday use this curriculum with them, I plan to get additional Art Notebooks, so they can each have their own. They aren't very expensive, I am tempted to get one for myself as I have always loved Art and journaling. It would be fun for me as an adult to fill in the stars and express my opinion on each card!
Play, Explore or Rabbit Trails
After the “Record” section of The Teacher Guide, there is either a “Play,” “Explore” or “Rabbit Trails” section.
Play
The play section allows your student to do something hands-on, like make a recipe (I noticed at least one recipe is gluten-free), do some artwork, watch an instructional video on an art technique and then try it out. These are a few examples of what you might find in this section. I know the book often wants you to add your art to your Art Notebook, but we often bring artwork to our local fair, so we end up keeping them in a plastic tote for each child to sort through when it's our local fair season and decide which ones to take. This is optional, so if you don't have the materials needed for art projects, you could skip them.
This is Miranda's favorite part of the curriculum. She said she likes trying the recipes and creating her own artwork after being inspired by the artists.
Explore
The explore section will usually refer you to the links page where your student can watch historical videos or watch videos about art techniques, as a few examples, but take note of parental warnings in case some nudity is involved. These are optional, so you may watch all, some or none of the videos.
Rabbit Trails
This section will list books you could check out of the library. It does have warnings on what section of the book may contain nudity in the art work. Some are fiction books. These are optional.
How I Store The Art Cards
Miranda is my fifth child and I intend to use these cardstock cards with my next three children, so I want to keep them in great shape. I found that the whole stack of 36 cards fit inside the Ziploc gallon size freezer bags very nicely.
Conclusion
I am very happy with how this Art History curriculum is all organized and thought out for me and I just need to go through the steps and use it. I think you will enjoy using it in your homeschool as well. Click here to look at the product description on the BFB website.
Where To Find Beautiful Feet Books…
If you're looking for high quality with great visuals educational materials, then I highly recommend Beautiful Feet Books for your homeschool. Check out the full range of Beautiful Feet Books to see all of their available resources.
Plus, there is a FREE SHIPPING deal going on right now! Use this coupon code on US-only orders: IHN26FS
Code valid through the end of July 2026.
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