As a classical homeschooler I have always wanted to give my children a rich education that included exposure to the arts. With Marie, my first high school graduate, I piecemealed together curriculum but was not completely satisfied with it. It did the job but I was looking for more.
Now that I have a rising Senior and Sophomore I was super excited when we were given the opportunity to review
The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective from
The Master and His Apprentices. I had never heard of this curriculum so I was over the moon when I found out we would be reviewing it! Let’s dig into it because it is a real gem!
The Master and His Apprentices was penned by Gina Ferguson, a homeschool graduate, who wanted to share the love of God and his creations through art. Using her teaching background and knowledge and love of art and the Bible she created this high school level curriculum for schools and homeschoolers just like you and me.
While this curriculum is available in hardback edition, we received the digital edition of the student textbook, the teacher guide, as well as printing rights to print off the material if we chose to go that route. The student text book is 380 pages and includes 19 chapters full of information on the history and art from Creation through Modern times. The Chapters include topics on:
• Chapter 1: Introduction to Art
• Chapter 2: Creation
• Chapter 3: Ancient Near East
• Chapter 4: Egyptian
• Chapter 5: Aegean
• Chapter 6: Early Greek
• Chapter 7: Etruscan
• Chapter 8: Roman
• Chapter 9: Early Christian & Byzantine
• Chapter 10: Medieval & Islamic
• Chapter 11: Romanesque
• Chapter 12: Gothic
• Chapter 13: Proto-Renaissance
• Chapter 14: Early Italian Renaissance
• Chapter 15: High Italian Renaissance
• Chapter 16: Northern Renaissance
• Chapter 17: Baroque
• Chapter 18: Rococo to Today
• Chapter 19: Global Highlights
The student book is broken down into distinct time periods including Ancient Cultures, Classical Antiquity, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque and Beyond. Detailed chapter introductions provide helpful background information about each time period as well as detailed timelines that highlight art within Biblical/Christian history. An appendix is also included in the back of the book that contains essays, charts, and terms needed to know.
The teachers guide is there to help you the teacher guide your student along the way through the course. With discussion questions, worksheets, and exams it is more of a helping hand so to speak. I love that a syllabus is included to help you plan out the year long study and to keep you and the student accountable.
Writing is woven into the course through the four required essays scheduled. Each essay is written on four different time periods along with different artists and styles within the time periods. Plenty of time is dedicated to the composing of the essays and a grading rubric with clear grading guidelines is included.
This curriculum is designed to fulfill a full elective credit for high schoolers and is written from a Christian perspective. With over 600 detailed images the beauty of the art shines through. There is no nudity or objectionable material inside the pages. While I have no objections for taking out the nudity, as I have younger children in my home besides my high schoolers that I don’t necessarily want gazing at Michaelangelos’ David even if it is art, so I appreciate the discretion to only include parts of the sculpture.
Originally, I had planned to start both my high schoolers on this program as soon as we received them. However, I ran into a snag when I learned that my rising Sophomore is only allowed to take classes for credit within the normal nine month school timeframe per NCAA rules. She is a competitive gymnast hoping to compete in college so NCAA has strict rules we must follow to ensure fairness for all students.
So, I made the adjustment and started the course on my own and let me tell you it has been a fascinating last 6 weeks of learning for me. I am a paper person so I printed off the first 5 chapters of the student guide with maximum presentation setting on my computer. The images printed beautifully and I then bound the pages with my coil binder to make a book. I kept the Teacher Guide available on my iPad and only printed the pages needed.
Each week I dedicated spending 3 nights a week reading through the chapters and working on the questions so that when we start school again mid-August I will be fully prepared to hold meaty socratic discussions with both of my high schoolers. I found the comprehension questions to be just the right amount of push for an upper level high schooler. There are definitely questions that make the child think and have to give their opinion and not just rote information. After all, I am trying to raise my children to think on their own and to give their opinion when it counts.
Overall, this has been a fantastic art history program! It has lived up to my standards for a rigorous yet fun course and I know that both of my girls will enjoy it come August. I plan to have our weekly chapter discussions on Saturday mornings when the house is still quiet over a cup of hot chocolate. Be sure to check out what my CrewMates think of this program by clicking the banner below to read their thoughts.
Format ~ digital PDF copies
Price ~
$34.99
Ages ~ high school, 1 full elective credit
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