What do you think of when you hear "Art History"? I think of the class that I took in college that wanted us to memorize dates and artists. Boring. I wasn't so sure about the opportunity to review HiGASFY Art History Video Series. I talked with our 10 year old about what he thought. He said that it seemed interesting and that he wanted to give it a try. I am SO glad that we did. These videos are FAR from boring!
The only part of my college Art History class that I thought was interesting was the part of the "cubists" because their art seemed so different than anything that I had ever seen before. I have a difficult time remembering random names and dates, so I struggled to do well in that class. In fact, it was in that class that I received my very first "See Me" on a paper. Can you imagine? Here I am, in college, and my professor writes a big "See Me" in red ink on one of my papers. I was so embarrassed! He didn't even talk with me about the context of the paper. He said that I had used too many commas. Really? This was an Art History course, right? Not an English course. Whatever. All that to say, I didn't learn a whole lot from that class.
HiGASFY is so very different! HiGASFY stands for "Have I Got A Story For You". I was thrilled when I found that out! Mrs. Beth says that in each video and that is truly what it is. Stories! Mrs. Beth is absolutely wonderful! I wish she was my teacher! She really makes it fun and interesting to learn about art. She brings out the history in Art History. That was great for me because I love history. Once I found out, in high school, that history is not just a bunch of people's names and dates, but stories of lives, I was interested. That's what Mrs. Beth brings to Art History. She tells you about these artists, their lives, what was going on at that time, and why they painted what they painted.
I feel silly saying this, but I never thought about why someone painted or created a piece of art. These were things that they saw, people that they knew, or just to make a living. There is a story behind each and every piece of art. That is interesting to me! Mrs. Beth has brought art alive to us.
(Who says Batman can't like Art History?)
Our 10 year old never had a complaint about watching a video and/or doing an activity for HiGASFY. He would watch them, without headphones, so that I could know what it was all about. I was surprised how it kept bringing me back to watch because it was so interesting. He would watch the videos at the table or sometimes at Grandma and Grandpa's home when we visited. By the way, you say it "Hi-Gasfy". Gasfy is an animated drop of green paint that talks with Mrs. Beth during the videos.
Here's what our 10 year old son had to say about it:
Most of art history from how other people say it, is boring. How she put it actually showed us the art instead of just telling us about it. She made it more interesting. I liked how she talked about more than one artist. I also liked how they put in the animated character, Gasfy. He was funny. It was also kind of cool how, while they were showing pictures, they would put him in there.
We started with the "Impressionists". We learned about Monet and Pissarro so far. We can't wait to keep going and learn about more impressionists. There are other types of artists as well: Renaissance, Baroque, and Post-Impressionist. After the video we would then look up the lesson in the curriculum. Each video has a lesson that gives you vocabulary that was learned in the video, suggested activities to do with your child, and critical thinking questions just to get your child thinking. Just look at some of the activities that our son completed during his learning:
We just love HiGASFY Art History Video Series! Mrs. Beth takes Art History to an entirely new level of learning and we can't wait to continue learning about the lives of these artists. You might want to look into the HiGASFY Art History Video Series for your own family and schooling. I don't think you'd regret it.
Don't just take our word about it. Go see what the other reviewers though about it!
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