Introducing Art to Your Littles

The best toddler-aged books that feature great art.

One of our favorite homeschool activities is wandering around the National Gallery of Art. Everyone hates on the Swamp, but we are really blessed to live somewhere that we can jump in the car and be staring at a Monet in under an hour door-to-door. We sometimes take a sketchbook, or just wander around talking about what we see; the ultimate goal is for our kids to develop a relationship with the artists on the walls. One of my most thrilling moments was when my then-eight-year-old stood in front of a Van Gogh and remarked that it reminded her of a painting we had seen in one of our books called Starry Night.

Recently, we found ourselves in a room full of paintings by Mary Cassatt. While a classroom was seated on the floor, on the receiving end of a boring lecture from a curator, my kids were able to freely talk and engage with everything they saw on their terms. In that room, they chose a favorite painting: Little Girl in a Blue Armchair. When we came home, we read Suzette and the Puppy: A Story about Mary Cassatt. The book is about the painting we saw and loved, and was a thrilling connection between what they saw and something we can read at home.

The goal for my kids, ages nine and under, is for them to grow to love art, and have favorite artists. One of my children noticed Degas loved painting horses and ballet, another child noticed seascapes were a favorite theme in Edouard Manet’s body of work.

We have a few books that are in heavy rotation in our home that introduce artists, specific works of art, and themes in art in approachable ways for our very young kids (Rachel will follow this post with recommendations for primary and intermediate-aged children).

What follows is what my kids love reading on art: