Vincent van Gogh Unit Study

I have always loved Vincent van Gogh and his paintings. I am thrilled to share that love with my children.

I love teaching art history and about art even though I don’t consider myself a creative artist. See how we do art in our homeschool.

I would love to travel to southern France to see all the places he painted and walk in his footsteps.

We find it interesting all the different way to pronounce his name:

van-GOH (the most common in North America)

van-GOFF (in England)

van-GOKH and vun-KHOKH (which comes closest to the Dutch).

He’s one of our favorite artists.

As my kids get older and we revisit lessons every few years, we discuss mental illness and STI. We know that van Gogh suffered and committed suicide. He had tinnitus and other health problems like scurvy, perhaps epilepsy. Some speculate he may have contracted syphilis and certainly had mental health problems. We know that his brother Theo died from complication with syphilis.

The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant…And we definitely added to his pile of good things.

The Doctor in Vincent and the Doctor – Doctor Who: Season 5, Episode 10

When we got to visit The Netherlands, we knew we wanted to see his paintings in person!

When we went to Keukenhof, the entire theme was Vincent van Gogh and there was a floral mosaic, a selfie garden, and static displays of his paintings.

The mosaic hadn’t bloomed yet in March. I’ll bet it was amazing!

We had so much fun in the selfie garden.

The static displays recreated the paintings and were absolutely magnificent!

We went to the van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. It holds the most van Gogh works.

Some favorites:

My son loved seeing the boats from his Art Ditto card game.

The kids got to see Sunflowers!

They were so jealous I had seen it the year before when I visited London for a conference.

My youngest daughter’s favorite is The Potato Eaters.

We were thrilled to see the Impressionist exhibit, including many van Gogh at the National Gallery when we visited London the next year.

van Gogh’s Self-Portrait and The Bedroom is at the Art Institute of Chicago and we loved to see it when we moved back to The States!

The goal now is to travel to New York to see Starry Night.

Art Projects

I allow my kids freedom of expression and making messes to learn and experiment and play with arts and crafts.

I love how my middle daughter made this scene out of Wikki Stix!

We drew sunflowers with chalk pastels.

We practiced drawing with pots of petunias and a still life of our breakfast table.

My girls have gotten very talented with watercolors, but we haven’t ventured into oils yet.

Resources:

• Old Postcard reveals location of Tree Roots
• Vincent and the Doctor – Doctor Who: Season 5, Episode 10
• Loving Vincent
• Vincent and Theo
• Lust for Life
• Leonard Nimoy in Vincent
• Starry, Starry Night by Don McLean
• van Gogh Lessons from the Museum
• The van Gogh Gallery Lessons
• van Gogh Unit Study Resources by SC Homeschooling Connection
• van Gogh mini study by Homeschool Helper
• van Gogh unit by Table Life
• Simple and Easy van Gogh Unit Study by Royal Baloo
• Vincent van Gogh Unit Study for K-2 by Enjoy the Learning Journey
• Vincent van Gogh Artist Study and Activities by Life Beyond the Lesson Plan
• van Gogh Unit Study by A Blessed Homeschool Life
• Vincent van Gogh unit study by Adventures in Mommydom
• Vincent van Gogh Artist Study by Mom, Wife, Homeschool Life
• World’s Greatest Artist study on van Gogh by Confessions of a Homeschooler
• Charlotte Mason Picture Study Aid: Vincent van Gogh by A Humble Place
• Meet the Masters :: Vincent van Gogh by Shower of Roses
• KinderArt Paint like van Gogh
• The Crafty Classroom oil pastel project
• van Gogh’s Tree – Art for Children by Only Passionate Curiosity
• Tea Time with van Gogh by Homeschool Share

Books

• Vincent, Theo and the Fox: A mischievous adventure through the paintings of Vincent van Gogh by Ted Macaluso
• Vincent and Theo: The van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman
• In the Garden with van Gogh by Julie Merberg
• Camille and the Sunflowers: A Story about Vincent van Gogh by Laurence Anholt
• van Gogh and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt
• Vincent’s Colors: Words and Pictures by Vincent Van Gogh
• Vincent Can’t Sleep: van Gogh Paints the Night Sky by Barb Rosenstock 
• L’Arc-en-ciel de Vincent / Vincent’s Rainbow: Learn Colors in French and English with Van Gogh 
• Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children’s History of Art by Michael Bird
• Vincent van Gogh Starry Night Dreamer by Alesandra Weekley
• Katie and the Starry Night by James Mayhew
• Katie and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew
• Vincent van Gogh & the Colors of the Wind by Chiara Lossani
• The Yellow House: Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin Side by Side by Susan Goldman Rubin

What’s your favorite van Gogh painting?

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