I’ve been teaching the kids all about the typical, famous painters such as Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, etc… that children often study. However, a unique opportunity came about, and I’m so glad we capitalized upon it.
The Ohio Historical Society recently had an exhibit called Rockwell’s America. So, I brought home a couple of books of Rockwell’s artwork. To my amazement, Norman Rockwell captured their interest more than any other artist we studied. I quickly understood why. Rockwell’s pictures tell stories, and many of those stories are about children. We often spent five or ten minutes on a single picture. I would ask the children what they thought was happening, we would search for clues in the pictures, and often we could devise entire stories around a single picture.
OHS’ exhibit, Rockwell’s America, was fabulous. It had a room of all his famous cover pictures from the Saturday Evening Post, a five minute film about Rockwell, and a series of rooms where you could literally “step into” his famous drawings. Plus there were lots of things for the kids to do – climb into a Model T or a WWII jeep, try on hats, baseball equipment, “work” a factory line, etc… They loved it!
While looking at Rockwell’s drawings, the kids loved the picture of the doctor examining the baby doll. So, we were so thrilled that they had a model of one of our favorite drawings!
The Dancer’s favorite picture was “Rosie the Riveter”. She was so happy to pose next to Rosie. The Dancer is definitely my daughter, isn’t she? 
