Birdcage Press: Go Fish for Impressionist Artists {A Review}

Birdcage Press sent us one of their beautiful card games.

Go Fish for Impressionist Artists ($11.99), ages 7 and up, contains 36 playing cards.  Of those, 32 are of details from impressionist art pieces from 8 different artists (Mary Cassatt, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Auguste Renoir, and Gustave Caillebotte) with each artist having his/her own number. Four of the cards contain information about the impressionist period.

The card game is accompanied with a booklet that gives information about impressionism, what was going on in history at the time, and the artists. The booklet also has rules for the games. All of which fit into a sturdy box with a magnet to keep the flap (that holds the book) closed.

Quote from the Booklet
"They were friends who painted side by side and posed for one another. They lingered over meals together, debating about art and life, and encouraged each other in big and small ways. Together, they created an art revolution."

It is so very cool to realize that these people with such unique talent shared their lives together.

How we used it
There are 3 games recommended: Go Fish for Art, Masterpiece Memory, and Art Pairs. We played and enjoyed all of them.

What I Liked
We love to visit art galleries and study paintings from home. I'm always looking for great ideas to get the kids to really notice details. Even in an art gallery, we play games where we group paintings that are similar. We play games where we describe a painting and someone else has to find it (like I Spy). My big rule is don't point, describe with your words. So this game is perfect for us. I especially liked playing art pairs. We made matches based on our own observations of similarities.

What did the kids have to say
Ceesa said that the choice of pictures was lovely. While we studied, several pieces by many of the artists before the pieces were all new.

Jo-Jo said that she liked that..."we could play the games and learn new artwork."

I'd like to mention here that we made it as far as the mailbox to the garage before the kids started playing.

What They've Learned
Ceesa learned how impressionist artists used the same ideas, and they used color, and how they developed their technique.

Jo-Jo said, "I learned the impressionist artists got their name because somebody (an art critic) said that their work was an impression of art."

Wishlist
My French is not great. I've never studied a lick of it. So while that has never stopped us from studying great artists nor playing the games, I would love to either have a pronunciation guide or a recommendation of a website that pronounces the names and titles of works properly, so we could learn!

Next up
We'd like to try the Wild Cards: Backyard Birds card game. We made a birding basket this past spring and they would make a lovely addition to it.

Warning/Note
One of the pieces, Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub by Edgar Degas, is well...you probably guessed it...a side view of a woman bathing.

Wishing you homeschool blessings,

 

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