Training Observation through Picture-Painting Activities

How would you like to be able to “go places” even while you’re stuck at your desk or inside the four walls of a room? Charlotte Mason describes the power of having a “picture gallery” in our minds of the sceneries we’ve seen:

Though she does not paint her pictures on canvas and have them put in frames, she carries about with her just such a picture gallery; for whenever she sees anything lovely or interesting, she looks at it until she has the picture in her mind’s eye; and then she carries it away with her, her own for ever, a picture on view just when she wants it. (From Volume 1 Page 50) 

The need for detailed observation

So, what do we do with the landscapes we enjoy? Let’s review what Miss Mason says about discriminating observation: 

Discriminating Observation.—By degrees the children will learn discriminatingly every feature of the landscapes with which they are familiar; and think what a delightful possession for old age and middle life is a series of pictures imaged, feature by feature, in the sunny glow of the child’s mind! The miserable thing about the childish recollections of most persons is that they are blurred, distorted, incomplete, no more pleasant to look upon than a fractured cup or a torn garment; and the reason is, not that the old scenes were forgotten, but that they were never fully seen. At the time, there was no more than a hazy impression that such and such objects were present, and naturally, after a lapse of years those features can rarely be recalled of which the child was not cognizant when he saw them before him. 

(Vol 1 page 47-48)

Have you experienced this, trying to recall a specific scenery but finding that it’s too hazy for our memory? I have! Now that I’ve read what Miss Mason says, it makes much sense! I probably had not taken much effort to commit those scenes to memory, or in other words, I probably didn’t really “see” them!

I want something more for my kids!

How to do “picture-painting” activities

Here is how Miss Mason describes the method of “picture-painting’: 

So exceedingly delightful is this faculty of taking mental photographs, exact images, of the beauties of Nature we go about the world for the refreshment of seeing, that it is worth while to exercise children in another way towards this end, bearing in mind, however, that they see the near and the minute, but can only be made with an effort to look at the wide and the distant. Get the children to look well at some patch of landscape, and then to shut their eyes and call up the picture before them, if any bit of it is blurred, they had better look again. When they have a perfect image before their eyes, let them say what they see. Thus: ‘I see a pond; it is shallow on this side, but deep on the other; trees come to the waters edge on that side, and you can see their green leaves and branches so plainly in the water that you would think there was a wood underneath. Almost touching the trees in the water is a bit of blue sky with a soft white cloud; and when you look up you see that same little cloud, but with a great deal of sky instead of a patch, because there are no trees up there. There are lovely little water-lilies round the far edge of the pond, and two or three of the big round leaves are turned up like sails. Near where I am standing three cows have come to drink, and one has got far into the water, nearly up to her neck,’ etc. (from Volume 1 page 49) 

Here, we can see practical instructions of how to encourage our children to commit a scene to memory. From what Miss Mason says, the steps can be as follows: 

1. Get the children to look well at some patch of landscape;
2. Ask them to shut their eyes and call up the picture before them;
3. If any bit of it is blurred, they had better look again;
4. When they have a perfect image before their eyes, let them say what they see.

Let’s read a bit more on what she says about this kind of exercise:

Strain on the Attention.—This, too, is an exercise children delight in, but as it involves some strain on the attention, it is fatiguing, and should only be employed now and then. It is, however, well worth while to give children the habit of getting a bit of landscape by heart in this way, because it is the effort of recalling and reproducing that is fatiguing; while the altogether pleasurable act of seeing, fully and in detail, is likely to be repeated unconsciously until it becomes a habit by the child who is required now and then to reproduce what he sees. 

How to See Fully and in Detail

Now, the challenge is on how to train our children to pay detailed attention to the landscapes before them. In this age of short attention spans, we may have formed the habit of seeing things half-heartedly, which causes us to forget them altogether all too soon. Instead, our goal is to train our children to see these scenes fully, so that they may enjoy them at the moment as well as years down the road! 

Seeing Fully and in Detail.— At first the children will want a little help in the art of seeing. The mother will say, ‘Look at the reflection of the trees! There might be a wood under the water. What do those standing up leaves remind you of?’ And so on, until the children have noticed the salient points of the scene. She will even herself learn off two or three scenes, and describe them with closed eyes for the children’s amusement; and such little mimics are they, and at the same time so sympathetic, that any graceful fanciful touch which she throws into her descriptions will be reproduced with variations in theirs. 

Here we can see that our role as mothers is very important! We help turn their attention on certain aspects of the scene before them. We even model what it’s like to remember a scenery with so much detail that the listener can almost see them in his mind’s eye! Take a look at this next paragraph:

The children will delight in this game of picture-painting all the more if the mother introduce it by describing some great picture gallery she has seen—pictures of mountains, of moors, of stormy seas, of ploughed fields, of little children at play, of an old woman knitting,—and goes on to say, that though she does not paint her pictures on canvas and have them put in frames, she carries about with her just such a picture gallery; for whenever she sees anything lovely or interesting, she looks at it until she has the picture in her mind’s eye; and then she carries it away with her, her own for ever, a picture on view just when she wants it. (from Volume 1 pages 49-50)

Training Our Children’s Observation Skills

Observation is one of the most important habits that Charlotte Mason advocates. We hope that this post on picture-painting can help you develop this habit in your children!