Review: Birdcage Press

Art appreciation and art history is not something that I was ever exposed to during my school years so, when I started homeschooling, I was really surprised at how much I enjoy it. My girls too! It really surprised me when I saw how interested in art Kayleigh was at a very young age.

So we were all really excited when Birdcage Press offered the Crew some of their fabulous art products. We received Art Close Up: Museum of Modern Art and have been having a lot of fun with it.

About Birdcage Press

The story behind Birdcage Press is a really neat one. It all started with one mom creating educational games and books for her children. The next thing you know, the games are published, winning awards and being sold in museums all over the world. How cool is that?

Our Experience

We received the Art Close Up: Museum of Modern Art card game. This particular card game focuses on works of art found in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. There are other close up games that focus on works found in other museums.

The deck consists of 48 cards featuring 24 works of art and 24 extreme close ups of each work of art. Artists include Degas, Hopper, Gauguin, van Gogh and more.

There are suggestions for five games to play that will help your child with art appreciation, memory and matching, and pattern recognition. Your game options are "Art Memory" (concentration), "Old Master" (old maid), "Painting Pairs" (a spin on go fish), "Masterpiece Match Up" (a whole new game for you to learn), and "Treasure Hunt" (field trip!)

The first thing that we did was just look at the cards. They are bright, sturdy, and colorful. Very well made. We layed them all out and matched the pairs, noting which ones we recognized.

Then we proceeded to play Art Memory. Several times. Mackenzie is a game lover and was as happy as a clam. Kayleigh was thrilled when she was winning. And when she found a painting she recognized. lol Not as much of a fan when she wasn't making a match. That's Kayleigh.

Mackenzie and I loved them all, Kayleigh would get a little frustrated with some of them. Partly because of her age and mostly because she doesn't like rules. lol But she loved the cards and found her own way to use them. She'd pull out her special art books and go through them, matching the cards to the works in her books. She just loves going through her books and matching.

The real reason I was excited to review these cards was because I wanted to do the art treasure hunt. Essentially, you take the deck to the museum, in this case the MOMA, and go through the museum and find the works on the cards.

Now we don't live in NYC, so I had planned to go to our local art museum and do a modified treasure hunt. We were going to hunt for other works by the artists on the cards. I was so excited to do this with the girls. I was crushed to discover that they were closed for renovations. Until 2014. Gah!!!!!!!!!!! Huge disappointment.

One day, I plan to do this treasure hunt at the MOMA. We are huge fans of NYC and will make it back there eventually. So it will happen. In the meantime, maybe we'll hit the National Art Gallery in D.C. and do a modified hunt there. Unfortunately we weren't able to do that in time for our review.

All in all, we loved these cards! Mackenzie asks to play the games at least once a week. They are a wonderfully fun addition to our art studies and I plan on owning more. My Crew Mates reviewed more awesome Birdcage Press products so be sure to click the link below and see what else they offer.

F.Y.I.

Website: http://www.birdcagepress.com

Age Range: 5+

Pricing: $10.95