Art Appreciation for HS – my plans & questions

Ok so for my high schooler I wanted to have them do a bit more indept but overall study on there own, nothing heavy or fancy on the “family” studies we do.  So art/picture, composer/music & poetry.  Just to deepen the experience.  Some are just very simple but more indepth than we do, some are further reading…(some you might not thing are ‘big’ enough but for us it’s good)

Intro to Music – Children’s Book of Music by DK w/ CD 978-0-7566-6734-4 

                                Independent study: Read book and listen to music CD

Intro to Art – Art in Story by Marianne Saccardi

                                Independent study: Read

Intro to Art & Music – The Great Courses: Fine Arts & Music

                                                Museum Masterpieces: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

                                                Taught by: Professor Richard Brettell

                                                DVD – 12 hours of instruction

Into to Poetry – The Roar on the Other Side by Rhodes

                                Independent study: Read

Here’s my thing these are/were all suggestions I have put together of the years and the ones I thought would be a good fit for what we were looking for.  I just got ART in Story and don’t know that it will work unless I am just not understanding how to use it for our purposes.  Would they really get a good overall understanding and better appreication of art just ‘reading’ this?  I didn’t understand it to be a book where you had to get all the additional materials.  What are your thoughts on this?

Is there something better they could read for my purpose?  It doesn’t have to be as elementry as the music option I picked, but yet there were many good things I really appreciated about it and the CD was a big part of that.  It can be for older students as I am talking high school here.

What have you used or done with these things?  Do you have some suggestions you have really liked?  Mind you my children will follow the ‘family’ studies of these through high school so this is not there ownly means of learning.  Thanks for your thoughts, suggestion and comments Misty