Homeschooling home run.

One of the perils of reading too many blogs by homeschoolers is that we often write about our best ideas and our best days.  Too much of that, and you can easily start to feel as if everybody is doing a better job than you are.

I'm going to contribute to the problem today by announcing that, in the middle of what has seemed like a month of half-finished, half-completed plans, a day finally came that was one of those bright spots, the "this is why we homeschool" moments.  Nothing dramatic; but after having read and discussed medieval China and the voyages of Marco Polo yesterday, I woke up this morning with the idea of going to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to see the China galleries.  

 

While I fed the kids oatmeal, I told them my plans, and warned them we wouldn't stay long.  The MIA is in the same part of town as our house.  We drove there, checked the coats, checked the turned-out-to-be-forbidden sling and got a stroller ("Um... do you think you can ride in this, MJ?"  "Yes!" she shouted.  So exciting), and went straight to the China galleries.  I had brought a sketchbook and art pencil for each child, and we went around looking at the bowls and ewers and iron horses and lacquered boxes.  Milo was the first to find something he wanted to draw, a bronze altar vessel; I made him sit on the floor, gave him his pencil, and let him draw (took the pencil away before he stood up---no five-year-old pencil-wielders in the art museum.)  

Oscar and Milo wandered and paused and sketched and pointed, and Mary Jane wiggled her feet and scribbled in her notebook.  I pointed out a bronze Pi Disc:

and she drew it, a little penciled doughnut, her first still life.

Oscar drew many things, and had to be dragged away from some as he added final details.  That's life when you've got two younger siblings to keep happy.

We left before anyone could get tired or antsy and had lunch in a Chinese restaurant before heading home.  What a pleasant morning.

Comments

[Christy P]

Ok, I'm most interested in the 'no sling' policy. I have heard of no-stroller policies. I have heard of other museums with 'no child in backpack' policies which makes perfect sense since someone unused to wearing a child on their back may not realize how thick they are and bump into something AND you can't monitor what your child may be reaching for all the time, but I have never heard of a unilateral no-sling policy. I wonder if you as a non-stroller user were hyper-aware of bashing into things with your unfamiliar implement?

HMMM I just looked at their policy, and it clearly bans baby backpacks, but not all baby carriers. Perhaps you encountered an exceptionally zealous staff member. Interesting.

[bearing]

I was told no child carriers, period.

Since I had the Didymos and intended to carry MJ on my back (she's too heavy anymore for long-term front- or hip-carry for me), once the security personel explained that the reason is the can't-see-the-baby-reaching issue, I immediately agreed to borrow the stroller. The Didy is equivalent to any other back carrier when it comes to not being able to see the toddler reaching for stuff.

I brought it because I was thinking the no-child-carrier rule was a no-backpacks-for-security-reasons rule. They don't allow big purses either.

[Laura(southernxyl)]

Your Mary Jane is how old? Small enough for a sling or stroller, anyway. That disk is outstanding. Seriously. The "circle" completes to make a closed shape, and then the round hole is placed properly in the center. Terrif.

I wasn't able to homeschool, but only having one child allowed me to supplement her education and do those cultural enrichment things - not all we wanted to do, but some. Now that my husband and I have empty-nested we have to remember that we don't have to stop doing that stuff, but it's a lot more fun when you have a young'un along.

[bearing]

MJ is a bit more than 2 and 1/2 -- let's see, thirty-one months old.

Yes, I thought the Pi Disk was great! She produced her first drawings of people just two weeks ago. I don't have any to scan.

Sorry the pictures were so fuzzy. I am a cruddy photographer, even with a supposedly idiot proof camera.

[mrsdarwin]

We went to the big traveling King Tut exhibit in Dallas after reading about Egypt. It was full of fabulous items, but we had a hard time getting close or looking for any amount of time since the sheer press of people was overwhelming. I don't regret going, but your visit sounds like much more the right pace for actually connecting with the art.