One of my goals when I started homeschooling The Daughter was to spend at least one afternoon a week on a field trip. We live in an area rich with resources and seldom take advantage of them. As a youth, my family lived in Fairfax County, a relatively short drive from our nation’s capital city, and I have wonderful memories of family trips to the Smithsonian, the monuments, the bike trail along the Potomac, and the many wonderful parks.
Despite the initial enthusiasm, it is all too easy, to get bogged down in the academic routine, and with Ian’s afternoon medical appointments (two a week for a while), and my over-committed volunteer schedule, the weekly field trip goal fell by the wayside, over and over. On Monday, as I flipped my planning calendar to April and reviewed my goals for March, this one was again unmet. With a sigh, I moved it forward onto April, and then determined it would be different!
In my life this week…
Ah…a week without deadlines! Nothing to do but homeschool, CLEAN, and think about getting back to blogging!
In our homeschool this week…
We are learning about late 19th century – early 20th century immigration; reviewing fractions, decimals and ratios; writing three point paragraphs and thank-you notes (now if I can just remember to get them in the mail); learning about the food shortages occurring all over the world; and starting a chapter on cartilaginous sea creatures – sharks and rays!
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
We were excited to get out this week and visit the Life of Christ Exhibit of watercolors by James Tissot at the Chrysler Museum of Art on Wednesday. Perfect for Lent, because this well designed exhibit of Tissot’s beautifully detailed watercolors truly carry one through the Life of Christ, from the annunciation, the birth of Christ, the childhood of Christ, the baptism of Christ, the teachings of Christ and finally the Passion of Christ. We visited just the first gallery of the exhibit, which focused on Christ’s birth and childhood, and the calling of the disciples. Next week we will move a little further into the exhibit, the next week a little further until by Holy Week we will be looking at the Passion works. We also slipped upstairs to see Grace’s favorite painting which is the gigantic Thomas Cole (American, Hudson River School) oil painting of “The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds.” This painting was used as the inspiration piece for The Daughter’s Christmas artwork by her Studio Art teacher at HomeSchool Plus. I sat on the bench taking in the immense work while she explained to me the significance of the poses of the three shepherds to whom the angel appears, the contrast of light and dark… Wow.
Friday, after working very hard to get caught up on our grammar, we visited the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center. We had visited earlier this year on a Saturday when studying pinnipeds (seals, sea-lions, walruses). It was so crowded, that it was hard to really take it in. It was much better on a Friday afternoon! We focused just on the Shark and Ray section, and plan to go back in a few weeks for crustaceans and coral.
My favorite thing this week was…
Getting out! It breathes fresh new life into study!
A photo, video, link or quote to share…
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
I have links embedded in the post above. And here are a few photos (taken with my phone – so the quality is iffy)…
Rabbit Trails 
I think my next “field” trip will be getting out into our yard, which looks like a field, and cutting it!
After that, I look forward to tagging along with you and your class to the Museums, the Zoo, the Gardens, the Civil War battlefields, Yorktown, etc., etc., etc.
Looks like a lovely week was had by all. My kids have been begging for a field trip. I need to get on that. We live close to one of the Guttenburg Bibles, so I’ve thought of taking them to see that. Thanks for sharing yor week.