Museum Fridays

When I first started reading about homeschooling I remember thinking that I really wanted to get out of the house and do things with my kids.  I am always dropping them off at babysitters while I work and then coming home to just get things done around the house.  I was sick of never going anywhere, never doing anything and not have the energy to do things when I did have time.  So, this year I figured out how few hours I had to work and still make ends meat financially.  So I work 10-12 hour days on Tues, Thur this year and half days on Mon, Wed, Fri.  Mon morning I do laundry and we just get things done around the house.  Wed we started doing puppet theater shows.  However, Friday is our go and do something day.  It seemed like most people did just a generic field trip Firday.  I went through a mental list of the places that I wanted to go that would also be fun/educational for my children.

One day in the middle of the summer while I was mulling these thoughts over in my mind I took Madalynn to the Museum of Art at BYU.  I had been reading about a quilt exhibit there and I really really wanted to go see it.  I had put off visiting things like this, because my kids can be loud and my daughter has lots and lots of meltdowns.  While we were there, they had this great section of the exhibit for kids.  At first I was a little worried about letting Madalynn get involved.  However, it turned out to be the turning point of our visit and then led us down the most amazing road of learning yet.  Madalynn sees me quilt all the time.  This exhibit was full of colored blocks that you could use to recreate/newly create a quilt design.  There were pictures all over the room of the quilts in the exhibit.  They were zoomed in to see the actual block pattern.  So I took her all over the exhibit one more time.  I had her pick her favorite.  I took a picture on my ipad and we went back into the room with the blocks.  I put the ipad down on the table, blew up a portion and let her go at it.  Remington was with us and he had his own fun throwing the blocks.  On this visit we learned about patterns, corrodination of colors, reviewed shapes, learned how to look at small details in a larger picture.  I could really go on and on about the things we talked about in those two hours.  Before the exhibit was gone, we have gone back to visit that room and review those concepts at least 5 times on separate occassion.  

The quilt she chose

The quilt block she built

These quilts were from Pakistan.  The couple that collects them explained each of the different fabrics, colors, use of thread, etc.  It was fascinating.  They had a bed covered in a quilt.  It never ceases to amaze me how small the beds are that people sleep in in other countries.  

Museum Fridays have become a favorite.  I tooks AP Art History in high school.  My mom took me to lots of Museums as a kid.  The two trips I took with my best friend in college New York City and DC we based around seeing art museums.  I took lots of Humanities/Music History classes in college.  I enjoy looking at art, learning about art...and my daughter loves drawing/painting/creating.  It is a way for me to teach her about art, the past and give her ideas in her own work.  It was perfect.  There are so many different kinds of museums within in an hour drive of our home.  The BYU Museum of Art has a new exhibit often.  The BYU Fine Arts building gets new exhibits each week.  There are two children's museums within 45 minutes of our house.  There are four dinosaur musuems within an hour and a half.  There are pioneer museums in abundance.  There are forts.  There are art museums at all three of the major universities within an hours distance.  I really could go on and on.  When I looked for a list of museums in utah online...there was a wikipedia list that popped up.  There were at least 30 on that list.  I can't wait to explore each of them in our own time.  

I will post what we see and learn each week.  Last here is one of my favorite pictures from Sept.  We were at the Springville Art Museum when I took this picture.

Hope you enjoy.