We spent two days in New York City. (Get a rope.) Our time was limited, so we saw only two things. The most important things, in our minds:

1. The Statue of Liberty (only from a distance)
2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Because the Met was so amazing, I am totally satisfied with our short time in NYC.

Taking a trip to an art museum — any art museum– is a wonderful experience just as is watching a Shakespearean play or listening to a live symphony. So if you have a chance to attend any type of fine arts experience, I recommend you take it whether you’ve studied the topic before or not.

However, after our trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, I am so thankful for our years of artist study. In a Charlotte Mason style, we study one artist per term, looking at one piece of art each day. We add on some simple biographical background and do at least one reproduction of the artist’s work. It doesn’t take a lot of time each day, but consistent exposure to art adds up over the years.

At the Met, both Sprite and I were able to appreciate the pieces on a much deeper level than simply thinking, “I like that one.”

For that matter, if we hadn’t done any artist studies, I doubt we would have been as interested in visiting The Met. Maybe we would’ve spent our few hours in NYC walking in Central Park or gazing in the expensive shops. That’s why I say that CM artist study “took us to The Met.”

We saw familiar pieces that we had studied before.

Van Gogh self portrait

Degas, Monet, and Picasso

Toulouse-Lautrec & Van Gogh

Picasso & Vermeer

Vermeer & Seurat

We saw art from historical periods that we had studied.

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Greece

We guessed at painters and were thrilled to see that we were right.

Renoir & Degas

We found favorites from our art calendar.

Of course, the objective of our daily artist studies is not to improve our experience at art museums. That is only a secondary benefit. Our trip to the Met verified that Charlotte Mason artist study  is providing Sprite (and me) a solid overview of art — both understanding and appreciating it. To see her recognize the works of various artists and be excited to visit The Met proves the value of a CM education.

Don’t underestimate the value of small but consistent increments of time.

[If you understand the "get a rope" line at the beginning, be sure to let me know in a comment. I couldn't resist.]

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Slave Haven or Burkle Estate

It doesn’t matter if field trips don’t match perfectly with what you’re studying. In fact, there are advantages of a museum visit long after or even before you’ve studied the topic.

1. REVIEW

For example, it has been some time ago since we studied the Underground Railroad. But our recent field trip to Slave Haven Museum was a perfect chance to review what we learned.

About Slave Haven

German immigrant Jacob Burkle ran the stockyards close to the Mississippi River in what was, at that time, outside of the Memphis city limits. According to folklore, his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Now the Burkle home is a museum that educates visitors about slavery, the abolition movement, and, of course, the path to freedom via the Underground Railroad.

A highlight was touring the cellar where escaping slaves probably rested and refueled for their long journey northward. Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed inside the museum.

Because another group was on the tour when we arrived, we had to wait outside for about 40 minutes to get our turn. But the weather was lovely, and the wait turned out to be well worth it. Our guide (Valencia or Malencia — there was some dispute about her name later) was excellent. She captured the attention of the whole group and patiently answered our questions. I do recommend the Burkle Estate museum for a homeschool field trip (grades four and up).

A museum visit long after your study brings those dormant facts back up to the surface and cements them into the memory once again.

A wonderful took for getting the most out of a “REVIEW” field trip is a K-W-L Chart. I had Sprite fill one out and add it to her history notebook. Before we even left home for the museum, she was beginning to review what we had learned.

You might regret that a field trip didn’t mesh perfectly with the timing of your curriculum, but allowing distance between the study and the field trip is often beneficial for learning. The brain needs time for that new information to simmer. Too much information on one topic can lead to overload where the brain just stops taking in new facts. So don’t worry about a field trip long after a topic of study. It will serve as a great review.

2. PREVIEW

Sprite Reading the TN State Marker at Burkle Estate

Even if we hadn’t already studied the Underground Railroad, the field trip would be an anchor for attaching that learning onto once we reached it in our curriculum. In education circles, this teaching strategy is called activating prior knowledge. As we read our living books, I would be quick to mention the things we saw at the museum which parallel or illustrate what we read.

Slave Haven

The bottom line is that field trips work no matter where they fit into the curriculum. First hand experiences that come from field trips are beneficial whether before or after formal study.

If you love field trips, visit Live the Adventure blog where the Prater family shares their travels around America. I’m sure that their explorations didn’t mesh neatly with their book work. But they take advantage of every historic site and museum that they can. Tonya even has a Field Trip Friday feature  on the first Friday of each month. From reading her blog, I’ve discovered another place we want to visit here in Memphis — the Pink Palace Museum.

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Although the city where we live has five million people, it’s not considered a big city. And culturally there are not many activities.  For example, our city has one all-purpose art and history museum with static exhibits.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t have opportunities for field trips. We just have to think outside the box. So far this fall, we’ve had two field trips, both free.

The “Old Person University” (direct translation) had a fall exhibit of work by the teachers and students.  Since Sprite and I are studying Chinese watercolor painting, we enjoyed looking at the work of artists at all levels.

One of the perks of this community exhibit was that some of the artists and calligraphers were on site. Whenever I saw a person at the exhibit, I asked if he had something displayed. These two artists were happy to pose beside their respective works for me, discuss them with us, and let us praise their work.

Here I am beside my teacher’s wisteria painting. I was so proud!

These men were visitors like us.

There was great variety in the pieces — old style Chinese characters, portraits, flowers, and landscapes.

The second field trip was to a factory that finishes glass (liquor) bottles or vases. Sprite found the process fascinating.

First the decals are created.

The bottles are sprayed with paint.

The decals are soaked in water and applied by hand to the bottles. This factory applies over 5000 decals a day.

We learned that the factory has a machine that can apply the decals, but when it broke, the workers started doing it by hand. The owners realized that the finished product was nicer if done by hand, so they have not repaired the broken machine.

Here is the bottle that Sprite made. She chose a lovely yellow flower decal that would normally go on a vase.

What field trips have you taken this autumn? Any more planned?

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my husband, daughter, and mom

Personally I think that our vacation to Yellowstone is the best vacation we’ve ever had. The vacation to Xian ranks second, but it’s in no way a contender for first place after we’ve seen our country’s first national park.  Granted, they are both dream locations, sort of “can’t go wrong” spots.

Yellowstone's Grand Canyon

Why did I adore Yellowstone?

• The natural beauty is so varied and gorgeous.
• The geology of the place fascinates me.
• Wildlife is everywhere!

Plus, we took my mom along with us. Spending time with her in such a beautiful location was truly priceless. (Love you, MOM!)

Actually, when you think about it, Yellowstone (Montana & Wyoming in general) is about as different from a Chinese city as you can possibly get. And I needed that. We all did. We needed a place where there are more animals than people. A place where there are big open skies — blue skies with clouds or stars. A place where people use manners and respect the wonders of God’s creation.

On Lake Yellowstone

Near Lake Yellowstone

Mammoth Springs

At Mammoth Springs

Surreal Landscape at Mammoth Springs

The Geology Nerd Loved Norris Geyser Basin (note thrift store windbreaker)

The Geology Nerd also loved this Boulder. We had to pull over for a pic.

Old Faithful Geyser

I have to say that I saw a Chinese tourist spit — hawk a big loud loogie kind of spit — into one of the geyser areas off the boardwalk. I was horrified, and other American visitors were too. I wanted to pull a “citizen’s arrest” or a junior ranger arrest and tell them a thing or two about how we treat our national parks. But they were already down the boardwalk when I picked my chin off my feet.  There were loads of Chinese tourists in the Old Faithful area.  In the cafeteria I kept thinking I was back in China as I watched them slurp the food straight off the plate just like they do here. I overheard conversations in Mandarin. It was almost disconcerting, like a “this does not compute” moment.

Check out the bear claw marks on this tree. We found this on our hike. Sort of scary. There are signs all over Yellowstone and Grand Tetons telling  you to be “bear aware.” We were told that bears have never attacked people who were in groups of four or more. Ah ha! So that’s another good reason to invite my mother along on the trip. (Just kidding, Mom.)

I have lots more Yellowstone Photos, so if these samples aren’t enough, go soak in the beauty of that Flickr set.  I uploaded only 200 of the 1000 that I took. Our trip was ten days, so that’s only 100 photos per day. And although it took me a very long time to organize them all, I often wished I had taken more shots.

Life in China Note –I took my 212 selected images on a SD card to the photo processing shop to have prints made. I told the clerk I wanted all the photos on the card. As she glanced over the thumbnails she said, “You want to print all these without any people in the pictures!?” It made me laugh. This is such a cultural difference. Westerners take mostly photos of landscapes and monuments. Asians take photos of themselves in front of landscapes and monuments. So to her, it was a waste to print out a photo of  “just a landscape.”  Actually, as the workers started looking at the full size images, they were impressed with the beauty of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone River

Elk

The bison were my absolute favorite animal at Yellowstone. I think they are beautiful animals. And I guess their comeback from near extinction appeals to me somehow. Is it bad to admit that I thought buffalo meat was delicious? We had buffalo pot roast, buffalo meatloaf, buffalo chili, and buffalo burgers. All were delicious.

Buffalo (Bison)

Since it was “summer” in Yellowstone (how 40-50 degrees F can be summer, I’ll never understand), the buffalo were shedding. In lieu of touching a buffalo, I hoped to find some of this shed fur on the ground. While on a hike along Lake Yellowstone, I found a clump! It was much softer than I imagined. I was sorely tempted to take it out of the park. But as a Junior Ranger, I know that taking anything from a national park is against the rules. Also the ranger told us about all the small animals who use this fur in their burrows and nests. So I was surely not going to steal a little warmth from cute chipmunks and marmots.  We kept it a few days and then discarded it back into nature before we left the park.

Trying on Shed Buffalo Fur

Speaking of “summer,” having a snowball fight in June was quite a novelty for us.

Even though I had read to be prepared for cold temperatures, we had no idea it would be so cold all day long. Some days I wore my pajama bottoms under my jeans for extra warmth. And we stopped in a thrift store in Bozeman to stock up on fleece sweaters. My Chacos stayed packed in my suitcase the entire trip.

Buffalo and Baby

Horse Riding Outside the Park

On our horse ride, early in the trip, I discovered this sage plant that grows all over Yellowstone. The air is full of the fragrant smell. Heavenly.

Sage

The park rangers at Yellowstone are amazing! Helpful, friendly, knowledgeable, they made our trip really educational.

We all four got our Junior Ranger badges at Yellowstone and at Grand Tetons. (There is no age limit contrary to what the publications state.) To get them, you can go to any visitor center and pay a small fee for the newspaper which you read and fill out as you explore the park. You also have to attend some ranger programs or take a ranger led hike. The Junior Ranger program at each park was very well designed. It really gave our visit some purpose besides just gawking. (Gawking is okay, of course, but it’s nice to have a goal in your gawking.)

We were looking for answers to questions, or filling out routes on a map, or timing Old Faithfuls’ eruption, or sketching things we saw. The newspaper is pretty much a nature journal workbook. Once you’ve completed it, you take it back to any visitor center and ask a ranger to look it over and issue your badge. It’s a proud moment when you finally get it.

Measuring Heat of Shooting Geyser

Sprite also did the Junior Scientist program at Old Faithful. She was loaned a backpack with rock samples, information about geysers, a stopwatch, and most fun of all a digital temperature gauge. She had a ball measuring the heat of the geysers and hot springs. She took notes of all her findings and reported back to the Old Faithful Ranger’s station.

A Moose in Grand Tetons Park

Roaring Mountain Really ROARS

Sunset Lake

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Tennessee is so beautiful. I constantly stare at the blue skies, drinking in the color like it’s water.

Look at these clouds.

It’s like they’re painted into the sky. We never (NEVER) see this in China. Instead, there is a chronic gray haze. So even driving down the highway becomes a visual feast for us.

Speaking of feast, we had a lunch cookout in the park.

(Maybe boring for you, but very novel for us.)

Sprite couldn’t remember ever cooking hotdogs and hamburgers over a charcoal fire. 

I was happy about not having to grind the meat or make homemade buns. Cooking in USA is so easy!

We took a trip to Ohio to visit some friends. (Actually we are still in OH.)

Since our route took us through Nashville, TN, we visited Andrew Jackson’s home — The Hermitage.

This is Jackson’s tomb in the garden outside his home.

This was a cabin on the property. The actual Hermitage was under renovation, so we couldn’t take any good shots of it. (But I bought some nice postcards instead.)

In Columbus, OH we visited COSI, the science museum. We kept pronouncing it “cozy.” Then at the end of our visit, as the museum was closing we heard an announcement that gave us the correct pronunciation — co-SCI (as in science). Oops! But “COZY” was fun and, in my opinion, second only to the Hong Kong Science Museum (which is free on Wednesdays).

Sprite and her dad built this man and dubbed him COSI CARL.

Since my husband was a printer many years ago, he loved this old printing press.

Sprite’s favorite thing was this Morse Code Telegraph.

After COSI, we walked to Phillip’s and ate some Coneys. We even sat at the counter to get the full effect. This is all in the name of cultural experiences for Sprite, of course. It’s part of the Great American Field Trip we’re taking these two months. (wink)

When the rain stopped, we spent a day at The Columbus Zoo. We all agreed that the polar bears were a favorite.

And anything interactive with animals ranks high with Sprite. Here she is feeding nectar to lorikeets.

My favorite was the Humboldt penguins.

Oh, I’ve not had any Mexican food my whole time in Ohio. I’m starting to go through withdrawal. MUST…FIND… TACOS….

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Our American history studies only got through WW2 before this trip to USA.  I was quite disappointed about skipping the Civil Rights Movement, but then I had a huge brainstorm. We can take a field trip that will pretty much encapsulate the entire theme — the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN.

The museum is at the former Loraine Motel, the place where Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. (Step one was helping Sprite remember the difference between Martin Luther, the Reformer and author of A Mighty Fortress is Our God and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Civil Rights Leader. There was some serious confusion until that was nailed down.)

My mom, who knows Memphis like the back of her hand, drove us downtown. We were not allowed to take photographs inside the museum, but we did buy some nice postcards. The museum is very well done and is very in-depth. I was glad that I didn’t bring Sprite two years ago on our last USA trip. She wouldn’t have appreciated it very much at all. Even at almost 11 years old, she tired of the detailed exhibits long before my mom and I did.  I would recommend the museum for middle school students and older.

I learned a lot that I’d never heard before. And my mom, who is an avid museum goer, was very impressed too.

Of course, what else does one eat in downtown Memphis but BBQ? (That’s the way we “spell” barbecue, here in Tennessee.) TOPS is one of the oldest and best BBQ chains here. It was delicious. Posters of Elvis Presley were hanging all around, and table top napkin dispensers were at each bright red booth. It really felt like home.

Sprite is a fan of BBQ. Of course. It’s in her genetic structure.

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I can’t tell you how many blank books and sketchpads I’ve purchased over the years. It’s the natural outcome when you’ve got a journaler (me) and an artist (Sprite) in the house.

Over the last six months, however, Sprite has also started to love writing. So we’re buying more and more lined journals. Thankfully even our small city has a wide variety of  inexpensive styles.

Sprite knows art supplies and books don’t count, and blank books fit right into that same category. How can I resist when she says, “But mom, I need a fresh book to record our Beijing trip?”

The night before our flight, we sat in bed and read over the materials I’d prepared — a history of the Great Wall, facts about the Forbidden City, and the symbolism of Beijing Opera masks. I had no idea she’s want to take notes in her notebook, but that’s what she did. I had to read slowly with lots of pauses in between to give her time to jot down the key ideas. Part of me was frustrated with having to go so slowly, but then I realized what an amazing learning activity this was! My fifth grader is learning note taking skills on her own accord and for something she would really use in just a few days! This was worth the investment of time.

About Chinese Dynasties

She left blank spots with plans for diagrams and filled those in the morning before we departed.  As I  packed, her dad scoffed, “Can’t we have a vacation without it being an educational project?” I assured him that I wasn’t forcing her to do this; it was all her own idea.  He countered that I don’t have to force her because I’ve already brainwashed her to convert everything into a learning opportunity. Okay. I admit it. And I’m proud.

Notes on the Forbidden City

a flag book from our minibook stash

The Great Wall

Beijing Opera

Just to prove this was not a school assignment, check out the spelling errors! I restrained my desire to correct her and instead simply praised her creativity, industry, and organization.

Sprite carried the notebook with her most everywhere we went in Beijing. I saw her referencing it at the Forbidden Palace and making sketches at the acrobat show. Yep. Totally brainwashed.

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I want to admit something before I show off the pictures from our latest adventure. When I see your blogs showcasing your recent trip to Gettysburg National Cemetery or to the Smithsonian or even to a plain old country fair, I get envious. Yes, I get envious because I “can’t” do that. Silly isn’t it? We certainly take our share of field trips, and many of them fall into the “ultimate” category. So why be envious?

I guess it’s human (IE fallen) nature to want what we don’t have. So just keep that in mind as you see the highlights from our latest dream trip –a week in Beijing! It was awesome!

At the Temple of Heaven

On the Great Wall (at MuTianYu)

On Tian An Men Square

Inside the Forbidden Palace

At Lao She Teahouse and Dragon in the Sky Shadow Puppet Theater

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A family field trip to a dinosaur museum!

I’ll start off with a photo that’s especially dear to my husband’s heart. The GASosaurus.

Gasosaurus

I’m sure you can imagine all the jokes that were flying about the gasosaurus’s special skills (think skunk-like skills). This pretty much made the museum for my husband. The next few days were full of jokes about this “exstinkt” animal. And the gasosaurus became the scapegoat for any bad smell around the house as well.  (Boys!)

Sprite was far more serious about note taking and sketching than I expected her to be. She certainly caused a few raised eyebrows among the staff and other guests.

Sprite sketching

Dinosaur notebook

Plesiosaur

sketching the plesiosaur

Isn’t this skull incredible?  It’s one of the most complete skulls of its kind in the world. Most impressive (and understandably behind glass).

carnosaur skull

THIS was a brilliant display! Not only could you touch this fossil and pose beside it, but you really got a feel for the immense size of some of the dinosaurs. And this is a front leg not a hind leg! (Because of the photo’s perspective, it’s hard to see that the bone on top is a shoulder blade.)

elbow high to a dinosaur

studying the claw

These dig site exhibits really fascinated me. It reminded me so much of the Terracotta Soldiers, unearthed and standing upright in their original tombs. These are real fossils, exposed but still in the earth. I love how the museum was built right around the dig site.

looking at fossils

In this portion we were able to watch museum workers gently brushing dirt from the fossils.

husband with fossils

Sprite stood there observing for at least 20 minutes. Her intense concentration on this field trip was amazing to me. I knew she was interested in dinosaurs, fossils, paleontology, and such. But I quite obviously did not grasp how much she is fascinated by the whole topic.

She asked the workers if she could come down and help. No luck with that. Not even the “cute foreign girl speaking Chinese trick” worked.

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Lei Cheng Uk Han Dynasty Tomb is an archaeological site in Hong Kong. It’s free, and we HAD to visit it while we’re here. Amazingly, no bones or bodies were found inside the tomb — only shards and such. Fascinating! No one knows what happened to the bodies.

Although the museum is super tiny, it’s certainly worth “free”  to stimulate Sprite’s interest in archeology. You get to peek inside the dig site through plexi-glass. The tomb is kept super cold. You can feel the air conditioning through the glass. Below is the outside of the tomb, under a protective shelter.

There was a nice video, some posters, and a few artifacts on display.

And Dad even went along on this field trip!

Hong Kong is such a wonderful place — so many cultural things like this are offered for free. We are doing our best to take advantage of it while we can. We will be going back into China sometime soon. The plans are in the works now.

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