Romulus and Remus

Field trips that tie-in to a study on Ancient Rome can be hard to come by. I was delighted to take the boys to see this statue of Rome's founders, Romulus and Remus being cared for by their adoptive mom!

Washington DC field trip, part 2

 This was a flying trip (we had about a day and a half) but since everything we wanted to see is so close together, we were able to see an amazing amount in that short time.

 We ALL loved the conservatory at the Botanical Gardens. They had a display of all the major buildings, constructed out of all natural material like bark and pine cones. Amazing!

 We hadn't planned to visit the Museum of Natural History, but I'm glad we did. Evolutionary content abounds, but the Hall of Mammals and the Ocean Hall were spectacular.

 Z Man and Easter Island friend.

 The Library of Congress was stunning. Easily the most elaborate building we saw. Tile mosaics everywhere, murals, stained glass. Stunning.

 On display is one of only three perfect Gutenberg Bibles in the world. Their other bibles, most hand-lettered and painted, can be explored using the interactive display.

 Moses oversees the research room along with Shakespeare, Plato, Heroditus and others.

Look, this is where Riley and Ben sat in National Treasure!

With just a couple hours left until we had to leave, we decided to split up. Mark and the boys went to the Air and Space museum, which they all LOVED, and I went to the National Gallery. All I could do was thank God for allowing me to be there. I saw Rembrandts, Vermeers, Monets, Van Goghs, and the only Leonardo DaVinci painting in the western hemisphere - oh, it was glorious. Overwhelming. In a good way. We can't wait to go back!

Washington DC field trip

We were blessed to be able to go to Washington DC last weekend. Little Man competed in a flag football tournament nearby and, even though they didn't win, we all had a wonderful time. 

 World War II Memorial

 Museum of American History

I loved finding all the places where the faith of our founding fathers is carved in stone.

 The Capitol, all dressed in scaffolding

Fun with the Washington Monument

Possibly my favorite picture of the trip. It was a perfect day, we were walking along the reflecting pool in the sunshine toward the Lincoln Memorial, deep in discussion. A moment. So glad I have a picture of it. And, yes, he is officially taller than me now.

Louis Comfort Tiffany

It's taken me a little longer than I anticipated to get back to that post about the Tiffany stained glass that I promised you. Sorry about that! Life got a little busy. 

But without further ado, here are our pictures of the Willard Memorial Chapel in Auburn, NY. It is the only existing chapel in the world that was completely decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany. 

He designed not only the stained glass windows, but the tile mosaic floors, the pulpit, the gold leaf stenciled ceiling and even the pews. It is stunning! Two sisters originally commissioned it in 1892 to honor their deceased father.

The chapel is now open to the public and is used for concerts and weddings as well. It was sold to a NYC antiques dealer in the 1980's and he planned to sell off all the stained glass and then turn it into a nightclub! Thankfully, a group of citizens joined together to raise enough money to buy it from him. Whew!

This is the glass tile mosaic side panel of the 

gilt bronze relief in the picture just above it.

The enormous pipe organ

Our tour guide said, "how would you boys like to see what's underneath this pipe organ?" 

She even let them preach!

This is a close-up of the front of the pulpit.

And when it was time to go, our guide let the boys find the secret panel where the light switches are hidden and turn off the lights. 

We all agreed that it was definitely worth the trip!

The Underground Railroad

We had a great week studying the Underground Railroad. Among the books we read were:

  
Wanted Dead or Alive: The True Story of Harriet Tubman
  
Follow the Drinking Gourd (with great FIAR lessons!)

  
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt

  
The Drinking Gourd


That last one isn't the kind of book I would normally choose to read to my kids. In it, the child lies and his father, a deacon in the church(!) tells him that he's done a good job. I decided to go ahead and read it to see if they could spot "the end justifies the means" thinking and I was thankful that they could and that we could discuss it, since that thinking is so prevalent in our society today.


We listened to Follow the Drinking Gourd performed and explained.
We also listened to some great negro spirituals:
Go Down Moses, sung by Louis Armstrong, and
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, belted out by Etta James


And, of course, we looked up at the night sky to find the Big Dipper (the drinking gourd) and the North Star!


At the end of our week, we made the trek to Auburn, NY. It was well worth the drive! 

We visited the Harriet Tubman home and visitor center and received a great personal tour. Our tour guide was wonderfully knowledgeable and so passionate about her subject. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

We were also able to visit the Seward House, which was fascinating. Oh my. This family saved everything. I can't begin to tell you. They even saved the blood-stained, knife-slashed sheet from the assassination attempt on William Seward on the same night that Abraham Lincoln was shot. I SO wish I had been allowed to take pictures inside. The library was amazing! And the paintings! I'm so glad we went.

We crammed a lot into our day in Auburn but this post is getting quite long so I will wait to tell you about the Chapel completely decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany but, rest assured, it was stunning!

Baseball Day

We all spent a wonderful day at the Baseball Hall of Fame last week. Highlights included:

• a video conference with the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory. Did you know major league players have their own personal specifications for their bats? One player could even tell that the grips of his new bats weren't right - although it turned out they were 5 one thousandths of an inch off.
• Science on the Sandlot - We learned why there's a sweet spot on a bat, how energy is transferred from the bat to the ball and how the ball actually squashes when it hits a wooden bat but not an aluminum bat.
• Baseball Art - especially the Norman Rockwells!
• A very old film of Babe Ruth "calling the shot."
• Old footage of Abbot and Costello performing "Who's on First?"

And these two have been playing baseball in the side yard ever since. Bring on the season!

15 Miles on the Erie Canal!

Our TruthQuest History studies brought us to the amazing Erie Canal this week. At 363 miles long, it was the longest in the world, built in the least amount of time, for the least money. It also seems to have had quite a few folk songs written about it, some more colorful than others. But that's what the "fast forward" button is for, right?

We read some great books:

The Erie Canal by Peter Spier - filled with those wonderful, see-something-new-every-time-you-look-at-them illustrations;

The Amazing, Impossible Erie Canal by Cheryl Harness;

The Erie Canal by Samuel Hopkins Adams - a wonderful gem in the old Landmark series.

Then we decided to go to the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, NY and take a little ride on an authentic packet boat!

Well, OK, the boat was stationary, but we used our imaginations.

Captain Z

We're not exactly sure where people slept if they were taller than a five-year-old.

Probably the floor.

The museum is housed in the only surviving "weigh lock" building in the world. Boats were put into the lock, the water was pumped out and the boat was lowered onto a wooden cradle suspended by spring arms. Once it was weighed, water was pumped back in and the boat was on it's way. All of this was done in 15 minutes!

This interactive display allowed you to drag the boats in, weigh them and collect the tolls.

It was a great way to wrap up our study of the Erie Canal!

Day at the museum

To wrap up our study of photographer Ansel Adams, the boys and I went to an exhibit of his work! Thank you, Mom, for financing our field trip!

We couldn't take pictures inside, but the boys were happy to pose on the front steps for me.

Before his death in 1985, Mr. Adams selected a group of photos that he felt best represented his work and this show contained about two thirds of those, in addition to some of the camera equipment that he would have used. It was wonderful to see the prints up close.

Among those we saw were Monolith: The Face of Half Dome and

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.

Our favorite biography in this study was Ansel Adams: America's Photographer.

We also watched a nice interview from 1983 on YouTube here. It is in four parts and that link takes you to the first. The other three can be found on the right side of the screen. I can't really recommend the Ric Burns PBS documentary. It seemed to me that they misrepresented him and there were a few things that weren't suitable for younger viewers.

All in all, we have enjoyed this artist study immensely and I think we all have a new appreciation for the art of photography.