Corning, New York

Paul worked yesterday morning at the plant so he could join us on our field trip to Corning today. As you can see from the first few pictures, the boys were looking pretty sharp yesterday at church! In general I vastly prefer girl's clothing to boys' clothing (more fun to shop for, etc.), but I will say I do love seeinng my boys all dressed up for church.

This morning we left around 8:00 for Corning, NY. It's about 90 minutes due north of our home. Our first stop was the Rockwell Museum. We did a scavenger hunt on the third floor first. When the kids found one of the things they were looking for, they were supposed to put a sticker on the appropriate square. At the end they each received a prize of a small plastic animal. Then we went to the second floor and signed up for the dream catcher craft (there was a waiting list). While we were waiting for out turn we looked at the art work on the first and second floor and the kids also did some art activities. One was based on Andy Wharhol's works (they had many of his on display in the museum). Another was based on the Day of the Dead (as celebrated in South America). There were three art activities plus an artwork memory game, picture books, and a large magnetic puzzle of a masterpiece. Oliver did the puzzle.

After we made our dream catchers, we left the museum to have lunch and then drive to the Corning Museum of Glass. The kids got in free to both museums. I had purchased combination tickets for Paul and I to get into both museums. We spent about 2.5 hours at the Rockwell Museum. It was the kids first time visiting an art museum. I think these scavenger hunts make all the difference in the world for young children visiting a museum. We spent about 3.5 hours at the Corning Museum of Glass. This included visiting many exhibits, doing a scavenger hunt in the historical exhibit (which dated back to the Egyptians), and attending four demonstrations (glass breaking, glass blowing, etc.). Although in some ways the glass museum also felt like an art museum, we learned some history and even more science throughout the afternoon. One of the demonstrations was on fiber optics, and this evening when there was a little glitch on the tv while Oliver watched 15 minutes of Sesame Street during a breathing treatment, Nadia said "there must be a bandwidth problem" - which proved she was listening during that demonstration!

Similarly, yesterday when Paul was talking about how the Cowboys are an arch-nemesis of the Giants, she was confused and said "you mean like in the squirrel book?". I laughed over that one, but again it proves she was listening as they used that term to describe the squirrel's main "villain" in Nuts to You. After the museum we went to an OIP and shared a large cheese pizza for dinner before driving home. While we were waiting for our pizza to cook in the oven, I drilled Ian and Nadia on the three times table. They have almost mastered it! On the way up we had listened to one of the A to Z mystery books on cd (they are really enjoying that series). On the way back we started a Roald Dahl book on cd, and then I let them watch a Veggie Tale dvd for the last part of our drive. Oliver slept for most of the ride home.

The drive was very beautiful as the leaves are definitely turned more farther north than around our home. I love seeing the red, orange, and yellow leaves mixed in with the green. Gorgeous!

The kids wanted to a "make your own glass" experience, but they cost at the very least $21 per person, which would add up very quickly with three kids. I said it was something we might do in the future - maybe someone might give them money toward such a class for one of their birthdays or for Christmas. They do have some really neat things you can create out of glass yourself!

Going on many field trips is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling, although since today was Columbus Day we could have gone on this outing as a family today even if our kids were enrolled in a school. Our next scheduled trip is this Thursday to learn about owls at a state park.

P.S. I doubt the museum had four-year-olds in mind when they created the scavenger hunt, but Oliver did very well with it and actually was on more than one occasion the first person to find one of the things we were to be looking for. Way to go, Oliver!