(Photos by Chris and Wendy)
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Puppet show
I love our little town.
This week Neko participated in a FREE weeklong puppet camp at our local library. The kids spent the week crafting puppets and learning their stories.
As this sort of thing is right down her alley, Neko took the puppet-making one step further, sourcing her own material and teaching herself to sew in order to achieve her vision. Chanelling a bit of Jim Henson, that one.
I’ll have to take better photos later, but I must tell you even our beloved Ms. Teri said she was impressed.
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Field Trip #4: Canal town
This week took us to a neighboring town where they have maintained one of the few remaining canal boats. The town is a a step back in time, preserving many historic traditions.
Our group got a demonstration of how they used to make rope, and then met the horses who pull the canal boats. After lunch, and a whole lot of romping in the park, we got to ride the canal boat.
I’m loving this summer series, taking these kids to places they’ve never been, making their world view just a little bit wider.
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Pioneer village
The summer curriculum has moved on to the days of the pioneers. This was a perfect time to head out to a historical park I’d heard about, but never visited. A huge facility, they offered basket making, candle dipping, and countless demonstrations.
Shep lost a tooth while we were there, because he can’t seem to lose teeth at home.
Neko and Ellery bought period outfits to wear that day (Shep declined), and wore them until bedtime. Back in the thick of my own Little House phase, my mother made us matching Laura, Mary, and Carrie dresses. (There are pictures of us somewhere in a Japanese tourist album with my father in downtown Philadelphia. He was sporting a long beard and his suit that day, and I think they thought we were Amish.)
I want to start whistling the theme to Little House on the Prairie when I look at that last photo.
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Farmer’s Market
I agreed to man the kids’ booth at the Farmer’s Market today. I created a scavenger hunt for the kids to do around the market—so very fun to see them scurrying about with their clipboards, intent on finding the next thing.
I also let kids roll their own oats from oat groats. I confess, I didn’t know what a groat was until my thirties. I hope we can raise a generation of children who are a bit more aware of where their food comes from. The kids got to take home their oats, and I suspect there were a whole lot of cookies baked this afternoon.
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Field Trip #3: Art Museum
Off to the Other Big City for a trip to the art museum. I always try to schedule at least one art museum for each summer field trip series. There’s something awe-inspiring about those big columns and works of art that are older than our country.
After our tour, we went to the children’s area, where the children could explore art in a bit more hands-on way.
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Outdoor drama
Because I clearly don’t have enough to do, I’ve embarked on a small summer social studies curriculum in these parts.
For me, social studies was always a challenge.
There were all these dates that I could never remember. And all these white guys named John, Sam, or George. And then, for much of history, there were no photographs, which made it extra intangible.
Anyway, I thought this summer would be a good opportunity to do some hands-on learning about our world.
This week: Native Americans!
We read a whole slew of books, watched a few DVDs, and then, to cap off the week, I took Neko to see an outdoor drama about Tecumseh.
I made sure to get tickets to the backstage show, where they explained in detail about the guns that don’t shoot bullets, and how they pretend to fight and fall off cliffs. (Did you know most fake blood is made out of shampoo because it cleans easily out of clothing and hair? Fact of the day—check!)
I thought for sure that would take the edge off.
But I was wrong.
However, I did discover that no one really uses the “crying room” for evening performances. And it’s an excellent place to go to muffle the noises of gunshots and to discuss how the Settlers moving into Native American land is a lot like if some other family showed up at our door and told us they were now going to live in our house. So it wasn’t all bad.
Next week: Pioneers! (Where we’ll try not to hold a grudge, and just get excited about Laura Ingalls Wilder.)
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Field Trip #2: Farm
I love this photo. Nothing says midwest like a goat dozing in the sun.
I realize I probably haven’t properly described the Field Trip concept in detail, so it’s probably just confusing to some.
We live in a college town, so when summer rolls around, things get very quiet. Many folks head off to beach houses for months at a time or teach summer sessions overseas, families in tow.
However, our company runs year-round, which means we spend all but one week of summer in town. We hope to change that up some day, and spend weeks on end on summer adventures with our kids. But for now, we spend the summer as homebodies.
That first summer I got a bit bored in our quiet town, so I started planning field trips for myself. Once a week we would get out of dodge and go somewhere. Somewhere different and outside our normal routine, just to shake things up a bit. I begged people to go with me. Every now and then someone would come along.
Fast forward five years, and I’m releasing the list of field trips a month in advance, and all the slots for our nine field trips filled up within two hours.
Wow.
We love these weekly outings, and love even more that so many people join us.
I’d encourage anyone to take on summer field tripping. Even just one or two each summer. Round up some friends, because there are many things available to groups that aren’t available to individuals.
In a future post I’ll detail all the places we’ve been in the last five years. But in the meantime, I will pass along this one nugget—the one thing I’ve learned in all those years is how often, if you just ask nicely, people usually say, yes, they would love to have you come visit. And because we asked, good golly, have we had some rich experiences.
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Power up
There are not many dads who can crank out a Mario star on a whim. Especially ones that know how to handle sateen in a sewing machine.
That husband of mine? Top notch.
