Showing posts with label field trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label field trip. Show all posts
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Celebrating the Erie Canal
We took part in Tow Path Day along the Camillus section of the Erie Canal. A chance to celebrate and explore the history of the canal. The "tow paths" were where the mules would pull the boats down the canals.
We enjoyed music during lunch.
Lunch which featured salt potatoes-- a Syracuse summer meal standard.
Painted rocks.
Built bird houses.
Met baby goats-- fell in LOVE with them actually.
Met a very fancy and dressed up pig-- who owns several hats and a tiara.
Went down the canal on a replica boat.
Learned to spin wool into yarn.
It was a fantastic day and as homeschoolers, it was part of our ongoing study of the Erie Canal and Early American history. Yes, this took place on a Saturday--in the summer, and the kids learned quite a bit. We dont limit learning to specific days or months, and they are engaged in the learning as it arises.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
"I've Got A Mule and Her Name is Sal" Biking on the Erie Canal
And after all that hiking and biking the only natural conclusion....
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Strong National Museum of Play
Friday, April 10, 2009
My Children and TLC's "Table for 12" TV Show Collide at the MOST
What’s that saying about the best laid plans? We had a really nice day planned today. We were meeting about 5 other homeschooling families at the MOST for a morning of fun. We’d be leaving at noon so it would be a nice two hour block of time with friends. We were looking for something that would soothe our somewhat frazzled emotions with Dad out of town.
Well, saying it didn’t go as planned is really an understatement. After we paid for our admission (without anyone mentioning anything about a tv show) and started walking down the hall, we were greeted by a super cheery TLC producer who informed us that the TLC show “Table for 12” (described as a John and Kate Plus 8 spinoff) would be filming their season finally here and that we may end up on film and pointed in the direction of the little sign that if you enter you agree to be potentially on the show. Cool I thought-might be fun to see. Nope-not really.
So obviously there’s twelve in this family-fine, cool, good. But that wasn’t really the problem. It was the apparent 20 or so TLC camera men, audio people and producers that really mucked up the day. I do understand that you are filming a TV show, I do get that; however the little kids that are getting stepped on and pushed aside who actually paid to attend the museum don’t get that. About halfway through this I started getting a bit annoyed. We kept kind of moving to get away from the throng of camera people as Meg was getting increasingly scared of all the lights and the boom mikes and so on. We were in the cave section and doing some excavating when the entire production moved in and nearly swallowed my kids whole. The TLC people were so concerned with getting their shots that Meg got stepped on twice by camera men (who didn’t even budge I guess for fear of a shaky shot or something). My son got trapped in the excavation pit becuase the camera men all stood ontop of the stone miniwalls that surround the pit preventing him from exiting. He even said excuse me several times and nothing. I eventually had to lean in and pick him up and out over the camera man who didn't want to move since he was filming. Filming:fine--Blocking exit from scared kids not on the show: not fine. Then there were the two women who while following the clan stopped to have a conversation in between Michael and Meagan and the exhibit they were looking at (the kids were like three feet away so they could see it and they stood right in front of them). People stood in front of my kids while they were working on something , they stepped on my kids while filming and walking, and they bumped into and off of us like bumper cars.
But even more disturbing was the apparent attitude of the production crew that this was their day at the museum and all the other people (us) were in their way. I don’t blame the kids of the show because they are kids and they were being shown that this was their gig and there’s no reason not to step in front of another child who is doing something and take over because the cameras follow them as they do so and help further nudge any *non show* people right out of the exhibit. (Unless it made a good shot then the non-show people could stay). In the pics below Michael and Meg are excavating and then --WHAM!! tv show swoops in
So we left early. Meagan in tears frightened of the scary camera and light people and Michael frustrated by the fact that he couldn’t seem to escape the mayhem and enjoy the museum.
My message to the MOST and any other establishment taking part in reality television filming: Please… let the paying patrons know of the disruption before they pay so they can make an educated decision **or** allow a free or discounted fee for those patrons who may have their visit impacted by a television show filming.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Museum Days
Whenever we took kids to a museum for example in public school they kids were usually beyond hyper (and we teachers were secretly glancing at our watches wishing it all to be over and hoping no one goes missing in the next 4 hours). Why? Well in their minds they weren’t on their way to a hands-on learning expedition as the teachers thought they had planned or that their parents had paid for. No, they were going to anywhere that wasn’t a school building and wasn’t going to make them sit in a desk all day. They were going to socialize (homeschool humor). The kids felt free and they wanted to run around, hang out with their friends, chat, and the all important part of ANY school fieldtrip-eat lunch (because the lunch typically brought on a field trip usually far outweighs a school lunch any day). So these kids are so excited for one of the maybe 3 field trips they go on in a year that really any learning is way down on the list of things to do. So generally ask a public school kid after returning from a field trip how it was and I’ll bet you ten dollars the first thing you hear about is lunch followed by the bus ride.
Homeschooled kids, at least mine, go to the museum a lot. (We actually visit the MOST at least every three weeks) So the whole magic of being someplace new is dampened, leaving room for …learning. The don’t have to run quick and explore everything fast, they know the layout and they know we’ll be back soon. Each time we go, their little brain seems to circle in on a new exhibit. Michael remains a steadfast geologist—always finding some new part of the exhibit to be mesmerized with but took a real interest in sound waves today.
Today, Meagan took a real interest in blood clotting. She spent a lot of time at the lava-lamp like clotting module watching the little red gobbules wrestle their way through the artery without getting stuck. 
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