Homeschool Group Field Trip to Museum of the City of New York

We went with one of our semi-local (NYC based) homeschool groups to the Museum of the City of New York for a class about childhood (and toys!) in old New York. Mikro was really good about riding the subway. He made fast friends with several of the kids, and I liked the moms. A good group of people, and we'll definitely do more events with them. The cutest thing was, Mikro attached himself to a little girl and squired her about the museum. He had his arm around her, and they held hands and walked together. So sweet! (Unfortunately, flash photos were prohibited, so I only got a blurry shot of this, but you get the idea...)





The kids got to play with some reproductions of tin toys, and they made "murals" of their favorite things about being a kid in NYC. Mikro doesn't really draw, so I asked him to tell me his favorites, and did a kiddie style drawing of his list of things... (but the bird/pigeon at the top center he drew himself!)



His favorites: dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History, the NY Aquarium, the Zoos, Coney Island, watching airplanes flying into LaGuardia and JFK, visiting his cousins, riding the subway, tourist buses (an obsession), Central Park, the Bug Carousel at the Bronx Zoo, pigeons, and ladybugs.

After the museum, we took the subway to Brooklyn and met Kevin at his office. He went out to lunch with us at Junior's, a restaurant famous for its cheesecake (which I did not have because the huge lunch portions were way too big for me to even contemplate dessert...)



And then we went to the Cabinet of Curiosities (aka Kevin's office).

Field Trip: Henry & Mudge at the Tarrytown Music Hall

We've walked past Tarrytown Music Hall, but today's performance marks the first time we've ever been inside the impressive old theater. There's a silhouette theme going on along the side aisles and in the balcony, and a beautiful river landscape is painted over the stage. The performance was wonderful. Mikro was moving in his seat to the music, and watched with rapt attention (until the last 10 minutes, when his capacity for sitting still was exceeded, and I had to have him on my lap to keep him quiet...) Predictable result-- he wants a doggie best friend now. I hope we can get our cluttered house into order by April so he can have a puppy for his birthday. But it's not looking good... Well, in the meantime, we will read about Henry and Mudge and their adventures.

Rambling On

I'm thoroughly enjoying homeschooling Mikro. He's a joy (99 percent of the time. We won't talk about the surly alien bodysnatcher who inhabits his body the other 1 percent of the time...) He's still very butterfly and insect obsessed. But now he's also into dinosaurs in a big way. We're reading a lot of little kid science, and some older kid stuff too. Mostly nature and animal related, some seasonal stuff, and some just plain fun books too (Skippyjon Jones is a current favorite.)

We've done far more running around than I ever thought my gimpy carcass could handle. Two trips to the Bronx Zoo in less than a month (once for their Holiday Lights show, once because someone begged us to go ride the Bug Carousel), the NY Botanic Gardens for the Holiday Train Show, AMNH yet again for dinosaurs and the origami tree and dinotopiaries, several plays at the Paramount Center for the Arts, and visits to the relatives for the holidays. All by public transportation. Which translates to pretty horrid pain, but I'm glad we did it, because my little boy was glowing with excitement. He had a great time.

Homeschool Nature Class started up again today. The kids learned about bones, and got to identify the parts of a deer skeleton. Mikro knew the skull, ribs, antlers, vertebrae, and a few more.

A Very Busy Day, Part 2: NYBG Holiday Train Show

The NYBG hosts the most amazing train show, with a host of New York landmark buildings, bridges and attractions modeled out of natural materials like bark, plant fibers, seeds, and such. It is simply amazing. We were lucky that it was indoors in the Conservatory this year, because the foul weather continued on and off. I have too many photos to post, and hopefully I'll eventually put them up on flickr. For now, here are some, with an emphasis on bridges and historic Hudson Valley sites.

A Very Busy Day, Part 1: Bronx Zoo, Again

This was an insane but fun day. We started off in a deluge at the Bronx Zoo, and I was so glad we brought Mikro's froggie raincoat, and that we were able to sit out the worst of the downpour at the Dancing Crane Cafe, on the bug carousel, and in the gift shop... Watching the peacocks dodge the rain was funny. I try not to anthropomorphize, but the poor bedraggled critters looked positively disgusted with the weather. We toured the reptile house (which Mikro really enjoyed, except for the part where they fed the cute fluffy bunny to the python...), and saw the birds of prey, then realized we were late for our tickets to the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanic Garden, and raced there on foot. It's a much longer walk than it looks. And with the damp, my arthritis was truly evil. But we pressed onwards... Which is another post, I suppose, due to the ton and a half of photos...

Happy New Year!

Wishing us all joy, health and peace in 2008!









Signs of progress: first time my noise sensitive SPD kid relished making earsplitting noise.