Home School Field Trip

On Friday, the boys and I decided it was the perfect opportunity for us to go on a field trip.

This is another wonderful aspect of home schooling. We can pick when and where we want to take our field trips.

Over in Wausau, there is an Art museum called the Leigh Yawkeye Woodson Art Museum.
This museum is a hidden treasure.  They bring in new art exhibits every few months, but what really makes them a gem is their passion for making art, kid friendly. They even have a room in the basement designated just for kids and to play.  One of the best things about the museum, besides the activities they plan for kids around the current art exhibit, is the fact that there is no admission fee.

So let me spell it out clearly for you, they love kids, and it doesn't cost anything.

All this equals a perfect field trip opportunity.  Especially because of the current art display:

Does this book look familiar to anyone?  The artwork inside it is truly spectacular.  Very colorful,  full of imagination and whimsy, and extremely detailed. The art exhibit was all about the paintings that are the originals for the illustrations in the book. The artist, James Turney, really put a lot of time, planning, and creativity into his art. The art work is really spectacular.

I was especially interested in taking the boys to this exhibit because my boys have liked dinosaurs for a long time. Tate especially went through a serious dinosaur phase, where I'm sure he had most of the names of the dinosaurs memorized, even though he could hardly speak well enough to pronounce them.  I saw this as a perfect opportunity to expose them to an art museum, but with the ability to keep it interesting for them.

The museum also has a wonderful garden full of statues located along the paved walking path. Unfortunately both times we've been at the museum, the weather has been poor and we haven't really been able to enjoy it as much as we could.  We need to plan a trip when the flowers are in bloom and the weather is fair.

The kids really enjoyed the museum.  They liked the dinosaur paintings a lot. It was a good opportunity to draw their attention to different styles of art. It also gave me the opportunity to build into them a little appreciation for art and to inform them of many of the steps that go into the creation of a painting.

After our foray into the arts, I wanted to take the boys for a special treat. 

I had just the place in mind:

Sorry, but you'll have to wait for the next blog post to get the details.