Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A few Fridays ago, we went to the Walters Museum in downtown Baltimore for a bit of culture. A friend of mine got the ball rolling, and random events led us to a small homeschooler group meeting at the museum. So the girls and I strollered up Centre Street to find out about the Heroes of Ancient Greece.

The museum's children director did an excellent job and Anna was fascinated by her narration of Heracles and Ulysses. We couldn't take pictures in the exhibition halls, but she had the kids under sheepskins crawling out of Polyphemus' cave and wrestling a duct tubing sea monster. She ended with the kids sing the teapot song like so:
"I am an amphora from ancient Greece.
Here are my handles, here is my scene.
I am made of clay and painted black.
Ancient history on front and back."
It was very cute and well done. The final part of the class was an art activity, which was not so thought out. The kids were to color circles which would be their hero sign and glue it to a folded piece of foam which would be a pocket. Glue the pocket to an apron which you could twist behind you to be a cape? Lackluster, but the girls had fun coloring.

(The final apron product was a sad story...the marker never dried because it was plastic and after a week of sitting on the desk untouched, it found it's way into the trash. The next day, Anna asked for it for the first time and was very sad that it was gone. Tears and regret.)
Seriously though, how do you discern what to keep and what to toss? I grew up getting to keep almost anything and my room was full of...junk, really. I've since turned a 180 and now throw away wedding albums...just kidding...but I do get rid of a lot. I don't want to throw away my kids' treasures, but I don't want unimportant paraphernalia cluttering up our lives. Looking for a line to walk...

2 comments:

  1. Is Anna a lefty? Sweet!

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  2. Anonymous9:00 PM

    I don't Rob will ever forgive you for giving away the Nintendo. You didn't throw your stuff away but you certainly threw our stuff away.
    Love Aunt Katie

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