Field Trip

I've posted before about participating in the Virginia TimeTravelers program. Today we headed to the P. Buckley Moss Museum. The museum was a nice break to our summer day. The museum is located 40 minutes from us, right off the highway, and I didn't mind burning the gas since admission is free.

The museum displays the art of P. Buckley Moss (in case you were wondering.) Though the museum is not designed for kids it does have two favorable attractions for children. The first that Moss' art certainly captures the imagination and my kids loved looking at the different landscapes and people in the paintings. Second, on the bottom floor they display a large doll house where 20+ mice are hidden, and for the kids to find. We counted up to 25, but were told there were more.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds, where the squirrels are a little to use to people as one came very close to us. No, I'm not afraid squirrels, but afraid of what my children might do if a squirrel was close enough to touch.

And then we headed to Target. Obviously I did not learn my lesson from yesterday but I am still on the search for cheap swim goggles and there was a Target behind the museum. This time my trip to insanity was rewarded.

And, when I say "behind the museum" I mean RIGHT behind the museum (which is kind of a shock when you look at the museum's picture on their website and it appears to be in the middle of no where.) Actually, as we drove to the shopping center's parking lot I saw a path from the Museum property to the shopping center. Now that would have been fun; schlepping the kids across the museum property, across the parking lot, through Target, back across the parking lot and then up the museum property.

A Stop In Winchester

Yesterday we visited the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum, located in Downtown Winchester. The kid's favorite exhibits included the Simple Machines (playing with apples) and the Raceway room (rolling golf balls).

The stop was a nice break from our two-hour drive home, and even nicer since we have a reciprocal membership to the Harrisonburg Children's Museum. This means we can visit most (probably all but I haven't verified that) children's museums in the country for free. The money spent on a membership is well worth it if several museums are located near you, or your family travels often.

If your family finds yourself in the Winchester vicinity then stop at the museum for some play time. The museum itself is small, but the exhibits are all interesting and your child(ren) will find their favorite and probably want to spend hours there.

After your visit take time to explore the Downtown Pedestrian Mall, where the Museum is located. Better yet, plan a date (while the weather is still warm since it is an outdoor mall) with your girlfriends and head out without kids. There is a lot to explore, stores, boutiques, bakeries and restaurants.

With or without kids Downtown Winchester is worth the time to explore and enjoy.

You Need to Keep Them Close

Virginia has this great program called Virginia TimeTravelers, encouraging families to visit museums across the state. For each participating museum you visit the kids receive a stamp in their passport and after so many stamps they receive a certificate signed by the governor.

The Virginia Quilt Museum is one of the participating museums. The museum is close to us, it is small and sounded like an easy stamp, so I thought why not. Well, I can think of several reasons why not, the big one being kids and quilts don't exactly equal a good time. At first I thought of making our trip a scavenger hunt by giving them a list of special designs, colors or quilts to find, but after checking the museums website I gave up on that idea since they don't show pictures of all the quilts. Then I thought of introducing them to geometry, or whatever mathematical whatever is associated with quilts. OK, so I just explained why that little idea didn't work; plus my oldest is 7, and none of them are Doogie Howser material. Then I saw that the museum has a Children's Room, bonus...let's go.

Before arriving I gave them the "so help me God if you don't behave" talk. We entered, I sat them on a bench so I could pay the nice lady behind the table. During this time my lovely angels discovered that the bench they were sitting on could move, and so began the shoving match, over the bench, trying to move it, with children wrestling one another. And this is where I found the title for this posting, once the kids were settled (and sitting in opposite ends of the room) and we paid our admission the very nice lady sitting at the table said "now you will need to keep them close." ".... Ummm, ... thanks."

Off we trotted, with much improvement in our behavior. We checked out the quilts, stood amazed at the old fashion sewing machines "you mean they peddled them, they couldn't plug them in?", tried to talk about patterns, pictures, and sewing techniques, and browsed the gift shop. Here, at the gift shop, is where we lost our new found composure. My oldest has sticky fingers, and not because they are always in his mouth. (No, he doesn't shop lift, he just likes touching everything. He is a tactile kid.) He likes to touch everything. So does my 3-year-old, however my youngest is still learning, my oldest should ... SHOULD ... know better. We both lost our composure when he, one too many times, reached to pick up something and I swapped him upside the head, a little too hard considering there was a lady standing next to us who probably noticed the loud "thud".

Oh, and for the Children's Room, it was closed due to a needle point, or some crafty type, guild meeting downstairs where the Children's Room is located. Oh well, I kept my kids close to me. We survived our visit, as did the quilts, and the kids received one more stamp on their passports. But one would think that if a museum is participating in a program for children their activities for children would be accessible, but that's just me thinking aloud. Plus, and this is just a suggestion, post some information on how quilts use mathematics, or their designs come from geometry, or whatever it is. True, quilts are amazing in the techniques used, designs, and colors. But there is a whole intellectual element that seems to be unexplored. Oh, can anyone else see the SOLs developing?