Category: Museum

Field Trip: Fort York

12/1/2016

Oh how I enjoyed this field trip. We all did. The cannons, the stories, the walking around. This was a great field trip that I would happily do again. Fort York is a great story about the people at the start of Canada as a country.

I have to admit, I took so many pictures here it's hard to choose which pictures to share with you all. :) When we arrived we were greeted by a friendly lady who gave the boys an activity/remembrance token for coming, she directed us to an information area and told us about a movie that they played.

We first took in the museum information area. There we saw the first stamps of Canada, the coins, learned about First Nation involvement, learned how both sides of the War of 1812 declared they were winners because neither side lost.

After this we took in the movie. It was played over three screens and was quite interesting, giving us lots of information. This led us to part three of the museum, a walk through history. I thought this section really well done.

This walk through history led us to the pathway that led to the restored Fort York. Some buildings were erected from stones found, others were built according to original specs. Almost all held artifacts, and each building had an introductory plaque at the entrance.

Isn't this tree magnificent?

The boys thought it would be fun to pose in the guard house.

Hmm.. let's see what else can I share with you?

We saw the stark difference between the enlisted men and the officers quarters. I found it quite amazing in fact...

enlisted men bunks and eating area.

Officers room and eating area.

Different buildings were dedicated to different pieces of information, from seeing how the officers and soldiers lived, to observing the placement of cannons, learning about the different weapons and uniforms, and bugle calls all had meaning as well.

One of the things that happened in the battle at Fort York was when they blew up the magazine, it killed so many of the attacking Americans, the devastation was so sudden. One of the last areas we visited walked us through the attack and blow up of the magazine. They couldn't let all that gunshot end up in enemy hands.

I appreciated reading the first hand reports of the men involved.

One of the last places we visited was the well. My son was so disappointed as the well didn't work. It was sealed off.

And check out this beautiful tree!!! Yes, the colours were changing and this tree was just so very lovely I couldn't pass it up

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at Fort York. There is so much yet I could show you but why would you have a reason to go visit it yourself? We did a self-guided tour and it was interesting and great exercise transversing the yards.

Price to get in:
Adults: $9.00
Seniors (65+): $5.50
Youth (13–18 yrs.): $5.50
Children (6–12 yrs.): $4.25

Hours of operation vary, so check the website before you go.

Field Trip: Guelph Civic Museum

11/24/2016

One day I had to run up to Guelph. I had two or three rabbits to sell, and the folks could meet me there, so the lad and I decided to make a day of it. Do you know that Guelph has very little in the way of museums to visit? Oh my. BUT we did make it to two museums, I talked about the McCrae House already, so today I will talk about the Guelph Civic Museum.

The Guelph Civic Museum is given over to telling the stories of Guelph. It has a variety of exhibits, from static information, to wildlife displays and more. It is a somewhat larger museum...with I think three floors. If you pay entrance to the one museum, you gain entrance on the same day to the other. It did take us a while to figure out where it was... but obviously we managed.

So if you go, this is the building and location for you. :)

One of the first things we saw upon entering the museum was this neat piece of art work. The lad and I both said "WOW" when we saw it. Isn't it neat? All the swirling motion that gets you all caught up.

One section of the building was given over to clothes designed by a person I can't remember. AH See.. this is why I take pictures... clothes for a wedding back in 1905.

Guelph is a town built on an agricultural background, much in it's current production still reflects that...housing one of Canada's vet colleges, having a research station and what not.

They had this lovely set for a garter snake that my son was quite taken with.

They had this interactive area which my son and I spent a lot of time in. Levers to pull, cranks to turn, dials to spin and they all did something. They didn't all work exactly the way they were meant to due to abuse by other visitors, but it was fun none-the-less.

Guelph Civic Museum. Filled with agricultural tidbits and lots of information about the founders and First Nation relations and interactive elements.

Go on, have fun, learn some local history.

Field Trip: Joseph Schneider Haus

11/16/2016

Taking some time to get caught up on some field trips we've done this year and thought you might like to hear about. We visited Joseph Schneider Haus I think back in August this year. Located in Kitchener, right off Victoria Park, the day was hot, we stopped for a run in the sprinkler pad and when cooled off walked up the museum, and cooled off again on the way back.

It's good to go out with a boy child, just mom and lad exploring. This day took us to the Joseph Schneider Haus in Kitchener, Ontario.

As we walked up along the tree lined road my son exclaimed.."Oh.. Is that where we are going mom? The place with the garden?" When I replied yes, he ran ahead and found his way into the garden. He discovered currant bushes! BUT I pulled him away and said..."let's explore inside first and get cooled off again, then we'll come out later to the garden and get hot before walking back to cool off again". :) He agreed that it was a good idea.

I LOVE when I got museums with my lad and we are the ONLY people there other than staff. I find the staff are more easy going and you learn so much since they don't have to divide their attention. Today was no exception to the rule.

This young man, I regret I can no longer remember his name, was a delightful guide and interacted so nicely with my lad. He asked my son good questions and actually WAITED for a response before continuing his history lesson for us. He was doing a summer internship at the Haus.

Part of the house was dedicated to the Mennonite people and how they can raise buildings quickly. We were able to see a frame model of the haus, and also watch a time lapse movie of a barn raising. It is startling how quickly a barn can go up.

They had a few quilts and pictures up in the area as well.

Going through the rest of the house, we were able to talk with the kitchen staff (dressed in period costume). They were very friendly as allowed us to take a few of their currants, telling the lad he was more than welcome to eat some fresh from the bush out in the garden later.

Then our young guide pointed out some interesting aspects to the kitchen, what they restored, what they guessed at and showed us the inner workings of their clock and how it keeps perfect time...just five minutes off the hour.

Much of this pottery came from the house and/or from relatives of Joseph Schneider.

More scenes from the house.

As interesting as this small museum was for us, my son was delighted when we finally made it outside to the garden. Our guide came along, helping us understand how the garden was designed. He was better informed than many museum staff as he actually knew the names AND uses of the various plants in the garden. As we talked, the lad planted himself near the currant bushes and had a delicious snack.

I found the gardens well maintained despite the heat wave we've been going through (who wants to work in the garden when it's hot out eh?).

Anyways, I've given you a bit of a walk through of the Joseph Schneider Haus, next time you are in Kitchener, stop by and learn some local history eh?

Fall Hours:
September to December
Wednesday to Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday: 1 to 5 p.m.

Field Trip: McCrae House

6/14/2016

With my Sweetheart away this week, and needing to go to Guelph the other day to sell some rabbits, my son and I thought we would make a day of it and see some of the Guelph sites. We chose McCrae House and the river that ran nearby it.

www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields-inspiration.htmJohn McCrae was a Guelph Resident and he was responsible for writing a poem that many people are very familiar with. He was a young artillery officer and military doctor and one of the young men under his command died in the Battle of Ypres.

Depending on who you believe, this young man's death was the inspiration for the poem, or it could have been the poppies growing, or it could have just been boredom speaking. :) Either way, his poem lives on.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The house was beautiful and the grounds were so well kept. It was too bad it was so hot out, it would have been lovely to sit out there for a while and watch my lad look for spiders among the hedges.

Inside the museum we came upon this lovely map. It was SO pretty.. I'm not sure that's the right word for it. But it caught our eyes and we stood in front of it for quite a while looking it over really well.

"Mom, why does it have all these place names?"
"Why doesn't it look like our map at home?"
"Is it a real map or a fake one?".. he then started checking it over, my attention-to-detail lad, and noticed that the creases in the map weren't real creases and realized it was a replica.

Then he noticed all these wavy lines...MOM! What are these for? He read the names and remembered that oceans have currents, so we traced them out, finding out how they bend and swirl around the continents, and they pass over each other (or so it seems) and it was just fascinating to watch him and to see how the currents move all around the world.

John McCrae was part of the army, so we learned what the mess kit looked like.

We discovered and talked about how a man can have a close relationship with his horse and dog..."but mom, he really needed to have a cat!"

It was not a big museum and once we got past the map, we saw everything they had rather quickly. There were other things to see, but these were the highlights for us. If you ever have a chance to visit Guelph, take a peek inside! On a nice day, bring a picnic lunch and enjoy the serene grounds. $5 per person to get in, open Tues-Sun.

When we were done, we headed across the street to sit in the shade of some trees by the river. The lad chased a young robin, and was stunned by the sight of a tree growing through a cement block. He noted how it bent out the concrete. It seemed a strong vigorous tree. The goslings we saw were farther along then ours at home.

It was very restful sitting here, watching the water, listening to the sounds of people in the distance, "mom, would be even better if there was a big row of trees over there, then we wouldn't see the buildings, it would be even nicer then". And it would have been, but it was still nice.

We then headed off to the Civic Museum, which I will post about another time. :)

Field Trip: Stones and Bones Museum, Sarnia

4/21/2016

This week we had a chance to go to the Stones and Bones Museum in Sarnia.

Wow... for a little place they sure pack in a whole whack of things.

The tour started with the owner of museum talking with the children about a variety of bugs they had up on the wall. He mentioned how his wife wore this necklace made from bugs for a TV interview.

One of the things that I enjoyed about visiting this museum, beyond the sheer wealth of items to look at, the proprietor stayed with us in the museum, and would stop and ask the children and parents if they wanted to know more about anything. He would then expound upon any topic at hand.

Things my son liked:

non-venomous

venomous

Luminescent rocks. These were rather neat I must say.

The puffer fish caught my lad's eye so I had to take a pic.

There were many items there that caught my eye, I think I took pics of almost everything. Some of my personal highlights though.

Being really able to see the rows of shark teeth.

I've heard/read about it, but I just found it super neat to actually see those rows and just seeing how they roll out for the shark.

Such an amazing design by God.

listening to presentation

All these fascinating rocks from all around the world. Sharp edges, crystals, stones that look like mould growing and what not. Creativity abounds in rocks and minerals as well.

Taxidermy, animal action portrayed.

My lad was amazed at the sheer size of a polar bear. The pic didn't come out all the best. You would have smiled to hear the exclamations of the boys in front of us.

It was a good trip and I would love to go again. :) I want to see what other small creatures I would spy hiding in the corners...Like this wee weasel hiding away with his meal.. we almost missed him and I wonder what else we may have missed.

Field Trip: Royal Ontario Museum

4/26/2015

This past Wednesday I needed to make a rabbit run up to Toronto. We took the opportunity to take in the Royal Ontario Museum. My son wanted to see stuff on Rome. We've been learning a lot about Rome lately and seeing the exhibits just added extra depth to his learning.

The lad was quite intrigued by the Roman Statues that he saw. He really paid attention to how they changed over the years, asking good questions about why some had the noses missing, others had pupils in the eyes and others did not, so we needed to research why that was. Did you know that the statues used to fully clothed? They painted the statues in the past, so they didn't need to add pupils. Over time the paint has worn off. We saw a good amount of materials from the time of the Romans, the coins, the oil lamps (one in the shape of a dove!), items for the Lord's Supper, statues, various dishes, and more. Throughout they had these handy monitors that you could use to learn more about churches like the Hagia Sophia (the lad was curious about that since he's learned about it in his studies). He stopped a fair number of the monitors and just listened to them for a while, occasionally calling me over to listen to one he particularly enjoyed.

There was no way we could cover the whole museum in one day and still get home in time to relax before bed and what not, so we picked and chose what we wanted to do. The lad wanted Rome, I wanted Egypt, we all wanted to see the mammals, and dad didn't otherwise care as his broken hand was causing him pain. He still took the time to explain a couple of things to the lad that he didn't quite understand.

We had a great time and would have no problems going back again. "I enjoyed that mom" was my son's response when we left. :) I liked hearing that. It felt a bit rushed going through, but it was neat to see many of the items that we saw. Below I've posted a bit of a slideshow of the highlights.

Chestnut Grove Academy Field Trip Friday Blog Hop

Woodstock Museum and Art Gallery

11/27/2014

We have some friends who live out in Woodstock which is a bit of a drive forus. So about a week back we headed out their to go to the Museum and their art Gallery... A way to do some schooling and visit friends at the same time. :)

They are both fairly small and don't take a long time to go through, and I forgot my good camera so we'll have to make do with cell phone pictures this day. :)

Despite the size of the gallery the children had fun, and we had a nice visit.

They had a nice collection of old organs. Woodstock used to be a major center for organ makers. I recognized some of the names but others were new to me.

This museum is very is very hands on which makes it an excellent place to bring children. From the working pump (don't drink the water) to the scales and other artifacts. An elevator makes it easy to navigate for those unable to take the stairs.

They had a bit of a Christmas display up on the second floor with an area to pretend you were in a train (great for story telling) as well as a "Let's be Santa" chair. Neither of us as families "do Santa" but the children had a lot of run with it none the less. :)

The art gallery had a really nice gift shop that had many items the children were interested. A couple of the paintings attracted out attention as well. All the children seemed to like this painting.

My son was intrigued by this painting. "Mom, why would they make it so small and put this big white thing around it?" "It's kinda a neat drawing mom".

I found myself drawn in by this painting. From a distance it looked like muddy splashes on the ground, but as you looked more carefully... can you see the chickens?

The exhibits change all the time in the Art Gallery, so we may stop in again another time to see what they have to offer us. :) They apparently offer free art classes for children as well. So if you are in the area, it might be worth checking out.

Refugees - London Children's Museum

2/19/2013

Last Friday my son was going to spend the weekend at Gramma's house. So we thought we'd head up early and just spend the morning together and then hubby and I could have the afternoon to ourselves.

We went to the London's Children's Museum. We had fun together.

They have one room where they set up short term displays. This month it is on Refugees. We spent a fair bit of time there.

As we walked in, they had this refugee tent set up in the lunch area.

The lad asked a fair number of questions, didn't quite understand why someone would have to live in a tent. "Why can't they just move to their gramma's?" The concept is so far out of his scope of living that at seven years old he doesn't quite understand it. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.

They had a room upstairs where children could listen to the stories of refugees and even work on building a refugee tent.

They had two maze games to help children understand why it might be difficult for refugee children to be educated. This raised a lot of questions for the lad. Why would they have to work? Why would it be dangerous for them? Why mom why? It was good to spend time helping him understand why life can be difficult for some children. AND why expectations for girls would be different than for boys.

They also had a display case set up to show a variety of toys for refugees. The lad had no interest in this. Though another display case for showing medical needs and malnutrition created a great deal of interest for him. Daddy's two fingers showed how thin a malnourished child can be and that made an impact on the lad.
"My arm is bigger than that right mom?"
yes son, see? (as I wrapped the band around his arm)
"that person is thin then mom, why???"

it is good to open up a lad's eyes a bit to show him that not everyone is as well blessed as we are right now in our lives.

After learning comes play time of course. :) and the lad had a new angry bird friend that needed a nest rather badly. :)

Tuesday/Wednesday

10/17/2012

This week is a bit odd for us.

Jim is on holidays which means some schedule changes.

Yesterday his back was still bad so he stayed home while the lad and I went to Stratford.   He has started swimming with the HOPE group at the local YMCA, so we went up early to some work in the library.

Parking at the library is NOT easy to find/get to. Rather annoying that. BUT we worked with it.

The lad read a book that he'd never read before and tried another one but it was just a tad bit too hard for him yet. Made him smile though which is why I chose it.

We read our regular four books while sitting in the car at a park. We had hoped to do a nature walk and some drawing but it was just TOO chill for fingers to work properly.   We did have our lunch by the water while watching some ducks be silly.

Then off to the Y for swimming. We got there a bit early so we played in the gym for a while.   Then swimming.   he did well. he's in the middle group this year and you can really see how he's improved in his abilities over last year.

Today he's been building some weapons.   We stop and talk as he's doing them - about weapons used in the past, how people often design weapons that do the same thing but are different depending on where they live (like the people who built clubs with a pineapple top... they lived in an area where pineapples grew). We plan to go to the museum in sarnia. and then tonight he has kids club.

We ended up not going to the museum.

We did some map work. one of the stories we were reading today and numerous directions in it, so I had the lad draw me a map with those directions on it.    Overall he did a good job. I always have to be careful when doing stuff like this not to help him too much, but to give him the affirmation he needs when he does correctly. The story was the Cow and the Python.