Field Trip: March for Life, Washington D.C.

Well, we just got back from a very full day ... dh went in at 4:30 to ride a bus up with his highschoolers while all the kids and I went at 10:00 to Adoration at our Parish and then to the bus to arrive in DC by around 12noon. We left the District at 5:00 p.m. or so, after an amazing day of marching, chanting, yelling and greeting new and old friends (including my favorite godson, a Junior at a wonderfully Catholic college)...

Here are some pix that are worth more than my writing (especially as I'm exhausted!):

The speeches were wonderful ... anti-abortion, anti-FOCA, and anti-Euthanasia ... but resoundingly pro-life, pro-babies, pro-personhood. Lots of calls for Mr. Obama to make a change for the better by embracing life and allowing the babies, old and sickly to live their God-ordained existence.

It was amazing to see the number of folks out protesting on this sunny but cold day in the Nation's Capitol -- old, young, male, female, kids and teens and college students, all ethnic groups represented as well as many of differing faiths ... all to celebrate life and march for a change to the Roe v Wade decision that ultimately legalized abortions in this country and opened the door for such insidious legislative proposal as partial-birth abortions, euthanasia, assisted suicide and even FOCA (which would give women the right to choose an abortion up until fetal-viability -- basically, up until delivery!).

Please pray to stop abortion, stop euthanasia and instead let's impose laws that securely protect those who can't talk for themselves ... fetuses, coma patients, severely handicapped, and any others at-risk! All human persons are a gift from God ... made in His image and likeness ... and thus, deserving of all protections and the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!

Where should we go today?

How 'bout a marvelous train ride into D.C. and a visit to many of the memorials (to take great advantage of the beautiful Fall weather)? What a beautiful outing today -- we took the VRE from Rippon and into D.C. as pretty as you please!

A quick couple of blocks got us onto the Mall and headed toward the Washington Monument (where we picked up tickets for an ascent at noon). We then checked out the World War 2 memorial (absolutely amazing!), the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Memorial before heading up into the Washington Memorial for some spectacular views of all compass-points. (The picture below was shot thru the East window of the Washington Monument, 500-ft above the ground!) Here, Bam-Bam is ready for the touring to be done and some lunch to be eaten!What a gorgeous Fall day for our visit to the Nation's Capitol! And a wonderful chance for the kids (and grown-ups) to remember what we've done in this young Country to encourage freedom, justice for ALL, and love of all ....

Subjects: American History

I LOVE American History ... but hate how I was taught the subject in school. Memorizing dates, names and places held no interest for me. I loved reading primary sources (although I probably didn't use that term) about what life was like ... how scary the voyage was for Columbus ... what kind of jobs people did to make a living ... how families existed ... how the Church helped out through the centuries.

I loved learning about American History ... I hated being taught American History.

With my own kids, I want them to love the learning.

I don't want them to have to memorize anything in a vaccuum. I want to link themes, ideas, events so that they can see the big picture. Yes, they know that it was Christopher Columbus who led the voyage to the new world ... but I want them to "live" the journey through historical fiction like Pedro's Journal or the DVD, The Magnificent Voyage of Christopher Columbus. I want them to see the Missions in California and understand the distance between Catholic Spain and the New World that was bridged by brave, intrepid explorers.

I want them to be able to see, hear, touch, taste and smell the experience of American history.

So throughout this school year, we'll be taking advantage of our proximity to Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia -- as well as further afield if we can. We'll spend days in D.C. -- exploring museums and walking the way of the presidents and politicians. We'll use period cookbooks and taste what they ate (we've already made jerky and dried fruit like the sailors on the Nina, the Pinta and Santa Maria). We'll build replicas of forts, ships, homes -- and populate them with period-dress figures. We'll have a blast!

At least, that's the idea for now.

We're off to a good start already, with trips to the Smithsonian and Marine Museum, Gettysburg and Baltimore. This past week, we spent two full days in Washington, D.C. with relatives ... Aunt and Uncle came up from South Carolina for a visit and a chance to show Auntie the Nation's Capitol. Sunday we spent the day in the District, walking around on a gorgeous fall day and taking in

Jefferson Memorial,

the Mall and it's monuments .

The next day, just the littles and I met up with Auntie and did the museums along the Mall -- particularly the new Ocean Hall (which is fabulous if a bit iffy on their science facts vs theories) in the Natural History Museum (we love checking out the elephant in the rotunda and finding all the dung beetles, etc housed below!), the Art Museum (saw Cassats, Monets, Renoirs, Rembrandts, Della Robbias, and others ... wow!), and ended up at the Air and Space.

When we do outings like this it is so fun to learn right alongside the kiddoes ... to discover old interests or kindle new ... to try new hands-on exhibits. The whole time we're walking around, we're talking about who, what, where, when, how and especially discuss theories of WHY! This is real learning at it's best.

We have more visitors coming ... and thus, even more reasons to explore our new area and to learn outside the vaccuum!

Field Trip: International Travel the easy way

A week ago (July 2nd), we took the littles back up to our Nation's Capitol in order to get in a bit of international travel. No, we didn't fly out of IAD or BWI - instead we attended the 42nd annual Smithsonian Institute's Folklife Festival held on the Mall for two weeks in the summer.

Each year, a state and a country are chosen for the festival -- this year, the festival highlighted Texas and Bhutan. Texas, the festival shows, is much more than Texas swing, beer and barbeque -- altho you can find those too. Texas wines, technology and avant garde music are fascinating to see.

Bhutan, a small Buddhist country situated between India and China, is just being "discovered" through eco-tourism and the recent opening of air-routes to this unique world whose name translates as "Land of the Thunder Dragon". An authentic traditional Bhutanese Buddhist Lhakhang (temple), a gift to the US from the people of Bhutan, has been built on the Mall -- the paintings and carvings on this building are amazing. Within the temple, Buddhist monks chant while English-speaking interpreters explain the prayers, rituals and symbolism. LegoManiac was a little put-off by this -- "it would be like people walking thru a Catholic Church and talking while Father is saying Mass. That's not right."

Bhutan crafts and industry are highlighted -- woodcarving, textile weaving, painting, sand-art, string-art, basket-making, wood-turning, homeopathic medicines and cooking -- giving the kids and dh and I a wonderful look at this country and how they live in the Himilayas.

Bhutan goes from steamy jungles at sea-level to over 24000 feet in the space of West Virginia! No roads led into Bhutan until the 1960s and air travel started about 10 years ago. This is a country I'd never even heard of -- and one that was a very closed society from Western eyes until quite recently!

NASA is also highlighted at the festival (which goes until July 6th) as it's NASA's 50th birthday!

The Mall -- out and about on a Sunday

With Washington, D.C. so close now (unless you're stuck in I-95 traffic -- OY!), we decided to head up on Sunday (June 22nd), using public transport, and show the littles some of their Nation's Capitol! The last time LegoManiac and String Bean were in DC, they were 27 months and 15 months -- and, go figure, they don't remember much! Dh and I knew that this was going to be an exploratory mission and wanted to make it as relaxed as possible ... so we opted for the shotgun-approach hopping through different museums and not worrying about seeing everything -- after all, the Smithsonian and National museums are all FREE and we live here now!

Parking the car at the "park and ride" at Springfield (as opposed to the kiss-and-ride -- a name I think it too cute!), we gave the kids their first taste of Northern Virginia culture: riding the Blue line Metro from Franconia-Springfield right to the Smithsonian! They're eyes got big when we told them we were traveling UNDER the Pentagon, then they got even bigger when we told them when we were traveling THROUGH the Potomac ... it's so fun to see the wonder in their eyes even at such small, everyday things!

Getting off at the Smithsonian station drops you just in front of the "Castle" -- THE starting point for exploring the Smithsonian museums. It's so cool to come up out of the station and see the Washington Monument on your left and the Capitol Building on your right! What a country!

Since the boys outnumbered the girls -- I'm including dh here, of course -- we started our wanderings at the Air & Space Museum. This museum gets better EVERYTIME I go visit (I used to work in the District and my brothers made me go to A&S all the time). The exhibits are fantastic and I was even able to track down the "aircraft carrier simulator" exhibit for the boys to try. Bam-bam had to keep "peeling off" while LegoManiac "almost" landed perfectly. He was a bit embarrassed as the girl in front of him landed her plane effortlessly.

After a bit more than an hour of tottling around the A&S (with me making mental notes the whole time about where/when to come back during our next two-year study of American history), then we decided the hunger pangs could no longer be staved off -- we headed to the best spot on the Mall: the National Gallery of Art's "garden cafe" with it's indoor/outdoor waterfall, great food and reasonable prices. Seriously -- you can get a really good lunch for three kids and two adults for a bit less than McD's! And the ambience is wonderful.

Next stop (after checking out the Sculpture Garden where the pond in the center is turned into a skating rink during the winter) was a quick tour of the Natural History museum -- with it's elephant exhibit right in the rotunda (where if you look closely you can see the entire habitat of a jungle elephant including the dung beetles, rattle snakes, and the birds that eat the local grasshoppers). String Bean and I wanted to see the Hope Diamond (a girl can dream, can't she?) and it's even more glorious in real-life than in the pictures! A beautiful blue stone, with diamonds surrounding and diamonds on the chain .... what a gift that would be.

The IceAge exhibit and the Western Cultures (with it's overview of the societal progression of man from cave-dweller to organized community) are amazing and created so that the kids really enjoy seeing ... and experiencing different cultures and ages. Marvelous!

A quick snack downstairs in the "atrium" and we were ready to head back on the Metro ... after noting that this weekend (and next) the Smithsonian is hosting the Folklife Festival -- with special emphasis on Bhutan, Texas and NASA's 50th anniversary .... I guess I know where we'll be later this week.