Field Trip: University of Oklahoma Art Museum

    Hubby and I had another round of research in Oklahoma this week, so we loaded up the family along with Ducky and Grandma and took off.  I have to say I was a little jealous.  Hubby, Mookie and I did this...

Hubby was sneaking pics

at the University of Oklahoma Western History Collections.  And the rest of the gang went to OU's art museum where they had an exhibition called Immortales: The Hall of Emperors of the Capitoline Museums, Rome.  There were about 20 busts from early to late Rome.  This fit perfectly for our history studies which have been focusing on ancient history.

Bubby was in heaven.  Went through and took a picture of each bust with his camera and regaled us with details when we met up later in the evening.  To be honest, I was a little worried about Shorty on this one.  He's a busy guy, and while he has excellent behavior long trips contribute to unpredictable outcomes for little ones.  He did wonderfully though.  Grandma had him keeping his hands to himself...

following Bubby's example.  And there were hands on things to do too like blowing into a pipe and making digital art move.

Day one ended with success and then the real fun began the next day...

>to be continued< 

Field Trip: Sam Noble Museum

  This is a weird blog for me to write.  I get to tell you about one of the most fantastic museums we have ever been to, but this time around I didn't get to go with the kiddos.  Hubby and I had some work in Oklahoma so we packed up the kids and Ducky and Grandma for a working vacation.  Our first stop took us through Norman, Oklahoma where Hubby and I did some research on the University of Oklahoma campus and Ducky and Grandma took the kids to the Sam Noble museum.  The last time we had taken the older kids was when they were about 4 & 2 (they are now 12 and 11).  If I had one sadness on this trip it was that I didn't get to go to the Sam Noble museum too - it is that fun :)

A dino lover's dream.  Now this being said, I have not been to any of the "big city" natural history museums, but this satisfies just fine ;)

The real fun is the "dinovator" which is an elevator that takes you eye to eye with one of the big plant eaters (ha, can you tell I'm not the dino expert?  I'd want to say apatosaurus, but we'll just play it general...). 
  They also have a wonderful diorama area which has all the flora and fauna of Oklahoma, even down to caves where bats are lurking...

 My favorite picture from their experience there is with the big mammoth statue. 

  Mookie and Bubby are proudly posing with the mammoth, but do you see Shorty?  He's getting ready to kill the mammoth with the ancient Native American family. 

  We had the biggest discussion about what the family was doing, why the mom was hiding behind the dad, what the dog was doing, etc... With field trips, you don't need to "do" anything, kiddos soak up more than you realize, but you reinforce what they learn with a good discussion and make it all applicable to their lives right now it just encourages them to seek out learning later on. 
  If you get down to Norman, Ok you should definitely check the Sam Noble out.  Our family got in for around $15 which was well worth the trip!