National Gallery of Art...

We went on a field trip to the National Gallery of Art!  I wasn't too sure about this because I really do hate art.... probably because I'm so not creative.  (Art kinda tempts me sometimes because of its uselessness.  Explain to me how splatter paint can be worth thousands of dollars... Hmmm... let me stop hating and putting my full ignorance on display here.)  In wanting William to be exposed to all kinds of things, I wanted to take him in case he might have an interest in it.  I was SO grateful that the tour was very simple and right on the kids' level.

 We got to the museum a half hour before it opened.  So we had plenty of time to kill outside.

 The docent introduced art to the kids by reading Little Cloud, by Eric Carle.  I thought this was a wonderful start to help the kids learn to use their imagination.

 The docent then took the kids into a room full of pictures.  All the pictures had clouds in them.  (I have no idea why these pictures were grouped together, other than that they all had clouds.)

 This is the first painting they saw up close.  The docent had the kids talk about the details they saw in the picture and think about what kinds of sounds they might hear if they were in the picture.

 Here, the docent talked to the kids about whether this picture looked loud or quiet.

 This was William's favorite...

 Afterwards, the kids had their own opportunity to draw pictures using cottonballs as clouds.

 William drew an abstract picture with clouds inside a house.

 Since we were in DC, we decided to briefly visit the Museum of Natural History.  I had forgotten how much is packed into this museum!  I look forward to taking William again when he's a bit older so that he can take everything in.  We are so blessed to live in our nation's capital with so many neat museums and historical places to visit.

 On the metro ride home, all the kids were looking through books they had gotten.

It was a wonderful field trip.  William loved the excitement of it all!