Laumeier Sculpture Park

2021-22 School Year–Week Twenty-Five

After a much needed spring break, we got back to work last week…but first, last Monday, a field trip to Laumeier Sculpture Park!

Now on to the school work. Ladybug learned how to use AAS and ASA to prove triangles congruent in geometry. She learned how the ELCA is different, even though they are also Lutherans, in her study of denominations. In biology she started studying the structure of plants. We began Act III of Henry V. In history, she read about the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars.

Chickadee started adding decimals in math. We read the story of Queen Esther in religion. She reviewed sentence diagramming in grammar. We read some of the stories in The Blue Fairy Book that weren’t covered in the literature guide. In science, she started learning about cephalopods, beginning with cuttlefish and giant squid.

We’ll have another short break around Easter, but the end of the school year is already rapidly approaching!

Double Digits at Last!

Today is Chickadee’s 10th birthday! For the first time in over 19 years, we have no children in single digits, age-wise, which is weird, but Chickadee is very excited to hit double digits!

Chickadee decided on a two-day birthday celebration like Turkey had, so we started yesterday morning with homemade cinnamon rolls:

And then we went to Laumeier Sculpture Park to enjoy the beautiful weather:

We were up bright (or not) and early to open presents before her siblings went to school:

Since the weather today was pretty gross, we spent the day watching movies, including Frozen and Encanto. And I made potato-parsnip soup for dinner…I was kind of surprised that she requested this particular meal, but I appreciate that she always keeps me guessing!

I visited her Animal Crossing: New Horizons island…she has a whole birthday room in her house!

For dessert, she picked another new recipe from the My Little Pony Baking Book…piñata cupcakes, which I filled with m&ms and sprinkles. It was a really fun recipe (except for when the butter I was melting exploded and made a huge mess, which I didn’t even know was possible!), and they looked really cool!

It’s kind of unbelievable to me that Chickadee is so big…I’m feeling a little old this week!

A Morning at the Sculpture Park

Chickadee wanted to go to the St. Louis Zoo on her birthday (which is tomorrow), but it’s supposed to rain, so we decided to go today. So how, you may ask, did we end up at Laumeier Sculpture Park instead?

The zoo is still requiring (free) reservations for admittance, and much to my surprise, when I went to request our tickets last night, they were already sold out. So Chickadee decided we should go to the Missouri Botanical Garden instead. But when I went to reserve those tickets through the member portal, I discovered that they’re closed on Mondays. So Ladybug suggested Laumeier Sculpture Park, a place we haven’t visited since pre-COVID, and it was a great idea!

We saw a lot of familiar art:

And we took a path we’d never been down before, and saw some really cool things (and did a lot of climbing…those steps were just as steep as they look!):

It was a beautiful day to be out and about!

Up next…our second March birthday!

Neon Signs at Laumeier

Did you know that Laumeier Sculpture Park doesn’t showcase only sculptures? I actually didn’t realize that before our recent visit to see a non-sculpture exhibition on display in the Aronson Fine Arts Center: “David Hutson, Memory & Desire: A Personal Exploration of Neon Art, Past and Present.” As the name suggests, this exhibition focuses on the work of David Hutson, and includes restorations of local neon signs, as well as original neon work by Mr. Hutson. While the original work is fantastic, my interest was in the vintage neon signs, and I was definitely not disappointed!

This exhibit will be on display at Laumeier through January 13, and I highly recommend it…it’s a fantastic glimpse into the past!

2018-19 School Year–Week Seven

Another week completed…we’re already about a fifth of the way through our school year! How crazy is that?!?

What’s really crazy is how much Turkey and Bunny have been learning in chemistry. They’ve learned things about the atom this week that I’m sure I never did. One especially interesting topic was orbitals. They also wrote a few more short stories for creative writing, and I have to say, I really enjoyed reading them! We also started our literature study of Romeo and Juliet (Turkey is less than thrilled), and a lesson on the Huns (including Attila), in history.

Ladybug enjoyed her math lessons this week, because they focused on geometry. She finally got to use her protractor to measure angles. Her history lessons were centered on China at the time the Grand Canal was built. She’s also almost finished her literature study of the White Stallion of Lipizza, and is continuing to enjoy learning about horses in science.

Chickadee has reached a really fun stage in reading. Now that she’s learned some more blends, she’s started noticing all the things there are to read everywhere, and she’s attempting to sound out the signs she sees when we’re out and about. She got to work on counting with money in math this week, and she’s also really enjoying the second Grandma’s Attic book.

We finally went on the field trip I’ve been hoping for, and the weather was perfect for it…it actually kinds of feels like fall! Laumeier Sculpture Park just debuted an exhibit of restored neon signs and new neon artwork by David Hutson. It’s been awhile since we visited the park, and neon signs are right up my alley, so we took the morning today to see the exhibit and walk through the park.

We also watched Rick Steves’ The Story of Fascism in Europe special this week. I highly recommend this show, because he ties history and the present day together very well, explaining how the horrors that accompanied WWII came to be, and what European countries are doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It was definitely heavier than the regular Rick Steves’ Europe shows we watch, but it contained a lot of good information, and gave us much to talk about.

The Space Between Scott and Plessy

We saw this set of sculptures at Laumeier Sculpture Park, and I found it to be particularly moving. It is supposed to show the difference of the times of Dred Scott and Homer Plessy in regards to segregation. I don’t always get art, but this one was crystal clear!

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