One of my homeschool resolutions for the new year was to implement more field trips into our routine. I feel like I got out of the field trip habit in the last year after having our 7th baby. She's a little older now. She's down to one nap a day. It feels a little easier to get out of the house so I'm ready to start working on a few additional field trips.

Here's a few photos from our most recent trip to Nasher Museum of Art earlier this month.

I wish I could say that it was an amazing field trip. On a scale of 1-10 I think I'd rate this trip at maybe a 4. It was not great. It was a cold drizzly day. It took about 40 minutes to get there. Once inside I quickly realized that one of the main exhibits was at odds with our family values so I quickly escorted our kids out of that and moved on to other exhibit halls. The worst part was that the "art cops" were constantly hovering over us, breathing down our necks, just WAITING for my kids to do something out of line so they could exercise what ever authority had been vested in them by virtue of their "art cop" status. At one point my preschooler did lightly lay her left pointer fingernail on the frame of a piece that was hanging at just her height. Like a sudden storm cloud, the art cop appeared out of nowhere and pounced on my preschooler. He then pointed his attention at me, professing loudly that "You are not doing a good job watching your kids. THEY CANNOT TOUCH ANYTHING."
I was working hard to keep my words in check at that point, as I could feel my blood pressure rising. We ended our tour early and let ourselves out the door. We didn't even dare stop to eat our snack in the cafe for fear of being chased out.

Hey Nasher Museum, here's a quick tip: You're probably not going to have any better-behaved children come through the museum than this set of kids that you just chased out. So if you really don't want to have children in the museum at all, I suggest you NOT offer free admission once a month. Keep charging ridiculous admission prices to wander the glaringly vacant halls of your exhibits. I promise you that kids will stop coming, and your art cops can go back to texting their friends.

The only redeeming thing about the entire experience is that some of our art club friends met up with us there and my preschooler very much enjoyed their company. She had fun showing off her treasure box and its contents.

Before leaving Duke, we thought it might be worth a try to stop by the chapel and sneak a peak inside. Unfortunately, the parking permit situation was so thoroughly frustrating (we didn't have one and thus could not park ANYWHERE) that we decided to just go home. Ah well. You win some and you lose some.

Despite the bad taste in my mouth, I do have plans to go back in nicer weather (after scouting out public parking options) to visit the gardens and tour the chapel with friends. I really DO want to have more fun and educational field trips with the kids.

If you're also homeschooling in NC and need some ideas for fun field trips, try taking a look at these resources for new ideas: