Snow, Fence Posts and Art Lessons

You may remember that Hank joined Cub Scouts this year, and he's having a blast with it. To complete his Bear rank he has a number of achievements to complete and to add a little excitement to the mix there are also some electives he can do for fun.

So much of scouting has tied in really nicely with what we do in homeschool and even our everyday life so I flip through the book periodically to see if there are any boxes we can check off.  We've done a number of art projects for history this year so I want him to do the other steps to finish the Art Elective. One of the requirements for this was to visit an art museum. I can handle that, I think...

Two years ago we visited the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown for a field trip and we really enjoyed it so I looked on line and saw that they have art classes for kids. The first class was this morning and there was space available for all 3 of them. Perfect!

Like good little scouts we layed out our clothes last night and packed our lunches. We were prepared. We woke up this morning and it was snowing quite a bit, but the radar showed that Hagerstown wasn't getting as much snow so we decided to charge forth with our plans.  Bill had a meeting in Frederick so he left before us. About 10 minutes later (while I'm franctically trying to get everyone in the car so we can GO) he called to tell me that he slid off the road and through a neighbor's fence, taking their mailbox with him. Thankfully he and the truck were ok and I decided to go ahead and try to make it to class.

The secondary roads were pretty slick but once I got on the main road and closer to civilization, they were fine. We made it to class with about 2 minutes to spare. Yes!

I figured parents would need to sit in with Shane's class of 3-5 year olds and told him I would be with him. And that would be incorrect.

His adorable face when I told him I was leaving

We toured the museum and Ella and Hank did a little scavenger hunt while we waited for Shanester.

yes, I peeked in to be sure he wasn't lying on the floor wailing in agony because he missed me

They read a story about a cat named Pearl and then cut out shapes to make their own Pearl

So cute!

Ella and Hank's class started after Shane's

Jake sat in the lobby listening to his mp3 player while Shane and I went out to the car for a snack

The museum is next to the city park which has a pond full of ducks. We just finished reading The Tale of Timothy Mallard so Shane was very interested in watching the ducks

and the swans

We peeked in on the big kids to check their progress

And walked through the museum about 20 times (it's small)

And then they were finished

The theme this month for their class is portraits and today's class was pop art portraits. They didn't have enough time to finish their projects in class  so they're supposed to finish them at home...which Ella is already working on. Such a cutie patootie.

The verdict? They *loved* their classes and can't wait to go back. Yay!!