I love art and love visiting museums something I inherited from my mother. As a child I remember sitting on the floor behind her as she was painting landscapes. Some of her paintings are now hanging in my house.
Until yesterday, I hesitated about going to see any of the local exhibits with my children. My daughter loves art. I am not concerned about her disrupting other museum goers. My son, well, that is a different story. Like most boys, he can sit and play on the computer for hours. The same goes for any game console he can get his hands on. Being quiet and staring at Art is not his definition of a “fun” day.
Yesterday I decided that the Rembrandt exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art was one that I really did not wish to miss. I packed up the kids; each with their own notebook and digital cameras (gifts from their uncle). As soon as we arrived my son’s first comment was “when can we go home, I want to try this new game I borrowed from…”. My heart sank, this was not a good start, and we had not even set foot in the main hall.
And then … I had an epiphany. What if I made the visit a game?? I sat both of my kids down; told them we were going to hold an observation contest with a visit to the local bakery as a prize. The contest required them to examine each painting carefully and write down in their notebook if/and what animal they found. We all enjoyed our museum visit, did not interfere with other patrons and found out that Rembrandt had a great sense of humor.
The bakery visit was an enjoyable bonus to our day. We took our baked goods to the local park and while I was enjoying some time out of doors; the kids made the rounds taking pictures. I am so looking forward to the next exhibit.
