Crystal’s Weblog

Today was one of those days when I look at the syllabus and go “huh?”.   I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around the reasoning behind going to the Frank Lloyd Wright museum and the Museum of Science.  We are on a history trip, right?  So needless to say I was a bit sceptical about today, but boy did I get the socks knocked off me!  From the moment we pulled up in front of the Wright house I knew I was in for a treat!  We were given a tour by Grete, who was a lively lady who was very knowledgeable on all things Wright.  As I walked through the house my idea of what history is changed.  My notion of history was skewed.  I tend to clump history into Washington to Lincoln era and anything else isn’t “real” history.  Today my world was tipped and I enjoyed the view!  I’m sure I have kids who sit in my lessons and are “narrow-minded” on history and I see now that I need to expose them to these other areas while they are young and impressionable. 

After a tour of Mr. Wright’s private residence we began a walking tour with David.  I again was shocked because I had pigeon holed Wright’s work into one type.  As we were lead around David pointed out all the houses that Wright worked on I was truly amazed at how different they all were while still retaining a few key elements.  I would enjoy showing my kids some photos of his work and then looking for examples of work that looks similar and different in our area.  This might become a section of my lesson plan.

After leaving Oak Park we headed to the Museum of Science where I was again asking “is this history?”  We went in for a speech on the 1893 World’s Fair, also known as the White City.  The speaker began by giving us a virtual tour of the Chicago World’s Fair.  They have been working on this virtual city since the late 80’s and it is still not complete!  The virtual tour was nice for giving you an overview of where all of the buildings sat and what still remains, which isn’t much!  Something I would like to share with my kids is that Cracker Jacks and Juicy Fruit gum were both introduced to the world at this fair, along with many other items we still use!  We also saw a great slide show on the architecture that went into the making of the world’s fair.  We did a short walking tour around the outside of the museum, which also is the only building remaining from the fair. 

Touring the museum gave me some ideas on how to teach my kids but they weren’t all history related.  I was able to take pictures to show the kids how an item goes from the beginning stages all the way through to the packaging that we see in the stores.  I also found a book in the store on counting money as well as 365 great science projects to do with kids.