The Museum of Russian Icons

During this month we've been learning all about Russia (and the Olympics). Today, in an effort to bring this country a little more "up close and personal" we took a trip to The Museum of Russian Icons (who would have guessed that the largest museum of Russian icons in the United States would be right here in Clinton?!). We'd never been before so we had no idea what fabulousness awaited us before we walked through this door. And trust me, the fabulousness inside was amazing!

For those that don't know, icons are religious pictures painted by monks that were (and are) routinely found in homes of people in the Orthodox faith (in this case Russian Orthodox). Generally, the icons have been sanctified and blessed inside a church by a priest. Each icon looks similar since the goal was to make the person/saint easily recognizable. Outside of the saint each icon is different as it depicts different stories or events. 

Emma takes a closer look at the detail in this icon. 

We were so very happy to be able to have our friends join us on this adventure. Eleni and her family are Greek Orthodox so she was able to tell us lots about icons and answer any questions we may have had. It was like having our own personal tour guide with us!

Iconostatis. 

A closer view of the icon above. 

Updating her scavenger hunt. 

I love that she's using a magnifying glass to update her scavenger hunt!

Russian letter blocks in the kids play area. 

There was so much to do in this little spot! 

Holding the tiny babies. 

The Russian Tea Room was full of yummy treats. 

We really enjoyed these wafers! 

And these chocolates were super yummy too! 

Saint George and the Dragon. 

We even found a unicorn in an icon!

We, of course, had to bring a set of Matryoshka dolls home with us! The girls already have their sights set on a second set of dolls the next time we go back!

We had a truly incredible time today! I could not get over how this all fell into place so perfectly. I remember when we first heard about The Museum of Russian Icons. I couldn't believe that there would be a museum for this topic but I am so glad there is! It really is a very special place! We spent over three hours exploring the museum and I'm sure that we could have spent even longer. As we were getting ready to go, we had the pleasure of meeting the owner of the museum Mr. Gordon Lankton. He told us that he has been to Russia fifty times and truly loves it there (and highly recommends we make the trip sometime). As a way to house his collection, and share these beautiful icons with the community, he opened this magnificent museum. It truly is a treat to have this museum so close to home! We thanked him for sharing all his treasures with us and told him we looked forward to coming back again soon!

Olympic Medals And Flags

Last week my friend Meredith over at Momgineer posted a link on her Facebook page about these awesome Olympic medal tracking books. Knowing how much my girls would love this we printed the packet out, got the necessary supplies and got to work (yes, last week, there's just so much goodness in our world that I am only just now getting around to sharing about these)!

Much as I thought, the girls loved this project! Since we were already tracking five countries medals it made sense to use those same five countries in these books. 

They were so focused that you could hear a pin drop (well, perhaps if we didn't have the Glenn Miller station playing on Pandora you could have heard a pin drop, but you get the point). 

They were able to locate all five countries flags with no problems. I was super impressed!

We thought some fun curling ribbon ties would make the books fun and festive. 

Sweden was chosen in honor of the semester abroad that Dave's sister spent there back in her college days. 

Last night, the girls, along with help from their Lego lovin' Papa made these fabulous Lego flags (another idea courtesy of Meredith)! They had such fun with this and the flag making only ended when we turned the Olympics on!

Today: updating their books with the latest medal count. 

This Winter Olympics has been so fun for us! We have loved watching the games (and especially love all the stories on the athletes- it's where we first learned about Jaime Anderson- as well as segments about life in Russia- especially this one on Matryoshka dolls). We have loved reading about Russia and we have loved keeping track of the medals. I am constantly impressed by how much the girls know about the various games and how many different flags they can identify! The teachable moments that the Sochi Olympics have provided for all of us have been outstanding, and we will surely be sad to see the games end. 

Just Another Sunday Night At Our House

Unschooling Geography

So, recently the girls were playing with the Intro to Geography app that we have on the iPad.  Even though the app does show them where each of the countries is located they asked if they could use our big map to find them.  It was so fabulous to watch them work together to find all the countries on our map.  They would get so excited each time they located one and then they would work together to find where it belonged on the app.  I just love that they combined low tech and high making for a truly unique experience.  And it never ceases to amaze me what happens by simply keeping their world full of interesting things.  By leaving things out, with no expectations at all of the outcome, the most fabulous things are learned and created!  

Geography. Amazing Race Style.

Last night began the new season of The Amazing Race.  And since we happen to have this awesome map on our wall we figured why not put it to good use once again.  We had so much fun using it for our Olympic Medal Count that Dave thought it would be great to use it to chart the Amazing Race route this season. So, with dry erase marker and rule in hand we plotted the first leg of the journey.  The race began in California (a new location for the girls) and took the teams to China (which both girls remembered the location of from our Olympic Medal Count.  The race is off to a great start!  We're psyched to see the Beekman Boys competing and can't wait to see where this race around the world takes us!