Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

When I started homeschooling I didn’t need anyone to tell me what my weak educational areas were. I knew very well what they were, any area other than math or science. My desire though was that these would not be weak areas for my children and so I focused attention on these. It was why when I went to my first HS Conference I purchased Latin books; my kids were going to learn Latin since my foreign language abilities were lacking. Ok, non-existent. I picked up a grammar curriculum for the same reason. In our first week of homeschooling in ‘99 I came across the book, The Well Trained Mind, and so we started studying history chronologically. Believe me, when I say that back in those days I did not know who Alexandra the Great was, when he lived, or if he came before or after the Ottoman Empire. Pitiful, I know. And the Black Death and the Magna Carta, well, I had no clue about their role either in history, or when they happened or why I should have any knowledge about them. I could go on and on describing my poor history education but that has changed, thankfully. As any homeschooling mom knows, we learn along with our children, and so I can now diagram a sentence, translate Latin and I have a greater understanding of historical people and events.

Along with this educational void I didn’t know why art museums were important to visit and quite frankly and honestly I did not care to go to them. Even before we started homeschooling I took my kids to art museums hoping that maybe they just might enjoy them. Maybe, gasp, they would help me discover what was so fun about going to art museums.

It hit me though when we were in the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday that I was actually enjoying looking at the collection. It was somewhere between looking at a suit of armor worn by Henry the VIII, and the one worn by Emperor Ferdinand I, that it really hit me that I knew these men, knew when they lived, what they did, and understood their place in history. The pieces came alive, not quite like they do in Night at the Museum, but it actually became fun to wonder from case to case, read who had owned which pieces and instantly know who the person was, what was going on in the world when the object was produced, and imagine the story the object could tell me if it only could talk. Oh my, somewhere in educating my own children I too have received quite an education. So much so that art museums are fun and I finally understand why we have them around.

It was also a delight to watch MilitaryKid excitedly explain to me the ins-and-outs of the different arms, and swords, and see that I had succeeded in having a hand in him enjoying an art museum. The precious moment though was when he said to his brother; ‘you have got to come over here and see this awesome painting.’ What a moment to treasure in New York City.