family field trips

Because we live on an island, we can take the kids on the ferry (home from the city) for free, as long as they're returning from educational activities. Well, ALL activities are educational, when you're an unschooler (actually they are even if you're not an unschooler, but that doesn't always work out as it should, when it comes to legalities). So anyway, we often make trips to town for such educational 'field trips', sometimes as often as once per week, and this December we managed a few. This most recent field trip was my Mum's idea, and we went with a whole lot of family: Opa, Nana, Uncle Adrian, Auntie Bree, and the four of us, too: We went to see Body Worlds! I had seen it before, but the rest hadn't, and I think it was very worthwhile. The kids were not upset, and seemed extremely interested. They and Auntie Bree took the longest in the exhibition, which we spent 2 hours in. I won't explain Body Worlds; if you don't know it already, you can follow the link. The kids had the easiest time understanding and appreciating the whole bodies. The separated parts, especially the more obscure things like the goiter/thyroid, cochlia, and spinal chord were difficult for them to relate to, since they couldn't really place them in context. Though some aspects are a little disturbing, emotionally, the work as a whole is a superb collection, and SO helpful to anybody wanting to understand humanity, both in its physicality and in our various emotional journeys. I admit that I have twice had an emotional reaction to the pregnant woman whose womb is opened up to expose her foetus, and also with considering the type of person who would make this his life's work, but those emotional reactions are part of understanding my humanity, so I welcome them.

And as for Gunther von Hagens: Thank You! I can't imagine how you do it, but I think that work like this is essential to our understanding of ourselves, of our neighbours, and of our place in the universe.

After Body Worlds, we went to have dinner with the extended Gallaher clan, for Uncle Don and Aunt Lande's birthdays. This is opportunity for gratuitous cute baby photos.... Aiden and Tali loves their Stockmar Crayons! (Disclosure: that link is a plug for my Dad's toystore, BC Playthings. He has sold those excellent crayons since I was a little girl, and I still have most of the set I had then, though we've had to replace a few colours... Also, the person colouring with them on the store's website is Rhiannon.)