Fused Glass

Several weeks ago, my husband and son had the opportunity to attend a fused glass workshop at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  At the workshop, they first created a design and then cut the desired pieces of glass.  After they arranged the glass, the glass was fired in a kiln at an extremely high temperature where the pieces [...]

Morning Out with the Little Explorers

After the substitute teacher, my mother, arrived, my preschoolers and I promptly ventured out in the brisk fall weather early this morning to attend a Little Explorers’ program at Pocahontas State Park.  The programs there usually focus on nature and the environment, but today the focus was on the history of the park. 
The park was [...]

Homeschool Day @ Tredegar Iron Works

While reading over my emails this morning, I came across a notification about homeschool day at Tredegar Iron Works in the cit of Richmond.  It was a bit of short notice, but the price was right, we homeschoolers are flexible,  and the hands-on living history events sounded fun and educational for the children.  So after slapping together a quick-lunch, [...]

Covered with Art

Happy to be free from the crayon munching and glue eating toddlers, my two eldest girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves learning about the ancient form of bookmaking and creating books of their own at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, alhamdulillah.
The art instructor began the program by briefly discussing the history of making books that included the type [...]

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea

Caterpillars, Crafts, and Butterflies

We just can’t get enough of the botanical gardens!  Something new is found with each visit. It is Monarch butterfly season and there were some Monarch caterpillars crawling around the butterfly weed or milkweed plants which they eat.   Milkweed is poisonous to birds, so the caterpillars are safe from birds eating them, masha Allah.  We were [...]

Summer Fun in the Garden

I think we chose the hottest day of the year to visit Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, masha Allah.   We hadn’t visited since the spring and we were in the area, so I decided to take the children, but they didn’t have their swimming clothes with us, so they didn’t even get to go into the [...]

Summer Fun @ the Science Museum of Virginia

The Science Museum of Virginia has sharks!  Alhamdulillah, we were able to take part in the shark petting and touch tank exploraton which are summer exhibits. 
The  White Spotted Bamboo Shark is native to the Pacific Ocean and is a nocturnal creature, so it was sleeping when the children touched it, masha Allah.  They mentioned to [...]

We Love the Virginia Living Museum

I had been asking my husband for some time to take us to the Virginia Living Museum  in Newport News and he had promised me that he would take us to this spring. Islamically, I need a male relative to escort me when we travel over a certain amount of miles.  Well, he made good on his promise and [...]

History, Horticulture, and Habitats

Entering through the Hampton St. entrance as opposed to the Children’s Farm, today, we took the path through Maymont less traveled.  It is rare that we are able to travel down to the Japanese Garden and up to the Italian Garden due to the cumbersome baby stroller, but today we braved the steps and went [...]