Discovering Italy

Last weekend, we wanted to go to Italy, but hmmmm. just couldn't fit it in. So, we went to Italy in a virtual experience. We borrowed Discovering Italy from the library. I was very surprised how much Caleb enjoyed the movie, and especially how much he was enamored with the architecture and sculpture. He especially loved David, and the bridges of Venice. He was also very fond of the cathedrals and all of the arches and stained glass windows. His favorite painting that was shown in the film was The Birth of Venus. He asked if we could go to the Indianapolis Museum of Art to see it, but I told him I was pretty sure it was not in Indianapolis. I believe his favorite city was Venice. I loved the areas of Naples, Tuscany, and I also loved Venice. We can't wait to make a real trip there.

We start ball room dancing lessons in March, we may have to learn the Sicilian Tarantella.

Expedition to NAMOS and the IUPUI bridge tunnels

We embarked on our journey to catalog the number of sports represented in art at the National Art Museum of Sport (NAMOS). Like species, we categorized pictures into the sports they represented and counted them. We found 27 sports in the museum, represented through art. The most rare was the Bull Dancing bronze sculpture from the island of Crete in Greece. But there were many others and we were surprised by the vast collection. Caleb also enjoyed the modern glass and rail architecture in the spiral staircase that is the centerpiece of the museum.

We then proceeded through the bridge system to the IUPUI campus and took the set of bridges from Michigan Street all the way to New York. We learned about the type of education and what life looks like in college for the students. We also did a impromptu unit on recycling as they had public facilities for recycling there and we had brought along a snack. Caleb did well at figuring out where in the building the items should be placed.

We had opportunities to read location maps at both IUPUI and at NAMOS. There were also ample opportunities for social interaction and a practice of good manners and polite behavior which is important to our ability to socialize with all cultures that we meet in our expeditions.