Tag: MFA

Woah! Free 1-year MFA Memberships

Hey now! Here’s a good reason to go to the MFA on Martin Luther King Jr. Day: if you’ve never had a membership, you can get a free 1-year membership.

Actually! You can get these memberships at any 2020 Community Day or Late Nite.

As of today, this is 2020’s schedule of community days:

  • January 20
  • February 1
  • February 5
  • March 18
  • May 25
  • June 17

For us BBHSers, this is a great deal. If you ever go to Artful Adventures, the ticket price is already low but now you can get a 15% discount in the cafe! Worth visiting on a free day, I’d say!

More MLK Jr. Day Free Admission – ISGM & The ICA

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is just around the corner from the MFA. Both museums are offering free admission and activities to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Gardner limits the number of people in the museum at any given time, so it may be a better option for people who don’t want to deal with the crowds at the MFA on free days. Though you may have to wait in line before getting inside.

The museum opens at 11 AM, and MLK Jr. Day activities run 1-4 PM.

Join social justice project Wee The People for an interactive, family-friendly workshop that guides young and old in unlearning and reclaiming the legacy of MLK. Together we will explore MLK’s practice as a radical disruptor and honor his most important act of love: resistance. Activities include sign-making tributes to protest movements, a #ReclaimMLK photo booth, and timed acts of resistance inside the Museum.”

https://www.gardnermuseum.org/calendar/event/mlk-day-20200120

Free general admission to the Gardner is a rare occurrence. If your name is Isabella or your family is Active Duty in the military, you can get in free anytime. Children 17 and under are always free as well. EBT cardholders can get $2 admission for up to 4 adults. The BPL has a $5/person museum pass available that admits 4 people on weekdays, 2 people on weekends.

Update, January 16, 2020: I’m no longer recommending the ICA as a family destination.

The Institute of Contemporary Art in the Seaport is also offering free admission on Monday 10am to 5pm. One great feature of this free admission day is that there will be FREE, first-come first-served tickets for Yayoi Kusama: LOVE IS CALLING. Right now tickets are sold out through the end of the month, and ticket sales for February go on sale today (1/15/2020) at 10am. So if you want to see Yayoi Kusama’s exhibit and can’t get tickets, head over first thing to the ICA on Monday!

It doesn’t appear that they have any special MLK Jr. Day events, but the ICA is opening two new exhibits that day: Tschabalala Self: Out of Body + Carolina Caycedo. 

The ICA is accessible by Silver Line Waterfront out of South Station. You can walk from either the World Trade Center stop or Courthouse. I do not recommend parking for BBHSers because of the expense. The ICA does not have its own parking lot, but you can find their recommendations for parking here.

MLK Jr. Day & Lunar New Year – Tips on visiting the MFA on free days

The Museum of Fine Arts' Fenway entrance with people walking out the door and down the stairs.
MFA’s Fenway Entrance, Source: BBHS

I know the Museum of Fine Arts is crazy-busy on their free days, but they do offer lots of really wonderful family programming on those days. It can also be a great, low-cost way to spend time with friends. Even this introvert has gone to 4 or 5 MFA free days over the years!

The next free admission day at the MFA is on January 20, 2020 in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And if you can’t make it, there’s another on February 1, 2020 to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Here are my tips to maximize your visit:

  • Arrive EARLY is #1, the lines in won’t be as long, and the lines for the coat room won’t be long either.
  • Arrive LATE, another good move if you don’t mind a short visit. Note that most of the family programs will be winding down by mid-afternoon.
  • Do not drive there! The garage, lots and street parking will be full and traffic will be sluggish around the museum with people trying to park, save yourself the headache and either take the T or plan to park far away and walk over. Also, museum parking is NOT free on free days.
  • If the line to get in winds out to the sidewalk on Huntington Ave, go around to the Fenway entrance. The line is usually SO MUCH SHORTER! Keep in mind, the Huntington entrance also has a long line inside, whereas the Fenway inside line is about 1/4 the length. The Fenway coat room usually has a shorter line too.
  • The downstairs cafe is going to be mobbed, consider eating outside before going into the museum, or visit the cafe at non-peak times.
  • You can bring your own food into the museum to eat at the cafe, make sure you’re carrying it in a museum approved bag.

Do you have any tips to share? Please leave them in the comments below! ❤️

BBHSing is Hard, Part 1

When we ultimately came to realize our kids needed homeschooling, I was a totally newbie. I literally started out with the web search “What is homeschooling?”

Photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels.com

Wow, did I have a lot to learn back then. Based on rose-colored accounts of homeschooling in blogs and message boards for newbies, I started out thinking classical education would be best for our family. I started out thinking it wouldn’t be hard to make connections. I started out thinking coops were common wherever homeschoolers were. I was so optimistic, unprepared and naive. (Optimism has been one of my faults for a long time.)

Learning that homeschooling is not homogeneous* was probably my first surprise. Given how welcoming everyone sounded online when discussing homeschooling, I really was unprepared for the tension between various philosophical tribes of homeschooling.

I remember our first organized homeschooling class was a fall sport clinic. I went there with such excitement to be meeting local homeschoolers, but was quickly met with blank stares when I went to introduce myself to the field-side moms. I immediately felt like I was back in elementary school, trying to make friends at a new school with a very chilly social environment.

I tried again in the winter at the MFA homeschool classes and made some promising connections, but it was hard to socialize while accompanying my high needs 5 year old through his Artful Adventures class.

Spring came and we tried the Watertown playgroup at Arsenal Park. By then I was already struggling with isolation and worn down a bit by the demands of homeschooling. So arriving at Arsenal and not knowing anyone at a busy, fairly spread out park, was very hard for me to cope with. By then I already knew that there were homeschooling social pitfalls I couldn’t easily predict, which made branching out feel very difficult.

As a second-choice homeschooler, I naturally found more in common with other second-choice homeschoolers. We are a pragmatic bunch. But one of the downsides to making friends with second-choicers was that they might change things up as needs and strengths evolved. Our first homseschool friends all went back to school within the first 2 years of meeting them.

First-choicers are homeschooling for an entirely different set of reasons and had a well formed sense of identity and purpose for their homeschooling family. They weren’t ever going to send their kids to school. This is a lovely set of life choices, and I have always admired and also envied their certainty and preparation. But the difference in our reasons for homeschooling was fundamentally tied to how different we were as people and that inhibited the formation of closer ties.

* Although homeschooling in this area is NOT as racially diverse as the general population.

Stick around for Part 2, coming tomorrow!

MFA December Vacation Week Activities 2019

One of our favorite activities at an MFA vacation week was a weather-vane project, where my “avant-garde” 4-year-old made a dog weather vane with a spiraled, yellow pipe-cleaner attached to show the dog peeing 😂😍🎨 The museum educators facilitating the activity were wonderfully supportive of him and even suggested art styles his creation would fit right into. The child has a sense of humor!

Another time we made Polynesian stick charts after looking at a Navigation Chart from Micronesia. This was right around the time the Disney movie “Moana” was big, and my kids really enjoyed an activity relevant to something they loved.

Now, I know as homeschoolers we don’t usually like to go places during school vacation weeks, there are just so. many. people. But I do make an exception for the MFA’s vacation week activities because the quality of the activities is very good and very kid-friendly. The activities are also more low-key and free-form compared to Artful Adventures. Giving my kids a positive experience with art, history and museums is something I highly value, and can usually accomplish at the MFA!

This year’s December Vacation Week Activities are focused on the solstice and light, and runs Thursday, December 26 to Tuesday, December 31, 2019.

Cover image for “Ancient Nubia Now” special exhibit
Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

From 10am to 4pm everyday, you can visit these activities:

  • Reflected Light – Features a Persian mosaic with mirror pieces and a mosaic making activity.
  • Light from Above – This activity invites kids to look for the rainbow in a painting called Blue Niagara and to see if they can find rainbows in other paintings. The connected art activity is to make your own picture with colored pencils focused on water and light.
  • Light of the Sun – After visiting the Ancient Nubia Now exhibit to see how the Nubians used gold to represent sunlight, kids can make their own jewelry.
  • Infinite Light – Kids can look at a bronze Altarpiece with Amitabha and Attendants, and then make their own mixed-media sculpture as they “imagine a special place filled with endless light.”

On Monday December 30, 2019 at 11 am only, you can visit this activity:

  • Riley the Museum Dog Book Signing and Scent Training Demonstration – Meet the MFA’s canine volunteer who helps sniff out bugs hiding in the museum that could damage art works. There will be a demonstration of his skills and a book signing.

The MFA full-price admission isn’t cheap, but you can get passes for $10 admission for 2 people at most area libraries. Children 17 and under are free whenever school is not in session. An EBT card will get you $3 admission per person.

Have you gone to any of the MFA’s vacation week activities in the past? What did you think of your experience? Leave a reply below 🙂

List of Free Admission Days/Times at Area Museums

The links in the list below go to each institution’s visiting/admissions information page. Please make sure to read all information on those pages to make sure you know what to expect and to confirm the days and times. I always recommend calling ahead or visiting websites before going to museums because policies can change at any time and sometimes museums are closed unexpectedly. Click here for the BBHS page on Museum resources.

Source: BBHS

Generally you will need to bring an appropriate ID for free admissions based on residency, military status and EBT benefits.

I will update this post with new information as I get it. Please send me any information you have on free admission to museums not listed here!! Comment below or contact me.

Let’s talk about creating what you need

I’ve learned from other homeschoolers just how wonderful it can be to organize your own activities. Some homeschool parents are very skilled at creating a class or activity they want for their kids. As an introvert, I am quite amazed and envious at their abilities!

Group of homeschoolers outdoors in a park, sitting and standing near picnic tables, listening to a presenter. Sunny, autumn day.
Homeschoolers at a Fishing class, Houghton’s Pond

But here’s what you need to know:

So many organizations routinely run school field trips that it’s almost no difference for them if you want to schedule a homeschooler trip. And they often have dedicated staff for you to contact to get the ball rolling.

Probably every recurring homeschool event at an organization was started by a single homeschool parent with a good idea and enough interested people to come along.

I know of parents who started a homeschool gym class at a local YMCA, parents who created an Artful Adventure with unique content, parents who arranged for field trips to the Massachusetts Historical Society, parents who contracted a tutor to lead a group class on Shakespeare, parents who organized a free fishing class through the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, parents who organized a Model UN club.

We’re probably only limited by our imaginations – and introverted tendencies, lol!

So go out there and create what you need for your homeschool! You can do it!!!!

Have you planned a successful outing or field trip for homeschoolers? Tell us about it in the comments below!