National Portrait Gallery is Open Again !

Today we took an amazing field trip to the National Portrait Gallery in DC. The Portrait Gallery has been closed for renovations for SIX years ! They re-opened in July of 2006. Today, the field trip's topic was about the President Portraits that the Gallery holds.

Now, when you take a FREE tour at one of the DC Musuems you never quite know who you will get for a tour guide. Sometimes, it is an elderly docent who is quite knowledgeable, however, the children often can't hear their soft voices. Sometimes, it is a person who is not an "expert" on the subject and got brought over from their museum to "cover for the day." Sometimes it is the "perfect educational specialist" from that particular musuem.

Today was the day for the PERFECT educational specialist. Miriam was a former teacher who now works for the Smithsonians and she was accompanied by two graduate students doing internships at the Portrait Gallery.

First of all, this building is drop dead GORGEOUS ! Waiting six years for renovations is certainly worth the wait. I was amazed. Miriam lead us down into the gallery that holds portraits of the Presidents. The children discussed how presidents want to be remembered, how they stood, what they had in their portraits and their presidency. Again, the homeschoolers amazed both Miriam and all the parents by knowing so much already !

After viewing the Gilbert Stuart’s “Lansdowne” portrait of George Washington the kids played a game with Miriam trying to recall all the small details that told us about George Washington and how he wanted other to view him.

Then the children all had three different presidents to "view" and report back to us some information they saw in the portraits and how they related what they saw to their president.

Finally, the children all had digital photos taken and had to create a "construction paper" scene for their portrait (digital picture) with symbols that they would want people to remember during "their presidency". The children came up with excellent symbols to represent different "causes of today" and "ways the American people would remember them."

What an awesome field trip !