Robert Bateman Centre

We once again took advantage of our Pass it Around Victoria passes and went to the Robert Bateman Centre. What a great experience! Not only to see the incredible paintings and marvel at the talent that it took to paint them, but to see the heart of this man Robert Bateman and the love between him and his wife in the many love letters on display.

The Gallery has lots of light and the paintings are hung with maximum impact. I came around one corner and saw two paintings and thought, wow, Robert Bateman was a photographer too! Then realized as I got closer that no, they were paintings that were so well done that from a distance they looked like photos.

I loved the variety of sizes of the paintings. The gallery added small boxes under many of the paintings where you could hear the song of the bird that was painted. That made the paintings come alive even more.

I loved the section of Bateman's early work, and the different painting styles the experimented with. Having a daughter that experiments with a by different mediums and styles, this section really was encouraging! 

There was also a great explanation of a variety of prints, numbered prints and originals. 

We were there about an hour and it was well worth the time spent! I think we all walked out in awe of this amazing artist!

Chinatown Walking Tour

Exploring Chinatown was such a rich experience with Chris, our tour guide from Discover the Past. Chris really made Chinatown, come alive with stories about the people and the history of the 1800's - early 1900's in Canada's oldest Chinatown.

Our students and parents learned about the founding of the Chinese School, early segregation, the Lee family and how fluent English had helped to make this family wealthy. We learned about Fan Tan Alley and even learned the gambling game Fan Tan. We went to the Sam Kung Temple and learned about the Folk Temples with their many gods. 

As we walked around Chinatown Chris helped us to visualize the size and the vibrancy of Victoria's early Chinatown. He pointed out important buildings and borders. He gave us a sense of the culture, business and politics of the time. He also helped us see how monies sent back to China made a difference to modern day China.

Because Chris had visited Southern China several times, he had a real understanding of the heritage of the people in Victoria's Chinatown's early days. It was a 1.5 hours of enthralling stories and information. Thank you Discover the Past!

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria - Field Trips in British Columbia

On the same day as going to Craigdarroch Castle, we visited the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria with our Pass it Around Victoria passes. 

The main reason for going to the art gallery was to see the Emily Carr exhibit. We didn't know that several of her paintings had been removed and are now in London. Emily Carr seems to be taking London by storm right now in the world of art!

What was interesting was, they replaced the missing paintings with ones of her students and her contemporaries including Lawren Harris and several others.

We didn't have a docent for the whole gallery, but she did introduce us to Emily Carr and her life which was very interesting. She asked questions of the students and she gave information about how the paintings in the gallery reflected Emily Carr's life.

The rest of the gallery housed a wide range of Chinese and Japanese art.

Craigdarroch Castle - Field Trips in British Columbia

We are so blessed on Vancouver Island to have so many field trip opportunities for our students. Our Co-op purchased the Pass it Around Victoria passes for our students to take in a wide range of field trips this year.

Our first stop was Craigdarroch Castle. For $15.00 they were able to provide us with an excellent docent that really made the castle come alive, including all of the history and context of the time frame. We learned a great deal about the Dunsmuirs themselves, but also about Victoria in the late 1800's and even about what was happening in the world at the time the Dunsmuirs lived there. 

This gave perspective to our students and our parents, of the Victorian time frame, and that Victoria, BC was part of that era. The fact that they had servants and servant's quarters, put things in perspective. The fashion, the amenities and the overall building of the castle all brought this time frame into a more tangible era for us all.

There was much irony in the whole building of Craigdarroch and our docent really helped us to understand that irony. His explanations about the Dunsmuir family were very interesting!

If you are wanting to visit Craigdarroch I advise having a docent and enjoying a tour, I truly makes the castle come alive! Blessings, Natalie

BC Legislature

It was great visiting the BC Legislature last week. I hadn’t been on the tour for many years and I appreciated getting a reminder of the history of BC and of our government. Francis Rattenbury certainly designed beautiful buildings and the Parliament buildings are no exception. 

The docent who led us through the Legislature was very knowledgeable and gave us several art lessons from the intricacies of the coat of arms to the beautiful stained glass in the waiting room. She pointed out the architecture and really made the building “come alive”. 

She also explained to us about the Legislature, how it runs what we would see when we went into the question period. We had the opportunity to see government in action.
Being in the gallery really helped us to see what a regular day in government looked like, I heard more children come out and say, I am not going to ever be a politician, but Elizabeth found it interesting.

We had a visit from the MLA who is from his riding in Kelowna. It was great to have Norm Letnick visit us as Heritage Christian Online School is certainly part of his centre of influence. He also shared with the students that he is the current Minister of Agriculture for BC. He handed out cards and let us know that the students could contact him with any concerns.
Experiencing the Legislature and question period really put into perspective that governing is happening each day they are in session and that it takes real representatives who have the people’s best interests at heart to govern in a responsible way. 
We had just been reading about representative and responsible government and I think this really deepened that understanding.
Blessings! Natalie

Colonization and Residential Schools

Excellent Learning Camp at the Campbell River Museum yesterday!!  Our Facilitator was very passionate about the Residential Schools on Vancouver Island and therefore very knowledgeable. 

She went through a powerpoint on Colonization and Residential Schools. She was very engaging with the students. It was both enlightening and saddening to see the pictures and hear the stories.

Our facilitator then had the students go through the galleries and get answers on a wide range of questions about Colonization and Residential Schools. They worked as groups. It meant that they needed to slow down and read the plaques in the Museum to get their answers. This was a great way to expand their knowledge.

They then came back together and watched the video "Where are the Children" and it was very well done. It showed the atrocities of the Residential schools but also showed hope and healing.

This was such an excellent Learning Camp - I would certainly recommend it!!

Field Trips in British Columbia that we have enjoyed!

Here are some of the field trips that our family has experienced in beautiful British Columbia. This is not an exhaustive list but it has been fun to revisit some of the great places we have been over the years! I hope that it will inspire you... maybe even during Spring Break!!

I would say the best value would be The Royal BC Museum in Victoria BC. In the past we have had a yearly pass and used it for everything from photo-essays to special exhibits and group field trips. We have enjoyed just being able to go and concentrate on one floor or one section.

There have been some awesome exhibits that we have experienced! I would have to say that our daughter’s favorite was Titanic Exhibit. This spurred on many Titanic plays, research projects and a great amount of curiosity about the Titanic. The “Behind the Scenes” exhibit was all about the natural history of the museum and was divided up by “ologies” and all the animals classified and displayed. Some of the reptiles and insects were a little “icky” stored in their formaldehyde. The best part of this display was seeing the actual curators.

We have been to Leonardo Da Vinci, First Nations Art, Lego and Physics exhibits and so many more. It is well worth the time spent here!!

The second amazing field trip we took was to the Cumberland Museum on Vancouver Island. This is a very small museum, in a small town, but they did a great field trip for us!! It was $1.00 per person and we learned so much about the Japanese and Chinese in Canada. The internment of the Japanese affected this little community immensely and it was fascinating to learn more about it. We learned about all the people groups that immigrated to this small town to come and work in the mines.

The bottom half of the museum is all about the mining industry and coal. It was very interesting and was great for our study of Natural Resources. Well worth setting up a field trip or visit this little museum yourself.

Small museums in small towns can be such a blessing as ours is. Our little museum is very inexpensive and has passionate volunteers who really love what they are doing! We love going often with a group. There is lots of one on one time with the guides to hear the local history of the area in which we live. 

Another great field trip for us has been Fort Langley outside of Vancouver. What a great trip this was. They had great interpreters that told stories of the people in the Fort. There were many hands on activities including having races with bales of furs. We even watched a blacksmith work with iron! This was a great field trip and well worth the time that we spent learning about the Fur Trade in British Columbia.

Another interesting field trip for us was the BC Forest Museum. This was a great field-trip to learn about both the Forest Industry in BC and the Transportation Industry. It has lots of the history of BC woven in these two important parts of BC’s past. The interpreters first took us into the forest to take a look at different trees and all the while she was talking about the importance of our Forest Industry. The kids had a great time on the train and in the village that is set up. 

What is a exploration of BC’s history without going to Barkerville. It is quite a drive but so much fun when you arrive. All of the actors and actresses in costume, the gold mining, the stores and the many building set up there were fabulous. With my husband’s Chinese heritage it was a real learning experience for our children. It was well worth the drive.

We enjoyed the Plaskett Telescope /Centre of the Universe field trip in Victoria as well. We went on their open house day. This was great as we could take a look close up at the telescope and go into the office of the head scientist as he spoke passionately about his work. There are other activities in the main building but to me seeing the telescope up close and  the equipment that runs it was very interesting!

In Vancouver we have gone to Science World many times, the Vancouver Aquarium, the Vancouver Art Gallery and many other Vancouver field trips. They were great too!! Maybe you have experienced some great field trips in your area of British Columbia - I would love to hear from you!

Blessings!!