Art Lesson #5: 7 Art Festivals to a Creative Mind

You can even provide edutainment at a birthday party.  To inspire and encourage creativity, consider a paint your own pottery party.  Each kid chooses a piece and paints their project.  The pottery studio in Evansville, IN allowed us to bring in food and cake, so the entire celebration happened in one location.  The boys and girls had fun and everyone gained a unique art piece as a party favor.

Paint your own studios seem to pop up in every town.  If you don't have a local studio, Michaels art chain store offers party rooms and you could buy pottery kits as the project.

The price can add up fast with a per person fee if you have a large group.  For a cheaper alternative, find a local art festival as another way to provide your kid a pottery experience. 

Here's seven art festivals:

1.  Fine Arts Festival - Ridgeland, Mississippi; April - Renaissance at Colony Park includes a Childrens Creative Crafts Corner; lessons about art history and culture while kids make clay pottery, mosaics, or fiber art
http://www.ridgelandartsfest.com/


2.  Wheeling Arts Fest - Wheeling, WV, June - clay learn and take project, learn slab, pinch, and coil techniques.  Other classes include fiber arts and acrylic painting.
http://wheelingartsfest.com/

3.  Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival - Palo Alto, CA; July - large two day festival with over 150 artists
http://www.acga.net/cgi-bin/DJcalendar.cgi?TEMPLATE=shows-detail.html&EVENTNO=00084

4.  CLAY festival - Silver City, NM; July - childrens tile class at Silver City Museum only $5, free Clay Play Exploring Our Wilderness Heritage class for grade 3 to 6 - register early, limit 15 kids/workshop at the Gila Valley or Silver City library; free tour of the Syzygy Tile Factory
http://www.clayfestival.com/

5.  Minnesota Pottery Festival - Hutchinson, MN - kids tent at The Clay Coyote Studio; raku, throwing, and handbuiling demos
http://www.mnpotteryfestival.com/

6.  Clayfolk - Medford, Oregon - indoor event at the Medford Armory, mostly a show and sale, but also offers a Kids Clay Area where kids can create their own clay art
http://www.clayfolk.org/

7.  San Antonio Potters Guild Clay Festival - San Antonio, TX; Dec. - $5 includes museum entrance, kids under 12 free, 30 potters and gallery tours

Science Lesson #1: Ohio Caverns & 9 Others to Tour

Once upon a time my mother taught science and math, so we learned science no matter where we walked, above the ground or below the ground.  I have vivid memories of touring Mammoth Cave as a child.  Now I take my kids on cave tours.

You can try memory tricks to learn scientific terms.  For example, stalagmites and stalactites are both speleothems or deposits of mineral.  One trick to remember stalactites as above and stalagmites as below is to tell yourself "stalactites need to hold on tight".  Another trick is think of the letters in the words - stalagmite's G for ground, stalactite's C for ceiling.

Ohio Caverns

However, you can bring such a lesson alive by taking your children on a cave tour.

For my daughter's birthday, we took both our kids and their cousins to Ohio Caverns in West Liberty, OH.  It's the largest cave in Ohio and has many formations including one shaped like a water pump.  The formations exist in all directions, in front and above you, so we kept physically close to the kids, watching their head and hands.

Lesson Idea

Read about cave biology before you go on a trip beneath the ground.  According to traveladvisortips website, Ohio Caverns made the list "Top 10 Most Amazing Caves & Caverns in USA".  Here's the other 9 caves listed you could visit with your kids:
1.  Meramec Caverns - near St. Louis, MO
2.  Kartchner Caverns - AZ (by guide only)
3.  Luray Caverns - Shenandoah Valley, VA
4.  Carlsbad Caverns - New Mexico
5.  Blanchard Springs Caverns - Arkansas
6.  Mammoth Cave - Kentucky (KY)
7.  Lost Seas Caverns - Tennessee (TN)
8.  Shenandoah Caverns - Virginia
9.  Natural Bridge Caverns - TX

I've also been to Natural Bridge Caverns and Mammoth Cave and I would recommend these sites for families with kids.  If you have been to any of the other caves, please leave a comment and let us know whether you would recommend the tour for kids.

Ohio Caverns Fun Fact

Family owned, passed down from one generation to the next
Learn more at http://www.ohiocaverns.com/ or visit the cave in West Liberty, Ohio, just 2 hours North of Cincinnati

Ohio Caverns Tips

You will feel like you are driving out in no where and perhaps no one else is visiting, is it even open? Very cute entrance sign "yes, we are open". Apparently the owners can hear us thinking.  Bring a picnic basket, there's a picnic shelter on site. 

State Park #2: Hocking Hills State Park, Logan Ohio - geology lessons

Get out of the house and go explore and you will see majestic cliffs, waterfalls, gorges, and more. Especially if you drive to Hocking Hills State Park. I've been to a lot of State Parks, but none like this one in Ohio.  While hiking, you have time to discuss geological processes.  Gorges are mainly formed because of the flow of water or lava.  Smaller than canyons, gorges still have deep, narrow valleys with a river or stream running.  Even easier than creating your own science lesson, check out the park schedule for educational talks hosted by naturalists. 

Besides admiring the rocks, go on a hunt for waterfalls.  This photo shows Cedar Falls, the largest in terms of water volume.  From the photo, it's difficult to tell size.  It spans 50 feet with water cascading between limestone and ending in a pool.  I'd also recommend the waterfall at Ash Cave.  You'll be impressed with the size of the 700-foot long cave.

Gorges make beautiful scenery for a hike with your family.  Two of the top three parks winning the USA Today 10 Best Readers' Choice Award Best State Park rating have well known gorges:

1) Letchworth State Park (Castile, New York) rated #1:  includes Genesee River Gorge, sometimes referred as "Grand Canyon of the East"
2) Watkins Glen State Park (New York) rated #3:  includes Gorges of Finger Lakes, 200 foot cliffs, 19 waterfalls, part of the Finger Lake State Parks

Readers rated Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Michigan as the #2 state park.

Here's 9 Other gorges you could visit with your family:
1.  Quechee Gorge, Vermont: (Quechee State Park):  deepest gorge in Vermont, view from US Route 4 bridge
2.  Bluestone River Gorge, West Virginia: canyon land around the Bluestone National Scenic River and protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (est. 1988)
3.  Rio Grande Gorge, New Mexico: approx. 50 mile gorge beginning near the Colorado border, part of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument (designated 2013)
4.  Avalance Gorge, Avalanche Cree, Montana:  narrow chasms near the falls within Glacier National Park
5.  Linville Gorge, North Carolina: part of the Pisgah National Forest and sourced by Linville River, also claims "Grand Canyon of the East"
6.  Bad River Gorge, Wisconsin (Copper Falls State Park): walls can tower up to 100 feet above the river bed, watch for flash floods
7.  Cathedral Gorge, Nevada near Panaca, Nevada: (Cathedral Gorge State Park) established 1935, early construction included picnicking facilities built by the Civilian Conservation Corps
8.  Malad Gorge, Idaho; (Malad Gorge State Park):  narrow steel walk way across the gorge
9.  Columbia Gorge, Oregon Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area: managed by the Columbia River Gorge Commission and the US Forest Service, 80 mile canyon up to 4,000 feet deep and spans Oregon and Washington