The Ukrainian museum is in the East Village (I hopstopped it -- which means that I went to hopstop.com and put in my address and the address of the museum and I was given directions, i.e. what train to take and what stop to get off). Ukraine is a country next to Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia... and some other Eastern European countries. I seriously had to get out the globe when the kids asked me. The whole Soviet Union, USSR, changing-stuff business has just contributed to my already very tenuous grasp on geography.
A homeschooling mom with a connection to the museum set up a class to teach the children about creating Pysanky: eggs that have been decorated in a very specific way using the wax-resist method (cost: $5/kid).
The trickiest part was having to think things through. They dipped the tool (in this case the head of a nail sticking out of a pencil eraser) into the beeswax and covered/created a design that was to remain white. Then the egg was dipped in yellow dye. Next they covered/made a design in wax that was to stay yellow. The egg was dipped in orange. Again for red, and then finally in the rich black.
When it was all done the kids wrapped up their eggs in old ice cream pint containers. I love this city. My friend had a grandma that would pull out the most random, ancient items and be like: "Will this work?" Where did those paper containers come from? Some old shelf, some back room. This entire city is a grandma's attic of treasures (except for the parts that have been torn down to build high rises for minimalist millionaires who wouldn't know an awesome egg-carrier if it bit them in the behind).
Tomorrow we will finish the project. We put them in the oven until the wax becomes shiny, and then we wipe it off. I can't wait to see them finished.
On our way out of the museum The Boy said, "You know how [The Girl] has her thing -- pottery?" Yep. "Well, making eggs with the wax is my thing. I don't mean to rush into it, but it's definitely my thing." We stopped by the little gift shop and for $4 bought some beeswax disks to melt. We are going to start with regular food-safe dye, and if it still remains his passion we can order the traditional dyes online (approximately $1/packet).
On the subway ride home The Boy was quizzing us all on what we would say our passions are if somebody asked. It was surprisingly hard to not fall back on old stand-bys, but rather really try to answer the question in a specific, current, and personal way. What activities do make me really happy? One of the things that I said was watching British TV shows. The Girl said, "You can just say that you like the telly," in an awesome almost-British, mostly silly accent. The Sister said, "working out," but we vetoed it for being too boring. We allowed her to keep "wrapping packages" (the gifts that she gives are almost too pretty to open). The sign on the train wall above The Boy's head became our theme as we made a commitment to think about our passions, and find new ones -- it said: "Be more interesting tomorrow than you are today."
