Touring Boston – What to Know About Visiting the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) with Children

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I kept seeing these things for the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (ICA), like that it’s open free to the public on all Thursday nights between 5-9pm and that the last Saturday of every month is family day and families and kids get in free, and that the library has a bunch of passes that you can pick up to see the museum for free.  I have known about and forgotten and been reminded again of these things for probably about a year.  For the last 3 Thursday’s we’ve been trying to go, but something always comes up, my husband has to work late, someone offered to drive me grocery shopping (it’s a big deal when you don’t have a car) or it’s so cold outside that I don’t think the baby would stand for a mile walk along the pier…. etc.

It looked like my husbands next couple of Thursdays were booked and I finally put my foot down.  We were going to see this Art Gallery if it killed us.  So Saturday, after our son’s nap, we went.  It was actually the perfect day for a walk downtown, it was in the mid 40’s with only a little wind, and since we got a wind shield for our stroller the baby didn’t mind the walk at all.

I love seeing Boston, the buildings are fantastic and walking along the water front is always interesting and exciting.  I was thrilled to note the museum is right on pier, so we would get a great water front view as we walked to it.

We carried our son around the museum looked at the different pieces they had.  One of the wings was closed as they are working on getting a new exhibit up, but they gave us free tickets to come again because of it, which was great.

I think the most memorable installment was a video clip of extreme closes up of models licking a piece of glass covered with different candies.  It was gross, fascinating, a little bit sexual, but mostly like a train wreck that you can’t look away from.

Our son did okay initially, but he started getting bored and impatient of being carried a few rooms in.  He was too busy to walk with us and we didn’t want him bugging the other people so we had to cut our trip short.  I wish we had gone during family day so he could have blended and interacted with the other kids and I would have felt less guilty for annoying other people… perhaps will have to use our return tickets for family day.

They had one room toward the end that was just a glass wall with a view of the harbor where we felt safe setting our son down.  He made a real effort to get their glass good and smudged, but the view was lovely nonetheless.    If I worked there, that is where I would take all my breaks.

We finished out trip and played on the grass near the ICA for a little bit to get out some energy.  Unfortunately, I realized the lawn was so covered with bird crap that it looked like it had been aerated, so I had to cover our son’s hands with his coat and watch him carefully while he walked.  He passed out the minute we got him back situated in stroller.  All in all in was a fantastic day.  I loved having family time and getting to be out and about exploring this fascinating city.

Things to note:

1.  Getting There
I have no idea where you would park there, since we didn’t have a car I didn’t even look, but it was a nice, less than a mile, walk from the “T” which worked out well for us.  The website mentions that there is parking around it but that it cost upward of $20…

2. Price
$15/Person – General Admission
$10/Person – Student
17 and under free

FREE for all every Thursday from 5 to 9 PM during ICA Free Thursday Nights. Special hours: From Oct, 10, 2015 to Jan 24, 2016, Free Thursdays will start early at 4 PM in conjunction with Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957.

Free admission for up to two adults accompanied by children 12 and under during Play Dates, offered on the last Saturday of the month, except December.*

3. Hours
Tuesday and Wednesday: 10 AM – 5 PM
Thursday and Friday: 10 AM – 9 PM
Saturday + Sunday: 10 AM – 5 PM

Closed Mondays, except on the following national holidays: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Columbus Day.

4.  Stroller Friendly
You can easily bring a stroller into the place.  It’s big and open.  A few of the exhibits you’ll have to leave the stroller to enter but we found it to be easy to do.

5.  Kid Friendliness
Go during one of the free kid Saturdays.  We didn’t and I wish we would have.  I felt bad having a toddler there who wanted to walk around and was fairly disruptive to the other patrons who seemed really into their contemporary art.  I would have felt much better about taking our son if there were a bunch of other kids and if the people going knew that kids would be there… plus its free on kids day so it’s kind of a win/win.

Summary and Rating: ★★★★☆
Four Stars.  The museum itself was really nice and state of the art. The walk to it was gorgeous.   It was stroller friendly and it seems like they are really trying to make sure children are welcome there.  The draw backs are that this is a nice art museum which can make having young children there a struggle.  I think we would have had a better experience going during family day where we would have felt less disruptive. Also the museum looked huge from the outside, but we saw all the exhibits fairly quickly from the inside, as I mentioned one of the wings was closed for a new instillation so we might have been missing out on a big portion of the museum but it was quite a bit smaller than other ones we’ve been to, like the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum or the Museum of Fine Art.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below. 

Boston Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)

100 Northern Avenue
Boston, MA 02210

Phone: 617-478-3100
Website: http://www.icaboston.org/

“C” is for “Cookie” Letter Craft

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Supplies Needed:

  • Craft Paper
  • “C” letter cutout
  • Marker
  • Mixing Bowl
  • Spoon/s
  • Variety of Cereal or Dry Ingredients
  • Glue

 

Set Up:

In hindsight I probably should have said “C” is for “Cereal”… but it felt like we were making cookies at the time.  I started by letting each of the toddlers take a scoop/tablespoon/teaspoon full of the different ingredients and together they would mix them up.  They loved this activity!  They had so much fun getting to add different spoonfuls of things to the bowl and they took their mixing very seriously.  This continued until I made the mistake of adding “Lucky Charms” into the cereal mix.  One scoop of those added to the bowl and the kids were no longer content to stir, they were ready to start sampling.  Ha!

After all the marshmallows and most of the raisins had been devoured I was able to convince them to take a few scoops of their mixture and spread it over a glue covered “C”.  It might look less like a cookie than I was intending, but the kids had a blast making it.

 

Tracing Letters:

*Courtesy of http://bogglesworldesl.com/

 

Have you made this craft?  What was your experience like and do you have an suggestions to make it better?  I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below.

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Weekly Event Summary (Jan. 29th – Feb 5th) – Family Friendly Boston Cambridge

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Weekly Event Summary (Starting Jan 29th)

________________________________
1) National Choreography Month Boston ‘Shorts’ (Tomorrow)
2) Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Keynote and Performance (Tomorrow)
3) Winter Panto 2016: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jan 30)
4) Cardboard Tube Fighting Leauge – Boston (Jan 30)
5) Cambridge Winter Farmers’ Market (Jan 30)
6) Mindset of Success at Harvard (Jan 30)
7) Somerville Winter Farmers’ Market (Jan 30)
8) Travel Tuesday: China (Feb 2)
9) Drawing in the Galleries at the MFA (Feb 3)
10) Public Open Night the BU Astronomical Observatory (Feb 3)
11) Frog Pond Ice Skating (Feb 4)
12) ICA Free Thursday Nights (Feb 4)
________________________________
Detailed Listings
________________________________
1) National Choreography Month Boston ‘Shorts’ (Today)
When:
Friday, Jan 29, 2016 7:00p –
Sunday, Jan 31, 2016 6:00p
Where:
The Dance Complex
536 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Admission:
FREE
Free performances of dance by local artists for National Choreography Month Boston. Each year, dance artists gather in a series of workshops, feedback sessions and performances to focus on dance making for one month – January.
A series of shorts showcasing 3 NACHMO Artists each evening preceding CATALYST Performances
Friday January 29th, 7:00-7:45PM
Juliana Utz / Turning Key Dance
Josie Bray
Lily Cryan
Saturday January 30th, 7:00-7:45PM
Deadfall Dance
Meghan Carmichael
Carlee Travis
Sunday January 31st, 6:00-6:45PM
Heather Brown
Jordan Jamil
Claire Johannes
Penumbra:Movement/Eugenia Kim
What is NACHMO?
NACHMO is your yearly choreographic kick in the pants conceived by Sharyn Korey and Anna Brown Massey. We spur dancers to choreograph by challenging you to work against a deadline. You?ve got one rollicking month from January 1st to the 31stto forge new steps and complete your piece. Your work doesn?t have to be good, nor does it have to be public, but it does have to be done. For this one month each year, we put aside our excuses, our hesitations, and perhaps our day jobs to work intensely on making dance. Through the communal NACHMO blog, social media, and live events throughout January, we provide opportunities for individual artists to network and collaborate.
For more information visit http://www.nachmo.org/boston/ 
2) Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Keynote and Performance (Today)
When: Friday, Jan 29, 2016 7:00p – 9:00p
Where:
Berklee Performance Center
136 Massachusetts Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Admission:
FREE
This celebration features a performance by Ledisi and a keynote address by Beverly Morgan-Welch, the associate director of external affairs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, opening on the National Mall in 2016.
3) Winter Panto 2016: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jan 30)
When:
Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 1:00p –
Saturday, Jan 30, 2016 6:00p
Where:
BCA Plaza Theatre
539 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02120
Admission: $20
Regular price tickets $20 — get half price tickets here:
Hold onto your hats! imaginary beasts sweeps into town like a cyclone this January with a tale full of magic and wonder when they refashion an American classic into a fantasy of technicolor proportions!
When a terrible twister drops Dorothy and her little dog Toto somewhere over the rainbow, they must take a journey of discovery to the Emerald City in order to get ?Home, sweet home?. But when our young heroine realizes that her Auntie Em has followed her to the Land of Oz the adventures really begin.
L. Frank Baum?s beloved fairy tale receives the full Panto treatment when the beasts return to Boston with their favorite cold weather tradition, and audiences of all ages will want to follow the ‘yellow’ brick road to the Boston Center for the Arts.

4) Cardboard Tube Fighting Leauge – Boston (Jan 30)
When:
Saturday, Jan 30, 2016 11:30a – 2:00p
Where:
Boston Commons
139 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116
Admission:
FREE
Create your best cardboard armor and come out to battle. Be sure to check out some pics from the 2009 CTFL – NYC battle for some creative armor design tips.http://gothamist.com/2009/07/13/cardboard_tube_war_ravages_mccarren.php#photo-1
It’s a free family event. It is recommended that only children above the age of 5 participate.
Location:
Boston Commons
Entry Fee:
FREE to the public!
What to bring:
Water, warm liquids, cameras, video cameras, drone cameras?, name tags & positive social attitude
Attire:
Cardboard armor, costumes are encouraged.
All tubes are provided by the group.
No outside tubes allowed, liability and cost are the drivers for this ruling.
5) Cambridge Winter Farmers’ Market (Jan 30)
When:
Saturday, Jan 30, 2016 10:00a – 2:00p
Where:
Cambridge Community Center
5 Callender St
Cambridge, MA 02139
Admission:
FREE
Join us for the 5th Annual Opening Day of the Cambridge Winter Farmers Market at the Cambridge Community Center! We will be open every Saturday from 10 am – 2 pm from January through April!
The opening day will feature local food and drinks, live music, an art project hosted by the Riverside Gallery, a photo booth, and face painting.
Our vendors for opening day:
Valicenti Pasta Farm Winter Moon Roots Copicut Farms Jubali BirchTree Bread Company Marblehead Salt Co. Sweet Lydia’s Apex Orchards El Recreo Estate Coffee, Inc. Fungi Ally Freedom Food Farm Levend Bakery Chickadee Farm Silverbrook Farm Narragansett Creamery The Soup Guy Honeycomb Creamery Kitchen Millie Lilac Hedge Farm Dan’s Power Plant Moose Cup Samira’s Homemade Just Add Cooking Soluna Garden Farm Jennifer Lee’s Gourmet Bakery
Our musicians:
JackKnife Valentines
JackKnife Valentines influences run from Bob Dylan and the Band to James Brown, Bill Withers and Gil Scott Heron. With two amazing lead singers in Jimmy James and Gene McAuliffe, their songs span roots americana, soul and country. Members of the band have played in prominent blues, rock, and alternative groups around Boston for several decades. Basically, it’s all about soul and playing from your heart.
James McCarthy
James McCarthy is a singer, pianist that performs upbeat pop music and catchy original songs.

6) Mindset of Success at Harvard (Jan 30)
When:
Saturday, Jan 30, 2016 1:00p – 5:00p
Where:
Harvard University
Harvard Hall 104
Cambridge, MA 02138
Admission:
FREE
Start your new year off with 8 thirty minute talks from successful people with a variety of backgrounds. The speakers range from a world famous DJ, someone who went from homeless to multi-millionaire, a Peak Performance coach for fortune 500 CEOs and more. 4 hours on January 30th of great content and great networking.
RSVP now on the provided link below!
Hope to seeing you there!
7) Somerville Winter Farmers’ Market (Jan 30)
When:
Saturday, Jan 30, 2016 9:30a – 2:00p
Where:
Center for Arts at the Armory
191 Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02143
Admission: FREE
Presenting the very best variety of products from New England farms and specialty vendors including vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese, fish, baked goods, and lots more.
Live music, delicious treats in two cafe areas and a chance to meet friends — Chase away the chill of even the coldest winter day with us!
December through March at 191 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA. Every Saturday from9:30 AM to 2:00 PM (closed Dec 26, 2015)
For more information visit http://www.somwintermarket.org 

8) Travel Tuesday: China (Feb 2)
When: Tuesday, Feb 02, 2016 4:30p – 5:30p
Where:
Boston Public Library
700 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
Admission: FREE
The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center invites kids ages 5-11
to explore our world on Travel Tuesdays.
Join us in February as we enjoy crafts and activities and learn about
Chinese geography, culture, and wildlife, and celebrate the Chinese New Year!
The event will be held in the Learning Center in the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Central Library.
*The first Tuesday of every month is Travel Tuesday at the Map Center.
For more information visit http://maps.bpl.org/events 

9) Drawing in the Galleries at the MFA (Feb 3)
When:
Wednesday, Feb 03, 2016 6:00p – 9:00p
Where:
MFA
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA
Admission: FREE
Every Wednesday evening the MFA hosts an opportunity to sketch from live models and/or from objects in their collections. A drawing instructor provides insights on drawing technique and the artist-model relationship as it informs the creation of artwork. Limited drawing materials are provided to encourage spontaneous participation.
Gallery location varies; ask at the Sharf Visitor Center.
Free with MFA Admission – AND GUESS WHAT – it’s free to get into the MFA on Wednesdays!
10) Public Open Night the BU Astronomical Observatory (Feb 3)
When:
Wednesday, Feb 03, 2016 8:30p – 9:30p
Where:
Coit Observatory at Boston University
725 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA
Admission: FREE
The Public Open Night at the Observatory is a chance for people to come observe the night sky through telescopes and binoculars and see things they otherwise might not get to see, and learn some astronomy as well. The Open Nights are held most Wednesday evenings throughout the year, weather permitting.
It is open to everyone. Starting times are 8:30pm during the spring and summer, and 7:30pm during the fall and winter. The program lasts about an hour.
For more information visit http://https://twitter.com/buobservatory<http://https:/twitter.com/buobservatory> 

11) Frog Pond Ice Skating (Feb 4)
When:
Tuesday, Dec 22, 2015 10:00a – Thursday, Mar 10, 2016 10:00p
Where:
Frog Pond
Boston Common
Boston, MA
Admission:
$5
The absolute best place to skate outdoors in Boston. Open to the public with skate rentals available. Weather permitting, ice skating returns to Boston Common Frog Pond mid-November of each year.
Open Daily starting Saturday, Nov 22, 2015:
Mon 10AM-4PM
Tue-Thu 10AM-9PM
Fri-Sat 10AM-10PM
Sun 10AM-9PM
Daily Admission:
Adult Admissions (14+): $5.00
Kid Admissions (13 & under): FREE
Rentals:
Adult Skate Rentals: $10.00
Kid Skate Rentals: $5.00
Locker Rentals: $2.00
Skate Sharpening
$8.00 per pair
#holiday
#NYE

12) ICA Free Thursday Nights (Feb 4)
When: Thursday, February 04, 2016, 4 ? 9pm
Where: The Institute of Contemporary Art
100 Northern Ave
Boston, MA 02210
Cost: Free
FREE for all every Thursday from 4 to 9 PM during ICA Free Thursday Nights. Special hours: From Oct, 10, 2015 to Jan 24, 2016, Free Thursdays will start early at 4 PM in conjunction with Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933?1957.
For more information visit http://https://www.icaboston.org/visit<http://https:/www.icaboston.org/visit> 

Family Friendly Boston/Cambridge – Unexpected Places to Visit on the MIT Campus – MIT Colored Floor Exhibit – Sol Lewitt: Bars of Color within Squares

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MIT is fairly well know for its long hallway that connects multiple buildings together (better known as the infinite corridor). Less well know, and what I actually think of more as a hidden gem is the Sol Lewitt: Bars of Color within Squares Art Exhibit.

You can find this giant exhibit by walking the infinite corridor to its east most end, where you hit a T shape and are forced to turn either north or south.  If you turn south and walk a few paces (maybe twenty) there is a short five foot entry on the west side of the hallway.  If you get there between 9am-5pm you can open the door to the MIT physics department and the gorgeous colorful U-shaped atrium.

The atrium is fairly empty during the day and a great spot to visit during the cold glum days of winter.  I have taken my son there multiple times during the winter when we were going crazy from being stuck in our apartment but he had a slight cold or runny nose and I didn’t want to go to the playroom or playgroups and risk infecting other kids.  This was at least a bright, warm space where he could move around a little bit and we could get out of the apartment.

Things to Note:

1) Price
Free

2) Kid Friendliness
Pretty kid friendly.  I brought my son there as a baby and toddler and he was more than happy to crawl/run around.  However the exhibit circles a bunch of class rooms so this is not a place to be super rambunctious, to scream, or be loud and crazy.  Also you’ll be walking across the art exhibit and they ask that you not do anything that might damage it so keep that in mind.

3) Stroller Friendliness
I’ve brought a stroller here many times.  I usually walk it on the outskirts of the tile exhibit and park it by the benches near the south wall while my son explores the colors.

Summary and Rating: ★★★☆☆

Three Stars.  It’s a nice place to go for some variety in the winter.  It’s free, warm and bright, but it’s not a place that is super interactive or a place that my 3 year old son can really let loose.  If you’ve got younger children, like crawling babies this makes for a fantastic afternoon visit.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below.

MIT Sol Lewitt: Bars of Color within Squares Art Exhibit
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

Website: http://www.mit.edu/~lvac/percent/lewitt.html

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Review – VTech Inno Tab 3S

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This review is 100% my own opinion and is not sponsored by Vtech or anyone but myself.

I first started seeing the Inno Tab when I was really into entering blog giveaways sometime around Thanksgiving of 2014.  I think that the VTech Company must have been working hard to promote it before Christmas because there were a ton of different blogs with reviews and giveaways going on at about that time.

The more I looked at the reviews and read about the product the more interested I became.  I knew that my family would be spending half the day flying home to our extended families over Christmas and the though of flying with a nearly two year old lap child was daunting.  I needed something new that would keep him entertained for at least some of the trip.

The more reviews I saw and the more I looked at this tablet (it had had kid safe WiFi, kid friendly games, ebooks, videos, a camera, and video camera) the more interested I became.  This toy looked awesome.

I weighed the pros and cons of a VTech vs. a regular tablet, but the kid friendliness was just so appealing to me.  When I didn’t win any of the giveaways I entered I eventually decided it would be worth my traveling sanity to buy one.

I bought one and before we flew out I tried to get it set up to maximize its usefulness. The first thing I wanted on it were videos.  We have a bunch of family videos my son was mesmerized by and I wanted a few of those on the Inno Tab.  I plugged it in and attempted to move over some of the videos, but it didn’t seem to matter what format I had them in (I have Bachelor Degree in Digital Media, converting video formats is 100% within my scope of knowledge) I could not get the videos to load or be recognized.  I ended up spending way to much time and reading forum after forum to try to find a way to get personal videos on this thing and the task seemed akin to climbing Mount Everest.  I ended up feeling super disappointed and giving up, video play had been one of my main reasons for buying the thing.

Next I got onto their Learning Lodge to start adding some of the Kid Friendly games to the Tab.  There were a handful that came preloaded, such as a magic bean stock game, an art pad, a type pad etc., and with purchase of the device you were given a few credits to download additional games.  It looked like they had a number of great games sorted by both topic and relevant ages and they cost between $3-5 to download per/game.  They also had a ton of character driven games (popular disney and TV characters) and these were a lot more expensive, $7-15/game.

I downloaded my free three and we set off on our adventure.

Now the real fun started.  The VTech was fairly slow to load up, but my toddler didn’t really care.  It came with a stylus which was a little hard for my two year old to use but he did a decent job.  He enjoyed moving through the different icons and used the Vtech Inno Tab similar to how he uses my smart phone.  Then we got to playing the games.  I had downloaded a Tracing ABC Game (Letter Pooch), a puzzle Game, and a Grab the Letter type game.

My son had played lots of tracing ABC games on my phone and I was excited about this one because it was lower case letters.  We opened it and he started playing it, but for the life of him he could not complete the letter.  The Inno Tab or maybe the game, was completely unforgiving, you either tracked the letter 100% completely correct, with a not very sensitive stylus, or you started over.  He got frustrated with it after a few tries and asked me to help.   I leaned over to comply and was honestly amazed that as an adult with adult like understanding and coordination I struggled to complete the different letters.  It was really annoying to me and made me wonder if the people who created this game had ever user tested it, since it worked so incredibly poorly.

In the end I felt fairly dissatisfied with most of the games.  There wasn’t much to them, they went fast or slow or ended after five rounds.  And the only games the Inno Tab can have on them are game created specifically for the Inno Tab.  I guess I had gotten used to and comfortable with getting on the Goggle Play or Apple stores and downloading great Apps for free.  Such was not going to be the case with this device.

With all that said my son still likes playing with it.  He likes the handful of games I’ve put on it, and being able to use it without mom’s supervision.  The video camera and camera are fun, though really low resolution. If you have multiple children there are up to four different accounts you can set up on the device so they can each have their own stuff.  The Inno Tab can be set up to track their play results and report back to mom and dad which may be a nice thing for older children who are using for education (?).

My feelings are that this was overpriced (about $65) and disappointing.   I wish I had spent that money on getting my son a cheap tablet instead.  One where there are thousands of toddler friendly games available to download for free, one that can play any video I choose, and one that is sensitive enough that it will respond to a toddlers chubby fingers.   For now I turn off the WiFi on my tablet and let him use it when we’re in a pinch.

VTech Inno Tab 3S

Pros: 

  • Multiple User Accounts
  • Sturdy Plastic Casing
  • Worry Free WiFi

Cons: 

  • Slow
  • Expensive
  • Hard to Use
  • Touch Screen Not Very Responsive
  • Only Supports VTech Apps Which Are $$
  • Cannot Have Personal Videos or Ripped DVD’s Added to It

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