Homeschool Travel: A Mixed-up Tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

It’s the ultimate spring break getaway: Take your favorite readaloud, choose a destination inspired by it, and hit the road for a family vacation that’s the perfect homeschool mash-up. Chances of pulling off a ninja sleepover at the Metropolitan Museum of Art get slimmer every year, but that doesn’t mean planning how you’d do it isn’t a ton of fun.

The Book: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

The Destination: New York City

In The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, two suburban Connecticut kids hatch a scheme to run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City — and for three magical days, they succeed in camping out inside the museum.

It’s easy to see how Claudia and Jamie might have succeeded in a more low-tech world the minute you walk through the doors: The Met is huge, and you can get lost here for hours. To follow in the Kincaid siblings’ footsteps, you’ll want to come in with a plan—you can download the museums From the Mixed-Up Files walking tour from the museum website and arm your phone with the museum’s handy app to make the most of your visit. Start, much like Claudia and Jamie, with the restrooms. The best (and usually least crowded) restrooms are by the Chinese art galleries — look for the glazed huzi (that’s a fancy word for urinal) standing opposite the restroom doors. Alas, the new-fangled doors are the kind that automatically stand open unless they’ve been locked, so hiding out after hours there would be tricky.

Next you’ll need to scope out a place to stash your stuff. Of course you won’t really be able to interact with the exhibits this way, but the fun’s in the imagining! The Greek exhibition is a good place to start, since there are plenty of conveniently sized urns and terracotta kraters. Or follow Claudia’s lead, and plan to tuck your violin case in a Roman sarcophagus — there’s a particularly fancy marble one on display in the Roman Sculpture Court that features Dionysus surrounded by the four seasons. The Japanese screens in the Sackler Wing Galleries might also be a convenient spot to stash a case—at least before the museum installed motion detectors.

Finding a place to sleep is fun. The bed Claudia claimed as her own on her extended Met sleepover is no longer on display, but you can still find plenty of elegant places to imagine spending the night. The uber-posh 18th century furniture in the Lauzun Room was so opulent and expensive that even the wealthiest people didn’t use those beds for sleeping: Instead, these carved and curtained beds were where they received official visits at home. Gallery 521, which celebrates the decorative arts from the long and elegant reign of Louis XIV, also houses some pretty spectacular beds.

Claudia and Jamie manage to see most of the museum by trailing school groups, but you can chart your own course. Follow the crowds to the Egyptian exhibition in the Sackler Wing — the highlight is the fully reconstructed Temple of Dendur, but you’ll also want to look for the elaborate Egyptian jewelry that captured Claudia’s attention and the smug carved cat who reminds Jamie a little too much of his big sister. Claudia visited the 16th century French chapel now in Gallery 502 to meditate on the sin of stealing people’s wish coins from the fountains, but it’s a peaceful, beautifully carved place to refocus your mental energy. Jamie thinks the Renaissance galleries will bore Claudia, but exhibitions like the Venetian gallery with its dazzling paintings by Titian and Veronese and the Castle of Velez Blanc patio, filled with fantastic sculptures, are anything but dull. The real magic at the Met, though, happens when Claudia discovers something she wasn’t looking for, so give yourselves some time to wander and see what you discover.

By now, you’ve probably worked up an appetite. On your way to lunch — at the cafe in the American Wing, where Claudia and Jamie bought snacks, or down to the cafeteria, which is probably as close as you can get in 21st century Manhattan to the Horn and Hardart Automat where the Kincaids spent their breakfast budget — stop to drop a coin in the fountain with two frolicking cherubs in the Charles Engelhard Court in the American Wing. (The Fountain of the Muses, where the Kincaids bathed and change-gathered, has since moved to South Carolina.) You never know when your quarter might come in handy.

Planning Your Trip

For maximum mixed-up vibes, start your New York City trip by rolling into Grand Central Station and hoofing it for the 45-minute walk north to the met. stay at the nearby Garden Suites Hotel by Affinia — the Hotel Wales, which we recommended when this was published, has since ceased operation. Other museums near the park include Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the American Museum of Natural History. Central Park is a great place to get your wiggles out: Highlights for kids include the Ancient Playground (named for its proximity to the Met’s Egyptian wing), boat rentals at Loeb Boathouse, the beautifully manicured Conservatory garden, or the rugged waterfalls and woods in the park’s northwest corner.

This was originally published in the spring 2018 issue of HSL. We’ve updated links for online publication in 2021, but always double-check before basing your travel plans around online recommendations!

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