Children's Museum

Last week I met with a friend-of-a-friend (thank you for "introducing us," Ruthie!) at a children's museum.  We both bought discounted tickets from Groupon and thought it would be fun to meet there.  My impressions from the museum's website were that it was very child-friendly even down to kids Asa's age and that we would have a lot of fun. :)  I was right and can't wait to go back with Matt, too!

The first room we went into was themed upon Margaret Wise Brown's (of Goodnight Moon fame) book The Big Red barn.  It was great for even young toddlers like Ba-Basa.  There were fake corn stalks with felt pockets holding plastic ears of corn the kids could harvest and then take to giant silo!  I believe there was a hen house on that wall as well (every time I looked around, I noticed something new... even as we were leaving each section)!  They had a giant wagon filled with baskets and pails for collecting produce around the room.  There is a huge loft-style barn with steps to a second story with plexi-glass windows and various activities in the open first floor, a replica of a pick-up truck complete with turn-able steering wheel and a truck bed full of stuffed animals representing just about every farm animal you can think of--giant stuffed animals and big puppets!  Another wall had trees painted on it with big sections of velcro, and there were plastic yellow and red apples with corresponding velcro on them so you could "pick" apples from the tree.  Not to mention little tykes tractors, wagons, a bookshelf of farm-related books.... it was amazing!

Next we went to a water room.  There were activities about the water cycle around the perimeter of the room, but we headed straight for a huge, 3 level water table complete with spouts and all sorts of water toys.  They had smocks to help keep your child from totally drenching him or herself as well. :)  You KNOW Asa loved the water. ;)

The museum has a third section set up with familiar things around town... a city bus replica with real bus seats kids can sit on and a driver's seat with steering wheel, of course.  A train table (that was always busy!), a model car that even had an infant car seat bolted to it so kids could pretend to drive their family around town.  It had a house with 2 great play kitchens, a fridge, a broom and mop, dog, dog bed, and dog food bowls :), table and chairs, etc., and tons of pretend food and dishes.  THAT house was hopping too!  The section I didn't take Asa to that I think he will love, love, love when we go back with Daddy is set up like a little store--grocery cars and aisles of boxes and cans for kids to go shopping with!!

After we saw the first 3 areas, we took a break for our kids to eat.  Then my friend and her kids needed to head out to make it home for nap time.  We live farther away and I didn't think there was anyway I could prevent Asa from falling asleep on the way home no matter when I left (it was just over an hour away), so we went to the last area we hadn't explored yet.  My impression is that the theme of this area can change, and it is currently set up with an Egyptian theme.  They have made a GIANT sand pit.... probably at least 2 of our huge living room in Florida put together.  It's filled with very DRY sand, so it all shakes right off. ;)  They have tons of shovels and pails, a couple little tykes crocodile see-saws, a pyramid and tunnel kids can crawl through, and a giant sand sculpture of a sphinx!  Outside the sand pit were some benches and tables, a huge felt board with each letter of hieroglyphics laminated and stickable onto the felt board so children could spell things out (and then paper and pencils to record what they wrote), Egyptian themed rubbings (they had a couple metal plates you could place paper over and then make a crayon rubbing of)--Asa made one of pyramids.  I saw one little boy had made a "treasure" map and was burying various things in the sand and then pretending he was a treasure hunting, scoping out the sand pit and the map he made (with lot of "x marks the spots"), digging up the treasures he'd buried, and returning them victoriously to his mother and grandmother.  It was so neat to see kids of ALL ages engaging in such fun and imaginative ways.  The museum was really a place you could go over the course of several years as your child(ren) grow, and I think they would interact with each section in different ways as they get older.  Very cool.

Unfortunately, I accidentally left my camera in the car!  But I will be sure to take lots of pictures when we get a chance to go back with Matt. :)