Field Trip: Children's Museum

We had a great time today. One of the homeschooling moms on our state-wide Yahoo group put together a field trip to the Children's Museum. I am always so thankful whenever someone else does things like this & I can just pay & show up! She even booked us a great "Creature Feature" which is how we started.

They brought us as a group to a room on the third floor & had the children all sit in a circle on the floor. Then they brought our three different reptiles. It was really neat to see the kids & learn about these animals.

First up was a bearded dragon...

All the children were given the chance to touch each reptile (and they had a big jug of sanitizer handy for them to clean their hands with after).

This is my nephew touching it. I missed the shots of my boys doing this.

The woman doing the Creature Feature than asked if anyone was feeling "brave" & my nephew piped right up! He was allowed to hold the bearded dragon & even have it on his shoulder. I'm pretty sure this was the highlight of his morning.

Next up was a blue-tongued skink. I kept trying to catch a photo of the tongue but it was just too fast and not interested in eating with all the kids watching it.

Again, the kids got a chance to touch it. Here is a photo of my oldest doing just that.

Lastly they brought out a leopard skinned gecko. Of course, all I can think of is the Geico commercials. LOL I even briefly considered getting one of these as a pet, but not at the moment.

The feature lasted not quite an hour. After this point we were allowed full run of the museum. I'm pretty sure our group made up the majority of folks there that day. My sister (thankfully!!) came with me & was able to help me ride herd on the children. Our plan was simple...we waited to see where everyone else went & went in the opposite direction. ::wink:: It worked as we had most of the displays to ourselves for the most part.

We were on the top floor for the creature feature & it seemed that is where most people stayed, so we went all the back down to the first floor. Down there is a water area where the kids can explore current, water pressure, and just play in it. There is also a two story tree house that they love to climb! It goes up to the second floor but they can't get out up there - they have to climb back down to the first floor. My boys love this. There is also a beaver house that the kids can climb up in to. I really like how interactive the museum is for the children.

Just outside the nature area is a display of fish & turtles that are real but also some dioramas. There was one of a loon that Miss H thought very cool. She plopped herself right down & kept pointing out the bird to everyone!

N is pumping water

to fall on the big wheel.

This was a great area. It's a big Lite Bright! N made a train & Miss H just had fun putting the pegs in & taking them out.

The top floor has a whole human body area. There is this fantastic mouth bed. B & Miss H each posed for me. Miss H even leaned way back & got comfy.

One of my favorite spots in the whole place is the Goodnight Moon room. It's set up to look just like the story book & the little ones always have a good time in there. They have tons of copies of the book in various languages too. Here's J in the little play house in the Goodnight Moon room.

There are obviously far more areas to play in the museum. However, I either 1) didn't get there with the bigger boys or 2) didn't snap a photo or 3) I was chasing a toddler. ::grin::

I'm actually considering buying a reciprocal membership to the museum for Christmas this year. It's only $125 for the entire family. If we just go back to this particular museum four times over the course of the year, it will pay for itself. However, I'd really like to take the boys to the Museum of Science in Boston in the spring (via the Amtrak Downeaster train). It also gets us in to the other two children museums in the state plus a few in New Hampshire and some more in Massachusetts - all within a day's drive. Anyone out there have one & did you use it enough to make it worthwhile?