Dinosaurs, Balls and an Electric Man

Not a low-budget sci-fi thriller...sorry to disappoint. Rather, an immensely exciting trip to the Science Museum on a Preschool Playdate Monday. Did you know they had those? Me neither until very recently (or maybe not so recently given that it's been a gazillion years since I've updated the blog so anything within two months seems recent). An entire morning geared toward preschoolers (read, "it doesn't matter quite as much if your children run amok because they're younger than 5 and the staff at the museum know what to expect that day"). So much of it was over their heads, and mine to be honest, but they had a blast trying out all the experiments even if they didn't walk away with a complete understanding of quantum physics...maybe next time.

This guy was posed like The Thinker except that his left hand was holding some 'tricity in a globe instead of resting on his knee. Perhaps he was almost done thinking. 

Of course there were dinosaurs. Jack and Wes posed by the triceratops (my paleontological husband will be horrified to learn that this dino was almost labeled a stegosaurus...good thing I just visited the museum website to do some blog post research). They obliged my request for a picture, but I couldn't keep them long. They loved seeing how big the dinosaur bones were. They ran from one fossil to the next while I ran after Elise trying to keep her from climbing up the bones. I'm pretty sure the museum worker was close to a heart attack several times during our stay on the dino floor.

Next stop? The entire floor with things my children could play with. The last time I was at the science museum there was a small section on one floor with various hands-on activities for school-aged kids. Now it's an entire floor for kids of all ages! Actually it's pretty much the whole museum, but this floor especially. They ran from one experiment to the next learning about physics, biology, meteorology, etc. They played with magnets, measured their heart rates and made a tornado. And then they discovered the "ball machine."

Wesley did not throw this ball in the air nor is he waiting to catch it. Well maybe he is, but it's probably not going to come down.

 

This is like the opposite of a huge powerful vacuum. It blows air that holds the ball in the air. The idea is to rotate the air as far as you can without letting the ball drop. The kids didn't quite get that, instead preferring to see how quickly they could get the ball to drop out of the stream of air and on to the floor.

 

Probably their favorite display was the giant funnel with balls that rolled around and down into the hole in the center. It's the first thing they want to do when we visit the zoo too so I'm always sure to have three pennies on hand. The great thing about the one at the science museum is that it doesn't cost money. You just have to battle all the other kids for the shiny little balls to drop in.

Around and around and around and around and around and around and around went the balls. Back and forth and back and forth and back and forth went my little girl's head as she tracked them. It was a fantastic reminder of how much children have to learn and the wonder they have about the world around them.

 

Remembering that may make it easier to answer Wesley when he asks me "Why?" for the 5,368th time of the day...maybe.