Simple technology is sometimes the best
I had mentally put a visit to The Tech Museum high on my to-do list for the next time I was in the area. A recent trip with the kids to see their grandparents meant that I wouldn’t have to wait long to see it. I knew that most of the exhibits would be beyond the comprehension of a two or four year old, but I clung to the words of the museum’s website, ” … there’s sure to be something for all ages and interests…”
We got a late start, not arriving until eleven o’clock. By that time the little one was getting grumpy, so our first stop had to be the cafe for a snack. Our entrance tickets included a free IMAX show, so we couldn’t pass that up. The show that sounded the least frightening was Forces of Nature, which played at noon. So essentially we went from the cafe, downstairs to see some exhibits for about twenty minutes, then back up again to watch the 45 minute show. (Hey, did I mention it was free?) Alright, I can power through a floor of exhibits in twenty minutes given some focus and fine-tuned scanning skills that I have acquired. At the bottom of the stairs, however, was a foyer with a randomly turning small spotlight that shone onto the carpet, then disappeared, then appeared again in another spot nearby. This was not part of any exhibit, just an interesting way to add light to the foyer. Needless to say, my kids were transfixed. I could not move from the foyer while the kids chased the moving circle of light around the carpet until I forced them to leave to go see the movie.
The IMAX theatre was really nice. Also, they offer quite a variety of different shows, you are sure to find something that interests you and your kids. During Forces of Nature I was prepared to see volcanos and tornados. I was fairly confident that even in larger than life format, the kids would not run away screaming. I was not as prepared for the amount of focus the movie gave to the desparation these forces of nature can leave behind. Shots of children being pulled from rubble, people staring at bare walls where their houses once stood. These were the scenes that made me cringe, and I offered my kids the opportunity to leave and go back downstairs several times. They were well hooked into the movie at that point, and these scenes and the narrator’s statistics didn’t seem to affect them at all. But in truth, I was quickly looking forward to going back downstairs to see what techy things we could play with.
For young kids the place to go is the lower level. We retreated once again downstairs and hit the room immediately to the right of the stairs. Here some staff worked with the kids to make paper airplanes that they could throw into a volcano. Further on, more staff helped the kids demonstrate kinectic energy by rolling a ball through several tubes and an air chamber so that the person sitting in the chair at the end of the ball’s route could catch it. There were a few other interesting hands-on activities there. Also, to the left of the stairs, was a really nice exhibit that included wind and water. By this time it was 1:30 and some tummies were rumbling for lunch. If we didn’t have to also coordinate a nap into the middle of the day, I think we could have stayed and played another few hours, this is definately an interesting place. And when if your kids get enough of science, don’t forget to catch the traveling light show in the downstairs foyer.
For more info on The Tech Museum, visit my mini-trips post.
I laughed reading this post, because I’ve had so many day trips like this that didn’t go *quite* how I had planned. I was interested to see your children’s reaction to the IMAX movies. I’m sure I would have done the exact same thing you did, and yet perhaps they were learning something important about compassion, certainly about the forces at work in the world. Not necessarily a bad lesson for a shot museum trip.
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Don’t kids always find the funniest things to become transfixed with? There is this bicycle at a children’s museum near my home where the child pedals along and a skeleton behind a glass case does it at the same time (showing how bones work and all) … took so long to convince me son to get off.
The film, however, sounds like it would be a tearjerker — for me at least.
Funny, but I stumbled upon a sure fire way to get them suddenly disinterested. I finally pulled out my camera to get this silliness on the video camera setting. Poof! What do you know, the little one moved straight from running in circles to staring at the ground. Little stinker!