Exploration

Every time we come to Grand Rapids, we visit their children’s museum. It’s bigger than our one at home, and we always have a good time checking out all the neat stuff.

My favorite is this turning table, with various wheels and axles. It’s oddly meditative, getting the wheels spinning and letting them go.

The kids really love the giant bubble hoop, although they haven’t quite mastered the steady pace it takes to get it all the way up to head height.

In one area, they often have different kinds of exhibits. This time, they had a bunch of giant boxes to build with. Petra and Silas both got really into this, working with other children to make a giant fort.

We enjoyed exploring mirrors and instruments, a tiny grocery store and post office, a tree house.

They have these neat floor tiles with colors that squish around when you touch them.

Outside, they had a station set up for painting trees with liquid watercolors and cornstarch. The kids spent a lot of time at this–they were fascinated that this was something they were allowed and encouraged to do.

I’m starting to wonder if our children’s museum days are coming to an end. Silas explored some things, but he also spent a lot of time complaining about being bored and about it being too noisy. Petra’s not quite ready to be done with them, and unlike Carlos when Silas was Petra’s age, Silas isn’t enough older than Petra to enjoy the museum for her sake. When we get home, he’ll be about at the age limit for the Maker Space in our local museum. Maybe that will catch his fancy enough to extend our museum days.

On the plus side, they both seem to be aging into the Science Center level of things, so that’s good news.