A day at the Museum with the Kids
You always looked forward to a field trip when you were a kid. It meant getting out of school for a day. If you were lucky, it would be something that genuinely interested you and wasn't boring. For me, the best trips were the ones to Canobie Lake Park.
The Boy had a field trip last week to the Museum of Science. This is a place Wife and I have always enjoyed visiting with our children. She went with The Oppressed when it was her turn. I wanted to go, but The Boy had a field trip to the zoo on the same day.
The Night Before and the Morning of the Field Trip
If you've donated to the Museum of Science before, you may be getting another letter in the mail asking for more money.
We began planning our day on the night before. This meant going to the store and buying things to make our lunches. Lunches were prepared and packed. The Boy left for the bus the next morning. I was driving since chaperones are not allowed to ride the bus with the teachers and children. I said a little prayer for the teachers.
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| My badge of honor |
I left my house at the same time the buses were leaving the school, totally oblivious to the fact that the buses could take the carpool lane and I, alone in my car, couldn't. It was a glorious morning of driving through Boston and fighting morning traffic. I finally arrived at the museum, found a parking spot on the very top floor, and found the elevator to be out of order. If you've donated to the Museum of Science before, you may be getting another letter in the mail asking for more money.
Children at the Museum
My group was small. It was just The Boy and one of his friends. Lucky for me, some of my friends were chaperones, too. I got the chance to talk to them while the children ran around the museum with reckless abandon. All of the adults were doing their best to look after the children, ready to loudly reprimand them if any of the museum personnel saw them roughhousing before we did.
We walked through the museum, taking in as much as we could that morning. There were STEM exhibits. There were models showing you what fetuses looked like as they developed. Did you know you had a tail at 26 days?
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| What a fetus looks like at 26 days. |
Children and chaperones alike saw the effects industrialization have on the environment. There were models of the Earth, models of the sun. We saw dinosaur fossils and models of historical ships. There was also an autonomous robot that walked back and forth on four legs.
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| Schoolchildren studying a river model. |
Shows at the Museum
Our itinerary called for two shows that day. One was a live demonstration of Tesla coils. This display was full of bright lights and loud noises, sure to delight fourth graders everywhere. Some people like me and the nice lady presenting the demonstrations covered our ears when warned to protect ourselves from the loud bangs and electric sounds. Others decided to show off how brave and tough they were by watching the demonstrations without covering their ears.
All of the adults were doing their best to look after the children, ready to loudly reprimand them if any of the museum personnel saw them roughhousing before we did.
The second show of the day was a video about squirrels and how they survive in the forest. The film explained how they go from place to place and store up the nuts for the winter. One interesting fact we learned about squirrels is that the young squirrels will look for nuts to store for the winter. The older squirrels will find where the young ones are storing them and poach the little ones' supply.
The young squirrel went to work storing nuts for the upcoming winter. While he was gone, an older squirrel found his stash and began to poach the stores. The film climaxed with the older squirrel being caught by the young squirrel, resulting in a faceoff between the two. It resulted in the older squirrel backing down and the younger squirrel won the day, eliciting thunderous cheers and applause from every fourth grader in the room.
After a little more time visiting exhibits, it was time for lunch. The Boy and I had lunch together. We discussed the morning. I asked him what his favorite part was. He told me his favorite parts were the Tesla coils and looking at the exhibits with his friends. My favorite part was having lunch with him. After lunch, it was time for the children to get ready to board the bus. After the kids left, I spent a little more time walking around the museum and seeing things I wasn't able to see because I was outvoted by the children under my charge. Soon it was time for me to leave the museum and go back home. It was a fun day with the boy. We both learned a few things.
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| It's time to go home. |
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