Children's Museum

For Christmas Jude got a membership to a Children's Museum near my mom's house. One of the perks of this membership (and most museum memberships) is that he also gets in free at reciprocal museums as well - fortunately for us that includes quite a few within a resonable distance of our house (Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Pittsburg - reasonable?). In addition there's a list of them that are all over the country. If for any reason we're traveling, it's always something we can keep in the back of our minds.

So, since we received the membership in the mail (which was actually shortly before Christmas), I've been trying to get Jude to the museum. I really want to make the most of the membership and take him often - and I know once spring comes along we'll be heading back outside as often as possible.

So, after saying all week that I would be going to the museum, finally yesterday I went for it. I had been to a CM in Pittsburg and the one in North Carolina, so I really didn't know what to expect - they were both very different!

Upon walking into the museum, I (...I mean Jude...) fell in love! At the Pittsburg Children's Museum, they had this large wall that I can only describe as looking like one of those ant farms kids buy and you can see the tunnels through the panes of glass on either side. Ryan and I climbed through that thing and loved it! Well, our local CM had something very similar! The biggest difference being it went in circles and the pieces you climbed on weren't flat, they were 'hilly'. I'm pretty sure Jude could have climbed through it for hours... and I enjoyed it quite a bit myself!

As I said, we have a membership, so I was using this trip as a kind of feeler. I wanted to see what exhibits were there, see what kinds of things Jude liked and what types of activities were within his understanding. Some things he zoomed right by and other things he seemed completely in awe of.

In particular he loved this little wetland/marsh they had set up. There were steering wheels you could turn and different animals would pop out from behind the grasses. I'm not sure if he liked the surprise of the animals appearing or the ability to turn the stearing wheels more.Close to this was also a half-boat with a stearing wheel that Jude seemed to enjoy sitting inside of.

Another thing he was smitten by was the little play garden they had set up. In the CM in NC, they also had a play garden, but it was a little different. They had a cement patch that was painted with holes in the ground. Each veggie was a plush toy shoved into the cement dirt. However, at our museum, there were wooden structures that grow out of the floor and the plastic veggies could be plucked from them. I'm not sure which one I liked more (plush vs. plastic, cement vs. wood, all on one plane vs. showing dimensions of different plants) but they both were adorable. Jude enjoyed plucking the veggies and putting them in his basket.

Finally, we of course spent a significant amount of time at the 'water table'. The had flowing water that you could alter the course of by using planes of plexiglass. Pipes spouting wind so that you could move sailboats and some other stuff that we didn't even get a chance to explore yet.

I am very eager to go again and see what things he takes a liking to as he grows!