The North Museum

On Tuesday, Mom & I took the boys to the North Museum. She had seen a coupon in the newspaper for $1 off admission, and it advertised the Big Bird Planetarium. One of my friends had mentioned that show being cool for little ones, and I had seen at the library where they had a free family guest pass for admission. Shawn had reserved the pass a couple weeks ago, and it finally came in! The pass was good for up to six people, including Ma-maw, and they still honored our $1 off coupon (since the planetarium costs extra). The entire bill for all four of us was $1.50 (since Caleb still gets in for free). The first display we saw was the bear above, and the boys wanted to go behind the ropes to get him. The next thing we saw was the potty - which is on a different floor than the main attractions. We were there three times for the Bean, who obviously had a little too much to drink before we left.

The next room we went into was the 'live animal' display. A man was there to pull the animals out and talk about them to us. The boys especially loved looking at the turtles.

We all got to pet this female turtle from Florida. The man dropped her back into the tank accidentally and she landed on the other turtle. The commotion made quite the impression on Joshua, who told Daddy that night that "the man dropped the turtle" as one of his highlights from the day.

Joshua saw a scorpion change color in a black light (they glow a greenish color when under the light), and he got to touch the turtle, a millipede, a snake and the hissing cockroach below. YUCK!!!

Here he is with the corn snake - both Mamaw & I touched this yellow snake, too. Soon, we left there to head to... you guessed it, the potty again!

Next we went into the "hands on" room in the museum. You can see the blue boxes on the shelf, and each one is labeled with something new to explore and touch and a description in the box of what you're looking at. We got out the animal feet, the skulls and the fossils before the boys moved on to do other things.

Here we are with animal feet... another YUCK! But they were actually kind of cool.

The boys could have stayed at this magnet display all day, where you rearrange the wheels to make each other turn. This was their favorite, I think. I kept wanting to show them other things, but this won out in the end.

Caleb also loved this bench that he would climb up on and Mamaw would help him jump down. This little friend soon followed his example.

Next we went to the brain teasers area, where Joshua & played the game where you can pull items one or two at a time and the 'loser' is the one to pull the last pin. We also put together a square from four different shapes that could also make a triangle.

Mamaw & Caleb worked on numbers. This area was a little bit bigger than my kids' abilities, but I think in a few years they would really like it. And, the stuff was still fun to play with and look at.

Soon it was time for the 'main event' or the reason we were there. The Big Bird Planetarium show said it was optimal for ages 4-8. I think if I had an 8-year-old, they would have been bored. My boys did great at the show and enjoyed it and there was minimal learning involved. They pointed out the big dipper and north star, and they talked about the sun and moon. For the most part, though, it was Big Bird & Elmo and their little friend from China singing songs. So, the boys thought it was great, but again, very little about the different constellations or anything like that. The show was at 1 pm exactly (or nap time in our house). So, I had to work our schedule around it, not leaving too much time in the beginning for the boys to get bored or fall apart but also not having too much time at the end since they were tired.

Before we left, we walked through the dinosaur display area. This is something I'd like to go back and see when the boys are older some day. They were pretty well done by this point, but it was still neat to see them checking out the dinosaurs since they like playing with them at home.

Mamaw bought the boys lunch on the way home, and then they went to bed afterward. It was a fun day for only $1.50. We will definitely go back again sometime to see more of the museum. Thanks for coming along, Mamaw!