On Thursday, March 22, Joshua's preschool class had a field trip to the Lancaster Science Factory. With Ryan's illness, Shawn agreed to stay home with the younger boys that morning so I could take the Bean and enjoy some one-on-one time. I wasn't sure how stroller-friendly it would be (and now I'll know that it would be for next time). When we got there, the kids played together with the Kinnex until they stamped our hands and told us to "go have fun." The first stop for Joshua was at this area where he was really good at getting the ball to go in a circle down (some kids couldn't quite get the knack of it or would rather throw it right in the hole).
The next thing we saw was this air ball thing where when you press the button, the air keeps the ball suspended, but if you add balls to other tubes, they will all shoot out. It reminded me of the elephant popper that he loved to play with at Nonie & Poppy's house when he was a baby (only this was on a much larger scale).
I was sort of waiting for our organized group activity time, but that wasn't the plan for the day. Literally, each parent and child could decide what looked interesting and check it out. The different exhibits were designed to educate children on:
Joshua's favorite activity of the day came next. He loved to stuff these little plastic men and their parachutes into a tube that would suck them up and shoot them out. But, each time the parachute would catch in the air and make the little plastic man arrive safely down. Joshua would put them in every which way to test the theory and use all the different colors. He LOVED the parachutes!
Next, we tried connecting these magnets along the wall but never successfully got the bell to ring at the same time as the one thing moving on the other side. It was still fun to try!
My favorite (or one of them) from the day was creating this arch out of a bunch of little pieces. If you assemble them correctly, the "rainbow" will stand up without support. As you can see from his proud face, he made it stand on its own!
The area where I was most impressed I didn't take a picture. There was a little game where there as a boat with holes and then pegs that represented adults and kids. Two kids could go at the same time or one adult and one kid but never two adults. There were two kids playing in the boat and four adults wanted to cross to the other side using the children's boat. Joshua figured out the solution with ease and took the adults and children across, back and forth, until everyone was on the correct side. I thought it might trip him up, but he knew immediately what to do.
That said, at the station where you could build a car that should race and get timed (see photo above), we couldn't get the cars to go far enough. Not sure what we did wrong?
We went to this ball/track-building station twice. This was definitely a favorite for him. Each piece can be assembled in different patterns and then once the ball is released, you figure where it stops due to the force being too much or not enough. It was great fun for him and his friends!
There were a couple ball stations where you drop a bigger ball that's on the bottom and the top little ball shoots into the air. Each station had a description of what was happening and why. At some of them he listened and at others, he just wanted to keep moving. I would say that as he grows older, this would be even more fun. But there was lots of hands-on activities for this age group!
Joshua loved to make the connection and watch the lights turn on, but he wasn't interested in the explanation I tried to read to him.
I personally thought this activity below was cool. You turn the bottles upside down and then if you twirl it, you watch as the liquid continues to go on the outside edges of the bottle rather than straight down. Neat-o! I also liked the one next to this one where you used different shapes to watch soap bubbles form. I didn't take a picture at most of the activities we did, but I was glad I got the ones I did. :)
One of our last activities of the day was trying to create a dam to block the water flow. The kids had a blast with the water and trying to see how to seal the cracks, etc. Lots of friends could do it at the same time, so different kids would come and join in the fun. At this time, his teacher who made her rounds taking her own photos of the kids came and talked to me for awhile. I have been very blessed my Mrs. Zimmerman this year. We talked about churches and faith and children in general. It was a great conversation, and I have appreciated her praying for our kids and imparting wisdom into their lives beyond educational activities. :)
Joshua & I were the first ones to leave since I wanted to make sure to give Daddy plenty of time to get to work. But, we had seen most of the activities they had to offer. It is a place I would recommend for kids and would definitely go back. I had fun Mama/Joshua time. It's so great to spend one-on-one time with each child. My little man is growing so big!
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