A great day was had last week and I'm finally getting around to writing about it. I had made plans with my brother and his family for dinner and I figured we could go down early and find something indoors and cool to do. I'm so glad we remembered the science center!
My friend Liz was in town with her son as well, so we met her there for some lunch and visiting.
We left our house just before 8am and made really good time. The only traffic we hit was on the 101, arriving at 10:30. We checked out the gift shop because I always get a postcard when we visit a place and I wanted to find something cool to bring my littlest nephew.
When my friend arrived, we got tickets to see the space shuttle. I was happy about that because the website made it seem like you had to get reservations in advance, but apparently that's only on weekends. Liz and I were commenting on the employees lack of explaining where the exhibit was. There is a special entrance since you have to pay extra to see it and it isn't very clear where you are supposed to go. At first we ended up in the ecosystems room and thought we made a mistake, then we found it. The boys spent a lot of time reading the signs. I, personally, just wanted to see the space shuttle! It was huge! I can't imagine what the launch of that thing was like.
Liz and I talked, catching up, more than looked at the displays. It was fun watching Tom explain something to her son about the space shuttle. Tom was thrilled to have a willing audience and Jake was happy to not be the recipient for a change.
We got some lunch after that and then they had to go. We didn't get enough time, but it was pretty good of an impromptu meet-up.
The boys and I had three more hours to spend and both the boys wanted to go to the physics side next. I wanted to spend time in the ecosystems part since we'd never seen it before. We did that first and really liked it. Some of the hands-on stuff was broken, butt here was still plenty to see and do. The desert part made Jake sad because they had a couple roadrunners in a display that looked very scared. We really enjoyed the polar room because they have a nice wall. I need one of those at home! Both the boys spent a lot of time at the heat video camera thing, experimenting with how to heat things up and then running back and forth to the polar room to cool them off again.
The physics part of the museum was a little disappointing. None of it has changed in years and there were few hands-on things that still worked. It looks like a war zone. One of the employees asked if we were having a good time and I said we loved it here, but it's pretty run down. She said that there are a lot of kids groups going through and things get broken. That's really no excuse for the condition it was in. The point is to have things for kids to discover science concepts with. That's what they get money for, probably a lot of grants since it's mostly free to the public. But if none of the experiments work, what's the point of parading these kids through? They'd be better off at a nice park really. This stuff wasn't recently broken either. It's the same stuff I took the boys to see eight years ago and it was getting haggard then, now it's completely gone or just sitting there in pieces.
Honestly though, even if all of it worked it's not helping these groups that come through. They are paraded through, quite literally, and given a few seconds each at each display. They either follow the directions and see what it does and move on, or hammer at it a minute and move on. There is no experimenting or discovery. The most they get is a day away from the classroom, or they enjoy what they do see and get their parents to bring them back another time. I've always loved getting there in the early afternoon, after the groups have left, and letting the boys play with things. They usually spend a lot of time in one area but I have to be nearby to answer questions or get them to move away for a bit and let someone else try. Not anymore though, now they are helping other kids and trying to explain what's going on. That's really fun to watch!
Anyway, we had a boat load of fun and I found a legitimate reason to have a smart phone. Many times throughout the day, we found ourselves needing answers and if we had a smart phone, we could have got them. Yes, we could write a note and look it up later, but then the moment is gone. The whole idea of the way we are educating our kids is to learn things in the moment they come up and we're all interested. Taking a second to look up an answer is ideal because we have the info and are better for it. It may lead to more discovery right then, or it may lead to finding more in depth information later, but the ball isn't dropped. I lived without one for two months and have done fine, but the smart phone is just too useful not to have around, like living without electricity.
We drove down the freeway to have dinner with my brother and his family and on the way, Tom sees the sign for Watts Towers and wants to drive by it...um...no. Call me crazy.
Dinner was great fun. We love having "quality" time with them. We've made it a point to come once a month, so that we see each other more than just at birthday parties and I think we are all much closer because of it. It's a good chance to talk and really get to know each other.
A quick stop at Target (wow) and we were on our way home. It was almost 10pm and we were exhausted, but it was worth it. No pictures though. I got a few before my camera died but now I can't get them off until I get my real computer back...rearrangement of furniture has us without a place to set it up yet. I'll add them later!
