Slow Down, Gym Shoe!: Our Passport To Adventure!

The museum association in the county where I live sponsors a really cool program in the summer, which I found out about a few days ago. Kids get a little "passport" booklet, with each place listing the name and description of a small, local museum. When kids bring their passport to one of the participating museums, they get a stamp on that museum's page. Kids who visit at least seven of the museums over the summer get a prize!

It turns out that our suburban area is a wealth of nature museums, art museums and history museums, most of which are free or are just one or two dollars for admission. The museums are places that may seem boring at first glance, but most have special hands-on exhibits just for kids.

Last week Little Bear, Pufferfish, Rafael and I visited a "history of comic books" exhibit at one history museum, and got our first stamp.

And today, we took a journey to a nature center, about a half an hour way, to get our second stamp! I thought the kids would enjoy it because it has a genuine cave Sure enough, they did like climbing into the small cave, and mostly climbing on top of the cave! But their favorite part of the nature center was the indoor section, where they could look at live animals and touch things like animal fur and beehives and snake skins.

I mentioned in my last post that Rafael doesn't really enjoy the little arts and crafts and stories and things that I usually do with the girls... so I'm going to try to fill this month with more adventure-based activities. I figure that if I can get the kids to explore a history museum for half an hour, and follow it up with a picnic at a new playground, they will have learned a little something and gotten lots of exercise and fresh air!

So anyway, here are a few pics from today!

Pufferfish explores the cave. The nature center let us check out a bag that included binoculars, magnifying glasses, and a flashlight, to help us explore!