Kids' Stuff

CENTERED: A couple of weeks ago I took advantage of a one-day only offer for a discounted membership at the Seattle Children's Museum. It's right at Seattle Center and, inexplicably, we've never gone there to date. Today, it was time to right that wrong!

Lucky us, Seattle Center is all of six minutes (by car) from our house. I had planned on using metered parking, but as we approached the Center, I noticed that the meters don't start popping up until you're within 6 blocks or so of it. Beyond that, there were strips here and there with free two hour parking. Naturally, I decided that we were more than willing to hike a few extra blocks to save that $6 or so it would have cost to park.

So we parked and headed for the Center House, which houses the museum. Along the way, we stopped and enjoyed the mammoth fountain on the grounds.
Once inside the museum, we checked out their Story Telling Circle (no one in there telling stories today - but it was a colorful space with great murals). Next it was a stroll through the Mountain Forest, where we learned about snags, nurse logs and other habitats in a forest. It was a nice follow up to many of the things we noticed yesterday while hiking Discovery Park.

Next up: the Global Village, where the kids got to explore the cultures, traditions and lifestyles of Ghana, the Philippines and Japan. When CJ was sizing up a Ghanan-style food market, he was aghast at the limited choices available. "Where's the chocolate?" he asked.

He felt much more at home in replica of a Japanese apartment. In the kitchen were KFC and doughnut boxes, and he was absolutely entranced in the replica of a child's room. He studied the toys so carefully, noting all the ones that he had in his room at home (Pokemon, Power Rangers and Hello Kitty, to name three).

At 1:30 we raced out of the Global Village back to the front of the Museum where Curiosity Corner is located. A couple of times a day there are special activities there and this afternoon's was called "Market Twister." It was for kids 6 through 10 and since it was during regular school hours, there were only a couple of kids there (namely, CeeJ and Bee)! So they got lots of attention. :)

The museum's calendar billed "Market Twister" as "a new twist on an old favorite as we twist and turn and learn about the food pyramid." Upon arrival, the museum staffer gave the kids a map to the museum's grocery store and told them to pick out 5 of their favorite foods there. CJ chose a banana, grapes, a big pretzel, ice cream and cheese. Bee chose ice cream, a pretzel and three kinds of fruit. (Guess we need to work on the veggie thing!)

They reported back to the Curiosity Corner with their goods and were instructed to place them on the proper part of the food pyramid (dairy, grains, meat, fruit, vegetables). They did so with no trouble. Then it was time to play Twister, but instead of calling out 'right hand red' type instructions, the board was labeled as food groups rather than colors, so they had to put an appendage on a food group. Annabelle was more into it than CJ, who would dramatically collapse at not too infrequent intervals.
From there, it was on to the Imagination Studio which is a fantastic little art zone. There were big papers on easels with brushes and paints; there was a clay table with tools; a mixed media area (a lot of recycled items that could be cobbled together into a fantastic creation); a chalk zone; and more. The kids both loved it. CJ went right for the clay and took to it like he'd been doing it forever. Annabelle made a beeline for the easel. I was so happy she had the chance to do that - we have little crappy watercolor paints and typing paper at home, but it's just not the same as working with a big sheet hanging on an easel with heavily pigmented colorful tempera paints. Smartly, they only let about a dozen kids in at a time, so it wasn't too crowded and materials were easy to get at. Both kids loved it.

The Imagination Studio alone makes it worth being members. We could - and should - pop down there once a week for one of their staff-guided activities and some time in the art room. The last area we checked out was an exhibit where favorite children's books were larger than life.

We didn't get to see all of the museum today before we had to beat feet back to our car parked in a 2-hour spot, but I think it's OK to leave the kids wanting more!

STRINGED: This morning I brought out a book for our music education. "Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin!" is a Caldecott Honor book, and when the story begins, a lonely trombone is playing all by itself. Soon, a trumpet joins in (making a duet), the French horn makes it a trio and eventually an entire orchestra is on stage.

Happily, the book (by Lloyd Moss, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman) really came alive for the kids because I had a narrative CD to go along with it, which also included music.

As it turned out, unbeknownst to me, the kids had actually seen the book before - their music teacher Nancy had read it to them. Oh well, they seemed perfectly content hearing it again.

SHROOMS: Since we've got our mushroom growing kit going, I decided today we'd better brush up on mushrooms.

When you last saw the kit, it looked like bare dirt/compost. Here's what's growing on now ...
It's not much to look at yet, but things do appear to be taking shape ...

The kids and I hopped to YouTube in search of more about mushrooms. We found this funky, low tech video "Fungi: A Kingdom All Their Own" - a video of the Oakland Museum of California Natural Sciences Department/Mycological Society of San Francisco. It basically shows this very enthusiastic mushroom lover taking a group through the woods on a mushroom hunt. (BTW, in case you're interested, the Mycological Society of San Francisco has an annual Fungus Fair - visit www.mssf.org for more details.:) )

RESOURCE O-RAMA: While perusing the Children's Museum Web site earlier today, I noticed they had a "Favorite Homeschool Field Trip" badge. I followed the link and it took me to the Homeschool Buyers Co-op site. I'd heard of the co-op before, but haven't used it (and I'm not sure what I'd need it for at this point - there are so many free resources available). I am, however, always on the lookout for field trip ideas, so I checked out their 'field trip finder' feature. Most of the results generated by typing in our zip code and a 25 mile radius are places I knew about, but there were a few new points of interest to keep in mind for future adventures (including a tour of the Seattle Times building - but the kids have to be 8 and older).

While on the Co-Op's site, I couldn't help but notice FREEBIES! listed along the lefthand side. You know I was all over that. One of the things I found there was "Lesson Pathways" a free online curriculum resource for K-5. It looks like something I could spend hours and hours and hours reading, but in the few minutes I glossed over it today, a lot of their lessons look to be links to other Web sites.

For instance, I clicked on "What is a Typical Scientist?" on Lesson Pathways' site and it linked to scientist profiles on another site, The Wild Classroom. The bios included an array of different types of biologists, and other interesting 'ologists' like a glaciologist and a limnologist.

As I explored the awesome Wild Classroom site (including their 'About Us'), I come to find out that they're a Washington (Spokane) based non-profit whose goal is to provide teachers with quality videos for use in their classrooms. Their Web site is content rich - definitely the discovery of the day!