a trio of museums

I haven't had enough time to blog all of our adventures this week, so I'm going to have to compact some of them! (Otherwise I'll be sitting here typing all day, and you'll be reading all night!)

On Tuesday we went to our local children's museum for the afternoon. Both kids attended a short program on rabbits (where they of course got to pet one of the resident rabbits), and Zoo Boy hung out with The Map Man (who often meets us at the museum on his way home from work) while J was in his class.

And here's J in class -- entitled "Lucky You", which was about the legend of St. Patrick. They created family crests, made snake traps, and decorated butter cookies. (Here they are working on icing their cookies - J is in the middle in an olive colored shirt.) It was a really fun, hands-on class, and Zoo Boy was pretty sad that I didn't sign him up for it, too. (I suppose I could have, he's right at the lower age range, but I'm trying to let the kids have a couple of separate activities too, and for right now I think The Boy is better off in classes where he's at the upper end of the age range.) The instructor let him do some of the activities after the class was over, though, and he gets to have her as the teacher in his own class next week, so he got over the disappointment of not having class that day. I still can't believe how much he LOVES taking classes!

On Thursday we hooked up with some fellow homeschooled friends at the Springfield Science Museum. Here the kids explore the space display outside the planetarium. They love looking at the pieces of meteors and such under magnification.

We also visited the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, which is next door to the Science Museum. It was small and a little beyond them at this point, but they enjoyed looking at the displays, and enjoyed checking out the Dr. Seuss-themed exhibit halls.

But the best part of the day was getting to run around and play in the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden on the same grounds. They played tag and hide-and-seek amongst the sculptures, and my friend L and I got some rare visiting time in. (Her Little J is only 2, so often times L is busy chasing after him when we get together -- this set-up was just perfect for visiting, as there just wasn't much trouble the kids could get into, and the outdoor space was just wonderful, although it was QUITE cold with a biting wind.)