Day 2 of vacation woke up rainy.
We had a great continental breakfast at the hotel and decided against trying Six Flags in the rain, opting instead for the History Museum. This actually wasn't in my original plans, but a friend of a friend messaged me to tell me there was a new children's exhibit, so when the rain came down and the Science Center wasn't opened yet we decided to try it. We arrived a few minutes before it opened, which was super nice because it wasn't busy. As we were leaving 3 hours later it was getting busy.
(For you vacation planners - cost = free...no parking charge, no charge for admission; donations accepted.)
When we first walked in there was this great table with St. Louis architextural pieces and other blocks and cars for building. Most parents sped right past this to get to the "good stuff." My kids stayed here for 30 minutes upon arrival and exit of the exhibit!
The exhibit itself was WONDERFUL. So much "accidental" learning to happen if you stayed with your kids and explained what they were playing with and why it was significant. I personally loved the play areas centered around the 1904 World's Fair held in St. Louis. (whine) "I wanna go to the 1904 World's Fair!"
We dressed in finery and road the ship...
I think the workers must hear this ship whistle in their sleep!
The area devoted to the history of the Mississippian people was probably one of the favorites of the kids...
Fishing, cooking, living in a hut...what fun pretending they had!
The larger "club house" room was full of puzzles, crayons, books, nooks, and more. This actually wasn't their favorite part because there was so much fun to do in the other areas! I thought it was a darling area though.
There was an area to cook in dedicated to the fine foods at the World's Fair in 1904...there was a puppet area, easel drawing area, and more....
Natalee read A LOT of the signs and information that were posted everywhere...she soaked in a lot and realized she could understand more if she paused to read.
After exploring the children's area we walked through 2 other exhibits in the museum - the World's Fair one (for adults) and "A Walk in 1875 St. Louis." Mike and I could have easily explored more but the kids were wearing out. There was a great scavenger hunt for them to do in the 1875 room, which was super nice, because we got to soak in more info while the kids were kept busy. Ameliya did start getting loud and tired during the end of our jaunt so, respecting that this was a museum and people didn't come to hear loud babies, I took her out to the lobby to entertain her.
A tip - if you are just doing the children's area there is no need to take your stroller for toddlers unless you are concerned about keeping track of them. There is plenty for little people to do and we ended up pushing an empty stroller for 2 1/2 hours until we went to view the "adult" exhibits.
This was an unexpectedly very fun morning for all of us!
Natalee's favorite part was the table of buildings and cars; Xavier's was the Mississippian area.
No comments:
Post a Comment