Road Trip!

So in choosing between keeping my sanity or loosing it, I chose to keep it....and that meant it was time for a ROAD TRIP!  We decided to go to Houston. I have loved ones there and there is just so much to do that it makes for a fun filled mini-vacation.

We went to the Houston Children's Museum.  We have been here several times before, but once was before a remodel and Raelee was very very small. The other time was last year during spring break. BIG MISTAKE!  All you could do was look at the fun exhibits...way too many people to get involved much. This Children's museum is the best I have ever been to and I have been to a lot. It's 3.5 floors filled with learning fun!

I planned my trip this time very well. It was the only day in the  month (weekday) that they don't have school groups. There was the right amount of people here that she had somebody to play with if she wanted, but we basically had free range over the exhibits.

What made it fun is that Raelee is to the age where she is connecting things that she learned with real life experiences.  Children's museum isn't just about fun anymore....it's so much more.

For example, there is a little town set up there...complete with road and everything. You are issued a bank card (sponsored by non-other than chase...of course *eye roll*) There are ATM's all over the place.  You go into these businesses and you choose a job. There is an explanation for the jobs by the door.  You choose what you want to do, you put on the appropriate attire, and you do the job.  There is a grocery store, bike shop, restaurant, vet, tv station, bank, art studio, etc.  You can also be the customer there. For example, there needs to be customers AND employee's at the restaurant.  What was neat about the diner is that you can take the customer's order, and you go over to a real live computer and put the order in.  It tells you how much to charge the customer.  The costumer gives cash and you enter that into the computer. It tells you how much you owe them.  Raelee had to do a lot of adding to figure this all out.  At the end of your 'work' you get a paycheck. You go and put your paycheck in the bank...and the bank tells you your balance. In order to do any of this stuff as a consumer, you had to get money from the bank to pay the employee's..at the vet, the bike shop, the hospital, etc.  It really was a neat system and Raelee learned (she told me all about it later) that you can't just get money out of the bank unless you do some work first...if you don't, there won't be money in there to spend.  Brilliant! (not necessarily her, but the fact that they did all of this so that kids CAN draw that conclusion)

Another place where Raelee put 2 and 2 together...was at the water station.  You'll remember that on our trip to Paris,  we went on a boat tour that took us through a series of locks.  I tried telling her then what we were doing, but it's hard for a kid to understand.  However, when she got to this exhibit, I briefly explained to her what was happening, and she said "Like in Paris Mom!"  Yes, exactly!!

See, she's at an age where real life is starting to meld with what she has book learned and vise versa.   After I explained a concept here and played with her a bit, I took a step back and watched. She started experimenting....like "Wow, if I do this, x happens, but if I change it up a bit, y happens."  Before, it just playing with the exhibit at face value.  It's an amazing transformation to watch....and very affirming. I'm doing the right thing by her...and it's showing.

Anyway, here are some pictures. They are from my phone so don't expect much please? LOL

This was the start to my morning, a yummy latte with a pretty leaf in it!

At the grocery store

The locks exhibit. The water fills up at the top and you open the door and it all flows into the second chamber further down. and then again.  It's really neat to play with.

A 3.5 story climbing structure.  This is a parent's worse nightmare by the way...they can enter at one level and exit 2 levels down..WAY away from you. She is just old enough that I'll let her do it unsupervised (with me watching but not with her). I couldn't imagine a 3 year old or 4 year old playing in this thing...they could get away from you SO easily.

This was also very neat. There is all kinds of 'tools' to squirt water into a holding pin that gets very full and must be emptied (think lake with lots of feeder rivers and streams).  One must open the flood gates to release some of that water.  We built 'houses' downstream to show what happens when that flood gate opens. 

We even built homes to see which type could withstand the influx of water.  We quickly learned WHY the some homes in our area are built on 'stilts'.  Look at the one that's left standing! WOW!

Here is  a video of what happens.


Anyway...all of that to say we had a fabulous day and that I'm loving the changes in Raelee in regards to how she interacts with exhibits now.