Boston Museum of Science

I'm on vacation. Don't hate me if you aren't. I just am, that's all. We didn't go anyplace, so today I drove two hours to the Boston Museum of Science.

It. Was. Fantastic.

It was a model of what education should be.

That said, let's get this out of the way.  My children who are 5 and 7 thought the (get this) escalators were the best part. The escalators. We have escalators at our local mall. I didn't actually need to drive four hours (2 each way) and pay $73 plus gas and lunch. But I did. So let me tell you what we learned.

I could go on and on about each area, but you can research that for yourselves. What I really loved was how no activity was boring or pointless. Every single exhibit was interesting, but also not always technologically driven or expensive. So I started thinking like a teacher because I love new ideas. Here are some I loved.

Here was a cool table with blocks on either side of a divider. The first person created a structure and then told the second person how to make it. It was so interesting to watch and so easy to recreate.

This area had doors that opened with pictures behind each one. At first it just looked like a fun memory game, but then this brilliant educator came over and sat down with an iPad. He just asked the kids some simple questions and explained how pictures in a computer need a code. He used the iPad to show how the code worked and how the doors were coded as well. They suddenly became very invested in understanding what he was saying. He was the ultimate facilitative teacher. I felt so lucky to watch the learning process occur.

Then we went to the butterfly room where we were quickly covered with butterflies, but the cool thing was that my son (7 years old) saw instantly that the butterflies were attracted to different colors that people were wearing. This one sat on my shoulder.

My son was wearing orange and blue and this one sat on him.

We learned so much about camouflage and what butterflies eat. The educators were quiet and calm and full of information.They brought out charts and took the time to make sure they answered every single question the kids had. They never shut the kids down or told them time was up.

The hallway outside the butterflies was filled with information. I loved this cool butterfly ABC book they had out. I have to buy it. They had pulled it apart and laminated it and then put it on o-rings which made it so much easier to read. I have to do this!

I could go on and on ( I have), but it was just a wonderful experience. I think the major take away for me besides great learning experiences was that my usually hyper, distracted, precocious son was focused and an amazing, fantastic, interesting, intelligent person who had a wonderful day. I have to help him feel challenged in life. To see him understand X, Y axis and quickly race to make pictures based on graphed points brought tears to my eyes. He must need more all the time and I need to find that for him.