Yesterday we went to the Children’s Museum of Cleveland for their First Monday event. Every first Monday of the month is free and because I usually work on Mondays we have never been able to attend. It was incredibly packed as you can imagine but since we were one of the first to arrive it wasn’t too bad for the most part. The museum is divided into “exhibits” or themed play areas like a working grocery store, a giant water table, and a farm area complete with tractor and hay loft. We didn’t go into the barn area because it is meant for kids under 4 and two out of the three would have been a little too big. The hit of the place though is their special exhibit, this season it is a dinosaur digging area with over 60 tons of indoor sandy fun!!
If you have little ones the museum is a really fun place to visit. It is designed for ages 8 and under so we are reaching the end of it’s appeal for Gabby, which makes it tricky for me. I definitely would recommend going on an “off” time so that your little one can get to experience all the fun areas- Amelia really enjoyed pretending to be a doctor and “fixing” Gabby’s pretend broken arm while Moira loved the house and water play. Everyone loved the grocery store area where Gabby was a banker, doling out money to tons of kids. And let’s not forget all the learning that happens naturally when kids play-
- Building and creating architectural structures
- Understanding the different food groups
- Organizing food in the grocery store by category (i.e. fruits, vegetables, grains)
- Counting money in the bank
- Learning seat belt safety and traffic safety rules
- Observing how dams and various objects affect water flow
- Gross motor skills from digging in the sand and pouring
- Learning about paleontologists and site digs
Yay for another unschooling field trip and cheers for another of Cleveland’s wonderful places to visit!!
