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This post was written by Children's Museum Blog Ambassador, Pete G. Follow Pete's posts on the blog or follow him on Twitter @adadinfluence.
Wednesday mornings are the only time during the week I get to spend with just my three-year-old, the Blonde Bomber. Her older siblings are at school, so we have three hours to spend as we choose.
Recently, we spent our Wednesday morning at The Children's Museum. I love going to the museum with just one of my kids instead of all of them—there's no arguing over which exhibits to go to first and no planning, we just kind of wander around as the three-year-old chooses each exhibit.
This time started at the museum's newest exhibit, Hot Wheels: Race to Win. It was great! We played with some Hot Wheels cars, drove them around on their tracks, and watched them crash into one another. And the best part of all, when we were done playing with them, we didn't have to spend an hour arguing about picking up our cars and putting them away. We simply walked away, leaving our cars for the next person.
We also ventured to other parts of the museum. We did a really fun (read: messy) art project in Playscape, and of course we rode the carousel, but none of these exhibits were the star of the show... this time.
Blonde Bomber's most enjoyable activity at the museum this time around wasInside Hollywood Film and TV! You're on the Set. We did Scooby Doo voiceovers, pretended we were on the set of a talk show, and my daughter's favorite part of the exhibit—looking at the flipbooks. She got so much enjoyment watching the simple drawings turn into what looked like moving pictures. She watched them over and over, and was clearly curious how they worked.
When we got home that day, I asked her if she wanted to make a flipbook like the ones we saw at the museum. Once her brother and sister heard about our project, they were ready to make them as well.
First we planned out our drawings. Then, we (miraculously) found some index cards and began our drawings. The Blonde Bomber needed a little bit of help with hers, but my son (Middle Man) and oldest daughter (First Born) took to it right away. We spent the better part of a rainy afternoon creating our fun little moving pictures, all inspired by our trip to The Children's Museum.
**At the time, little did I know, my fellow Blog Ambassador, Creed, was also creating flipbooks with his kids. Great minds think alike, I suppose! Check out Creed's blog post, "Flipping for Flipbooks," to see how you can try them out for yourself.
See you at the museum!
-Pete
