Day at the Museum

Sorry, tried to get this up yesterday but my brain wasnʻt in the writing mood!  Anyway, this weekend we hit up the Academy of Arts for their "family Sunday" - admission is free and they offer entertainment, crafts, etc for kids and families.  We hadnʻt gone in awhile but now that Allie is older she enjoys it a lot more.  They had a "Medieval Times" theme this month so there were all these nerds dressed up like they just stepped out of King Arthurʻs court. haha, It was cool.  They had displays of different kinds of armour (knights and samurai!) that you could look at and touch.  My favorite thing was that they had different weapons (I think they were made out of cardboard/plastic) and guy dressed up as a knight stood out there and let the kids wail on him. 

Allie made a "stained glass" piece using markers and then the black outlines were done with a paint/cornstarch mixture. 

They also do a museum "scavenger hunt" game - they give each kid a piece of paper.  The paper shows sections of artworks and notes in which gallery the piece is located.  It gives some information and then asks a question about the artwork. The kids have to go find the piece and then read the label to answer the question.  They get a stamp once they answer the question.  Allie just found the pieces and got the stamp.  She did really good at finding all the pieces on her own too. Once they find all the artworks they get a prize.

This is what Allie picked:

She said they make her look like a rockstar!

She also learned the first rule about museums. Donʻt touch!  They had a new exhibition of objects from Cambodia/South east Asia.  I went out around and showed Allie the different pieces and asked her what she thought they were and what materials they were made out of.  We were looking at an old statue and I explained to her it was made of sandstone which "is like sandy stone. . ." and anyway she reached out and touched it!  I think I scared her because I jumped and said "No no! Donʻt touch!" I had to explain to her that we couldnʻt touch the pieces because they were really old and if everyone touched them they would fall apart or be ruined.  She was still feeling badly so I told her it was okay since she didnʻt know and that I thought it was cool that she still got to touch something that was hundreds of years old and no one else got touch it. haha