On a sunny Saturday morning in February, the kids and I headed to Discovery World to check out one of their weekend events, Love Your Great Lakes. It was a day filled with projects, games and learning opportunities led by local organizations and non-profits.
We first took a stroll through the promenade, where we chatted with volunteers and staff who care about the Great Lakes. We saw the Mequon Nature Preserve, River Revitalization Foundation, and even James Steeno with his local artwork. When I was Outreach Specialist at REI back in the day, I got to work with many of these non-profits and learned all about some serious conservation and community efforts. I was really happy to see their involvement at the event!
All of the kids touched turtles and asked questions about salamanders, and Little A even got to hold a snake! MPM and MAM also had stations set up for families to create and learn. It was lovely to see all these museums coming together in the name of community and water preservation!
Our first stop in the museum was the Kohl’s Design It! Lab. I’d never been before, because it seemed complicated or like it was geared towards older kids. Now, there’s no real reason I thought that other than the fact that we typically head to museums during the week, when hours are more limited. But let me tell you….I WAS WRONG.
We were greeted by friendly staff who sat us down at a table, gave us menus, and asked which projects we’d like to try. We ended up on planetary headbands and cardboard helmets.
Look at my 3 year old jumping right in! We traced templates on foam paper, and decorated it with lots of fun embellishments. I manned the hot glue gun, but besides that they were all pretty self-sufficient.
This lab space really is incredible. Discovery World has so many different classes and workshops, and even makes a concerted effort to reuse materials. Check out that wall on the right…there are 5 gallon buckets mounted on a wall, filled with materials for kids to use for projects. So awesome.
As my people finished up, they headed to the Kids Corner, a space with building blocks, markers, crayons, and kid-sized furniture. A great space for open play.
After the Design It! Lab, we went to see the Challenger ship, and walk around while trying not to run. Exploring that and the water exhibit next door is always a highlight of our time at Discovery World. And on this day, we spent over THREE HOURS at the museum and didn’t even see all of the exhibits. Another reason that asking for memberships to local museums takes precedent over toys in our house.
Afterwards, we hit up the Sportsology special exhibit, where we threw, jumped, cycled and tested our physical capabilities. J spent most of the time at the pitching station, while Little T worked on her pull ups for quite a while. It was a really good hands-on experience for my brood!
On the way out, we stopped by the photo op in the promenade, and tried out our best silly faces.
Special thanks to Discovery World for hosting us…there were SO many things for my young kids to do and explore, and there wasn’t a dull moment from the time we stepped in to the time we stepped out. We’re also very excited for the efforts to have new experiences every week, so there’s no chance we’ll get bored 🙂
We’ll be back!
A. Storm
Leave a Reply