Still catching up - Cleveland Museum of Natural History - March 1, 2012

We took a trip to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History with our homeschool group back in March.  It is an incredibly cool museum and we had a good time, but I was definitely quite frazzled by the end of the day because the boys were constantly running off in opposite directions.  They are like a pair of magnets with the same polarity, repelling each other... hard.  (We are still struggling with this issue.)  It was not my strongest day patience-wise, by far, and I was disappointed with myself for that.  But I know it happens to all of us.  What can you do?  Try to do it better the next day, right?

I love this sundial near the entrance.  I've wanted to build one in my backyard for a long time, similar to this but simpler, but exactly this scale.  If anyone knows of any good DIY plans/instructions for one, please feel free to share!

My favorite part - the museum's collection of telescopes, sundials, and other miscellaneous astronomical instruments.

 

 

Look out, Mister!  That guy looks like he's about to eat you!

Love these things.  Could sit & watch it all day.

A Monkey and a T-Rex.

Just thought this pregnant lady statue was cool.

The boys seemed to be overflowing with energy, so we went out into this courtyard area so they could run around a bit.

There goes Bug!

Here comes Monkey, chasing after W., one of the kids from our group.

S, Monkey, and W.  The boys had fun climbing up and jumping off a few times.

Me:  Bug, there's a Lion!  What does a Lion say?  Bug: MOOOOO!

Mastodon

Mammoth.  I forget who the other skeleton was, on the left.  Monkeyman sure does give perspective on their sizes!

I remember seeing these guys in Ice Age!  Glyptodont, I think?

Lucy!  What interested me even more than this (and that I didn't get a pic of, because both boys suddenly ran off in opposite directions) were three skeletons, side by side:  a human, a gorilla, and a chimpanzee.  Standing in front of them, seeing how incredibly similar they all were, I had to wonder how anyone could look at them and *not* think they must be closely related.

Monkeyman and a Triceratops

Next we headed outside to see the wildlife.  And do some more running around, of course.

Bug is looking at a turkey here.  "HI TURKEY!"  Photo courtesy: Michelle B.

There's Monkey up ahead, running with the pack.  Incidentally, I have declared that bright yellow striped sweater as his official "field trip sweater" because he is so easy to spot in it!

Here's Monkey photobombing someone else's pic.  Oops!  Photo courtesy:  Michelle B.

Finally, we headed down to the children's area, which I didn't even know about, but which was definitely the kids' favorite part of the trip.  The room is packed with great hands-on activities for the little ones.

This table had textured items you could take rubbings of, along with plenty of paper and recycled crayons in the shape of Ohio.  Photo courtesy:  Michelle B.

 

Both boys spent LOTS of time at the simulated fossil dig.  It was filled with some kind of crushed corn pellets and the kids could dig with their hands or use brushes to uncover the "fossils" buried in the corn.  Very cool.

R. and Monkeyman.  Photo courtesy:  Michelle B.

Photo courtesy:  Dara B.

Photo courtesy:  Michelle B.

This keyboard played different bird songs with each key pressed, and the picture of the corresponding bird would light up.