One of my very favorite parts of being a mom is connecting the dots for and with my kids. Sometimes it happens purely by serendipity and only looking back do I see that we had a fabulously well-rounded education (including museum experiences, naturally!) on, say, bees. Sometimes I conscientiously seek out a part or two for my kids, using a book we read or a project we did as a jumping off point. With dinosaurs recently it's been some of me-the-mom making a point of learning more and some of serendipity stepping in and doing the rest. Davy did this project at preschool (above) a couple weeks ago and off we went on more dinosaur mania.
I'd heard of a place to see real tracks where dinosaurs really walked a gazillion (very accurate, I'm sure) years ago. So a few weeks ago, some friends and my kids and I drove over an hour and a half to the western part of our state to visit some dinosaur tracks
in situ.
When building a road in Holyoke, MA, workers uncovered dinosaur footprints on a hill slope of sandstone near the river. The fossils are protected by a trust and preserved for all of us dinosaur-mad people. This first part of the
dinosaur footprints doesn't really qualify as a museum visit. But it did serve as a fantastic bridge between museum trips and other dinosaur related learning we've been doing. I find that for myself, having a picture in my mind of a real place and experience helps me process and internalize museum objects and experiences.
The experience was also, for us adults, an exercise in expectation. Have you ever heard someone say, for example, that the Great Pyramids in Egypt were bigger or smaller than they had anticipated? I have--both ways! I hope someday to find for myself the scale of the structures on the Giza plateau. (Knowing me and my obsession with all things ancient Egyptian, I'll be amazed and impressed and giddy with excitement). I've also heard that the
Mona Lisa is smaller than most people expect. Out in the field or in the museum, each can have expectation of a particular object or experience attached that may be disappointed or exceeded. Or simply reassessed.
Speaking of the dinosaur tracks, I suppose I had done
the most research on the adventure and so the place met and satisfied my expectation. One of my friends said it was smaller than she had been lead to believe. The other said it had exceeded her expectation. Well, the place was what it was and we all experienced it together with similarly aged children (who I think all had a good time). I wouldn't say any of us were disappointed, but certainly our expectations and our experience of the reality were individual. All valid. Just different.
Okay, enough thinking. On to the illustrations!
I apologize to my dear friend if this isn't her favorite picture of herself. But she is one of the coolest ladies I know, and I personally love how it shows how engaged she is with learning and teaching her little ones. We were measuring the stride of the dinosaur footprints where it was clear that a single dino had made a path through the sandstone up the ravine. We discussed whether we thought the dinosaurs were running fast or just walking with a much bigger step than we have.
I appreciated how relaxed the atmosphere was. The prints were literally just off the side of the road (though relatively peaceful and quiet) and it was expected--encouraged!--to walk where the dinosaurs had walked and touch the prints they had made. We talked with the children about being careful around the imprints to make sure that other kids could see them later. The children were good about respecting those principles. I think they learned so much simply by being free to touch and explore the area together.
The boys pretended to be dinosaurs. And then zombie dinosaurs. Boys will be boys.
The children were intrigued for much longer than I had anticipated. They measured their hands and feet against the size of the prints. After reading the convenient label that informed us that the dinosaurs who made the prints were between 10 and 15 feet tall I explained that it would be like mommy and daddy standing on top of each other. I think that image was too much to process because I didn't get much response. :)
Now fast forward several weeks to a family Saturday outing to
the MOS Boston. The Museum of Science is a favorite of the kids. We have explored a good chunk of it, but as the exhibits change and it is huge, we have not fully seen all of it, even in many trips. One part we hadn't previously explored enough was the dinosaur area. I think it was a particular draw this time around as we had just seen those dino tracks out in Holyoke. And what do you know? An itty bit of those very prints had found its way to the museum in Boston. Hello, again! We remember where you came from!
And finally (referring to the picture below), I just love how my son and the triceratops behind both look like they are smiling the same smile.
This dinosaur didn't leave the specific tracks we are talking about in
this post, but the picture is too cute to my proud mama eyes to leave
out.
And so with those cheerful grins we say farewell for now. Have you been tracking any dinosaurs recently? Have you measured the scale of something much larger or much smaller than yourself and marveled? Did it surprise you to find something in a museum that you had seen out in nature in real life? Have you had to reassess your expectations--or your child's--when met with the reality of an object/situation/experience? Bring on the discussion!
