Dinosaur Footprints (in two parts and places!) (Just Another Museum Visit)

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!

Book Review: How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland

We're still on a dinosaur kick around here.  Actually, when are we not loving dinos?  We have been especially interested in all things large and skeletal and big-print making creatures since spring break a few weeks ago when we drove out to western Mass to see some real dinosaur footprints in situ.  (More about that adventure later!)  For now, suffice it to say it was awesome.  Our museum book this week fit right along with our talks about how things like dinosaurs get to museums and what happens along the way.  So without further ado we present our thoughts on:

How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland

3-year-old:  My favorite part of the dinosaur going to the museum book was when the guy [security guard] was going to fall over the bones.

5-year-old:  I have wondered at a museum how a dinosaur gets there.  My favorite part was when the dinosaur hunter found the bone.  And that’s it.  What?  Don’t write that!  Mommy:  So next time we go to the museum what are you going to remember about this book?  5-year-old:  Goo-goo.  (Silly giggles.  I include it because he checks on me to make sure I'm writing exactly what he says.)  That they [dinosaur skeletons] were really dug out by the paleontologist.  And it [the diplodocus] was really broken up after it died. 

Mommy:  Like all of Jessie Hartland museum books, this one is a treat!  I learned so much myself reading this with my boys!  Get ready for a longer read than perhaps most preschoolers are used to, but with the repetition my boys stayed engaged.  By the end of the “house that jack built” type expanding and repeating story my boys were filling in the pauses I gave them.  The vocabulary is fun for an adult to read out loud yet the content simple enough—with wonderful illustrations!—that my kids were able to follow along with the process of getting those dino bones to the museum. 

My five year old was so taken with the book that he wanted to read the extra info at the back of the book, but my three year old slid off my lap and started rummaging for another new story to read.  (That’s par the course around here.  Just including that bit as a guide for you checking out this book for your own read or with children.)

(probably best for children 4+)

Book Review: My Visit to the Dinosaurs by Aliki

My Visit to the Dinosaurs by Aliki

3:  I loved to see the KING of the dinosaurs.  I like the T-Rex. 

5:  My favorite part is when I saw the T-Rex.   I’ve seen bones stuck together with wire like the ones in the book.

M:  This book is a little bit old fashioned and I imagine a tad out of date of the current research on dinosaurs.  I’m no expert on dinosaurs, however, so I’m not sure how exact and up-to-date or not the information is.  Overall it seemed mostly accurate according to my knowledge.   The illustrations are pleasant, in any case, and the child’s reaction natural to a new museum experience.  At first curious but a little wary, at the end confident.  The book begins and ends in a dinosaur museum with dinosaur skeletons exhibited, but each dinosaur is highlighted with an illustration as the artist imagines the dinosaur would have looked in life.

Probably enjoyed most by children 4 and up

An additional dinosaur (though not museum-related, per se) book we’ve found and loved is I Am a Tyrannosaurus by Anna Grossnickle Hines.  We first found this book a year or so ago in the methodical way I find most of my books at the library: I follow my toddler around and pick up the books they toss off the shelf and onto the floor.  I Am a Tyrannosaurus shows a child pretending to be various dinosaurs and the illustrations are charming (I’m a sucker for kids in rain boots ala Christopher Robin).  It’s easy to mimic the actions and sounds to pretend to be the dinosaur as well.

Enjoyed by children 18 months and up

Small Yet Mighty (Just Another Museum Visit)

There is something about a small museum that appeals to my family.  I think the kids feel comfortable in a space that is more scaled to the familiar size.  Small means they (and we parents) can wander a bit but not feel at risk of getting lost.  Smaller means less general museum fatigue.  We leave the museum feeling more invigorated, though often we spend just the same amount of time as a larger institution.  Seriously--my kids go around and around the museum in a loop.  So we end up spending our usual 45 minutes, just in less square footage.

The smallness of a museum is not always to be confused with the smallness of its collection and exhibition.  Even in four galleries, a museum could display some remarkable specimens and information.  The exhibit area could be spacious yet full, thorough but not overwhelming or crowded.  I feel I'm speaking in silly hypothetical here ("it could possibly," etc.), but we've experienced a place where this is all absolutely happening.

The Brigham Young University Paleontology Museum (aka the dinosaur museum) is just such a perfect-sized museum with an excellent collection and exhibition design.  We have made it almost a tradition to visit this museum when visiting my family.  It had been an entire year since going to the museum with my then-four and two-year-olds, but when I mentioned visiting grandparents to my now-five-year-old he asked excitedly, "Are we going to go to the dinosaur museum?"  With a request like that how could we deny him?  So yes, yes, we went.

This view captures about a quarter of the museum.  I centered the lovely predator, but there are several more large, complete (or as good as) skeletons to the right of the me-holding-the-camera, behind me, to the left of me in the next gallery.  So, tons of awesome fossils and old bones for the kids (of all ages) to enjoy.

I hope I'm remembering right, as I'm not checking my facts here (for shame, wannabe academic!), but when I was a kid my parents would take me to a game or event at the athletic stadium at BYU and point to a massive area under the bleachers and say, "that's where they keep all the dinosaur bones!"  As we were always at the stadium at night it was kind of creepy thinking about all those old bones piled up in a dark and cold storage room.  And I may have had a nightmare or two about that.  When awake I thought it was awesome and would sometimes think about what would happen when someday the boxes of bones were taken out and opened.  I imagined great wooden crates with old packing material.  Had I seen Indiana Jones by the time I was ten?  I don't know, but that's what I imagined.

Some of those crates must still be being opened.  Or new specimens are arriving into the collection.  Either way (or likely both) we get to see some of the behind-the-scenes action from the comfort of the gallery.  A wall of glass allows us to see into the cleaning room and each time I have visited there has been a student or two working away at a big bone part or fossil remnant.

Can't resist a mommy and me museum moment photo-op with some hand-horns.

Each of the four galleries had at least one station for hands-on touching of fossils, petrified tree bits, dinosaur bones.  I didn't get any shots of the kids' cute hands touching the stuff, but I have lots of those like from other museum visits in my files for later.  Don't you worry 'bout that.

How can you not love a museum with a sense of humor?  All the labels had helpful phonetics so we could sound out the name of a creature when our kids asked.  This was our favorite for obvious reasons.

 

I leave you with this marvelous profile.  Hope there are no nightmares resulting from it.  Tell me, friends, have you been to a dinosaur museum recently?   What was your kid's favorite part?  Counting the teeth?  Trying to pronounce those names?  I'd love to hear all about it!