Bringing Baby to the Museum

My baby has been with us on all our museum outings.  She hasn't shown up nearly as much in all the pictures I've been snapping as my older boys because, until lately, she has been cozily snug in her carrier or stroller and has let me photograph and enjoy a (somewhat) relaxing visit with the boys.  As her first birthday approaches, however, she has been more and more insistent that she have a more active role in the museum adventure.  Can I just say, "yikes!!"

So how to do a baby at a museum?  It's so tempting to just not go at all.  Rather, wait until they are three or older and understand about holding hands, looking with eyes, walking with quiet feet, etc. in ordinary situations before presenting them with wide open galleries and priceless objects.

I, at least, could not go that long without a museum-fix.  So I continue to figure out ways to manage the different stages of babyhood for museums.  Let me give a pointer or two for each main stage of the way, in case you have a baby-in-tow on any upcoming museum outings of your own!

For those first few months

One word:  baby carrier.  Oh, that was two, sorry.

Going to a museum is as easy as going anywhere else--grocery store, mall, park.  As easy as those (I say with tongue in cheek).  My main survival for any thing in or out of the house is a good baby carrier or two.  I love me a great sling ring carrier (like the Maya wrap) or a comfy K'tan-type wrap for the first while, then an Ergo for a long time after that.  Baby's happy, mom's happy and hands-free, and off to the museum we go!

Most big museums (and especially children's museums, of course) I've been to lately have a separate room just for feeding and changing and general care of baby.  In a smaller one I find it's easy enough to navigate the museum itself in between feedings/changings then head back to the car/transportation/home.

Sitting up Baby

I've lucked out with my sitting up babies as that's all they do for a couple months--happily stay in one place.  I just plop them down in the middle of a gallery and let them watch the movement all around.  Play peek-a-boo as they track mom's  and older siblings' movement.  Let them enjoy the different sounds and textures of the space.  I loved being able to peruse a gallery on my own/with the older kids knowing that baby was safe in one spot and enjoying her own discovery of senses.

I usually start bringing both a stroller (just a lightweight, easily maneuverable umbrella stroller) at this point as well as the carrier, to give some options as to how we get through a museum.  Sometimes one or the other works best, so it's just as easy to have both on hand.  Each museum will have its own policy on strollers and baby carriers.  The museums we frequent just specify that the baby--however old--should be worn on the front so that there is less risk of miscalculating your size when working around the objects and exhibit space.  Just like back-packs are checked, back-worn babies should be avoided.

Crawling/Moving Baby

The first bit of crawling is still ok, knowing that baby is limited to a relatively small area.  I try to prolong the time of carrying/pushing the baby because once she's down, she's down!  You can guarantee a loud echoing wail when it's time to pick up and move again at a kid/adult pace.

Again, I usually bring both a stroller and a carrier to give some variation.  Kind of a pain sometimes, but worth the inconvenience for the life-saver one or the other proves to be in an emergency.

If you're doing any activity with the older kids at the museum, give the baby a chance to be involved in whatever way is appropriate.  Maybe sucking on glue sticks (like I admit I let my baby do just a couple weeks ago) at a craft activity wasn't the best idea.  But she was quiet, she was very happy, and it gave me a few minutes to help the boys and ooh and aah over their creations.

Also, it's okay for a baby to go an hour without a snack.  Believe me, they will survive.  I find that if I do a snack before we head in to the museum and lunch or a snack on our way out, I don't feel any anxiety about not pulling out the Cheerios in a moment of fussing.  Now, I don't want to overstep any parenting preferences here, but I just wanted to say in passing that if nothing else from that book, Bringing Up Bebe (about French parenting and how much better it is) I got the message that it's okay for kids to not be snacking all the time or have the habit of getting a goldfish every time they make a peep.  Just as that relates to going to the museum--don't feel too nervous about the "no food" policy.  With young children you'll be in the museum an hour and a half max, and no one will faint away in hunger in that time.

Walking Baby

This is where it gets really really tricky to do any museum that is not a touching museum.  Or anything remotely resembling lingering and learning with older kids in the galleries.  My friend once said it so truly when she remarked that a crawling/moving baby just uses the mobility to get to the entertainment but once they learn to walk, walking is the entertainment.  So chasing a toddler is a full time job and adding priceless objects and laughing brothers into the mix is a disaster waiting to happen.

An art museum can be done, still, for those brave at heart!  Again, bring multiple methods of conveyance and use those as looooong as possible.  I went with a friend and her very active toddler recently and she brought the little girl's favorite soft blankie and pacifier (that is only ever used at bedtime now) just for the chance to have half an hour of peace in the museum.  And it worked!  (After chasing her around several large rooms . . .)  Run them around a little before and keep promising more walking after.  Even if they don't understand now about the concept of later, I'm sure the wheedling tone helps in some way.  ;)

Find someplace to walk or something to walk toward/away from.  Herding a small child is not the easiest feat in the world, but it can be done.  Giving the little child permission to walk is a happy thing for everyone.  Maybe a long hall where all the artwork is up at adult eye level and out of reach of a child's hands.  In a sculpture garden, where it is often a little more casual.  Play some sort of "speed game" variation of eye-spy or can-you-find with the older kids as you whiz past objects.  Go back to the online catalog with the older kids later, during nap time, and find out more information on any highlights.

Babies this age may not love to be picked up when they are on the go, but we have the advantage in that they are still easily distracted.  And they love animal noises, pointing to things, nodding yes and no to questions, etc.  So pick them up, deal with the minute or so of struggle, and start making a farmyard full of noises while pointing to animals in any art/taxidermy around you!  Go ahead, sing some Old MacDonald while you're at it.  (I heard a daddy singing this very song to his toddler son at the Harvard Museum of Natural History a few months back and I about died of loving it so much.  I wish I'd been able to record it without seeming like a creepy lady.  It was soo adorable.)

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Okay, so that's what I've been thinking of lately about how to keep going about normal activities--most especially museums--with my littlest museum buddy.  I always think of another brilliant idea or five after I've posted one of these things.  In that eventuality, I may revisit this "bringing baby" in the future!

Is it worth it, you may ask?  Well, yes!  I think so!  But then I am rather a die hard.  It makes the museum that much more of an adventure.  Fun is had by all.  Learning is done, though perhaps not always at a measurable rate.  Sweet old ladies stop and swoon over baby and big brothers.  What's not to love about going out on the town to some of the loveliest places in the city with some of the greatest kids in the world?

I would LOVE to hear about any baby-in-a-museum adventures you may have.  Good, bad, beautiful, ugly.  I'd love any and all anecdotes.  I'll laugh with you!  I'll cry with you!  It would truly make my day to hear you have seen a baby at a museum recently.

Book Review: Maisy Goes to the Museum by Lucy Cousins

There are not many museum books for the youngest of readers.  This one is one of the few I've seen for toddlers and preschoolers.  Even if it weren't one of the only, it'd still be a great read as a most simple and delightful approach to the museum experience for very young children. 

 Maisy Goes to the Museum by Lucy Cousins

3-year-old:  And my favorite part was the part with Charley and about the animals.

5-year-old:  My favorite part of that book is the part with the elephant named Eddie.  My other favorite part of the book was when the squirrel dressed up like a knight.  Hey, we’ve seen a woolly mammoth like that one they saw at the museum!

Mommy:  We are well familiar with the character Maisy and her friends from their other sweet stories.  I was excited to see their adventure at the museum.  The museum itself is a amalgamation of many types of museum—natural history, science, history, the zoo, a children’s museum.  A couple of the characters find themselves reflected (in a manner of speaking) in the exhibits.  For example, the elephant “looks and looks at the woolly mammoth” as we might look and look at images of people from long ago.  This is by far one of the best very, very beginner books about museums.  The bold, bright pictures are perfect for the youngest reader, as is the minimal text.  Even my baby was entranced by the book! 

probably best for children 9 or 12 months+

Tips and Tricks #10: Spot the Shape

If there is one game my preschool-age boys never tire of, it is I Spy.  We use it all the time in places we need to behave well but stay alert and occupied (like doctors' offices, the post office line, waiting for our food at a restaurant, etc.).  I Spy translates really really well to the museum, as my kids and I just found out! 

To put a spin on the tried and true game, having just read the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Shapes book, we decided to find all the triangles we could during one visit to the MFA Boston.  We only took in the Egyptian collection and the Medieval collection on that trip (actually, no, we did get into some of the Contemporary art on that trip, but what we found there is a different post).  We had a friend and his mom visiting with us, which made the game all the more fun for having another set of eyes and another pointing hand guiding us on our "Spotting the Shape" game.

Pyramids were a very exciting first discovery.  Of course, there were only pictures of the Great Pyramids at Giza on the labels, but after some hard seeking we did find a small triangle hieroglyph on a large relief panel found at the Giza plateau.  Can you spot it?

Then we found this sarcophagus in the transition room to the Etruscan, Greek and Roman.  I have to admit, I don't remember if this one is Egyptian or an example from the other civilizations.  (Bad museum mommy!)  But in any case, it has a triangle hidden among the other swirly and leafy decorations. 

My five-year-old was a little dubious about that triangle pattern on the sarcophagus. 

He was easier to convince in the Medieval religious art galleries.  I myself was surprised how many triangles we found in that gallery, once we were looking for them!  First we found a triangular shape on the tippy top of a fancy and quite expansive reliquary (I think it held upwards of fifteen Saints' mementos).  The boys were absolutely fascinated when we mommies explained to them that little bits of people--Saints--were kept safe in these boxes for other people to come see when they went to church.  It was hard to get them off that subject as they tried to understand and process those unfamiliar ideas!

Luckily there was plenty of other glitter and gold and triangles in the gallery to continue to find.

This take on I Spy is just a small little update on a perennial favorite.  However, I was excited as it opens up the possibility of many future visits to various museums looking for any type of shape, or a prize to the person to find one one of each type, or any number of other small variations to keep the game fresh and fun.  I especially appreciate having a trick up my sleeve when things are getting out of hand or a tool in my belt to whip out when a visit just isn't progressing as planned.

What shapes are you and your preschooler or toddler going to be searching for on your next museum visit?  Would this work at a different kind of museum?  Shapes appear in nature and science, of course.  Could we find some at those types of museums?  Hoping to see you spotting some shapes at the museum soon!

Book Review: Museum Shapes (the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Museum Shapes (the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

3-year-old:  I liked the whole entire thing of the museum.

5-year-old:  My favorite part was all the shapes.  I liked all the shapes and I liked all the pictures and I liked the whole entire book.

Mommy:  This take on a toddler/preschooler basic subject—ABC, numbers, colors, shapes, and the like—is just right.  I love how interactive it is, asking questions (with an image for a hint!) then waiting to turn the page before giving the answer with more examples from works of art in the Museum’s collection.  You can read this with children who are anywhere on the spectrum of learning shapes—from first learning the lines and names of shapes to already confident and ready to show-off their expertise. 

We borrowed this book from the library (you can see the scanning code in the picture!) but I’m pretty sure it will be making its way into my permanent children’s book collection soon.  And that’s the highest compliment I can pay.

Also, this book sparked a “tips and tricks” adventure—with a friend!—that will be appearing shortly!

Most enjoyed by children 12 months and up 

(although if they have a board book version I would bump it much younger!)

 

Done any good museum book reading lately?  I'm currently in the middle of one about a museum heist that I'll share my thoughts on here at some point.  It's for older elementary school age children and older, though I'm enjoying it enough that I'm thinking I may read it aloud chapter by chapter to my boys.  I'd love to hear what you're reading and what you think about the ideas presented.  (Museum related or not!)

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+)

Does it Count If We Didn't Go Inside? (Just Another Museum Visit)

A couple weeks ago my cousin was married in Albuquerque, NM.  My family was feeling desperate to escape a long winter in Boston, so we hopped a plane and crashed the wedding (with an invitation, of course).  In addition to the fun family festivities and lots of treats, we sampled a bit of the charm of this town.  But can you believe it?  We did not visit one museum!  There is a fabulous children's museum, Explora, a hot air balloon museum, some fantastic art museums, even a snake "museum" (I wasn't sure it qualified as a museum as I am 95% sure it was not a non-profit organization, being in a tourist trap shop.  :) ).  And we went in none of these--this visit.  Our one foray into the local museum world was spending a lovely hour in the sculpture garden outside the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. 

There are a couple of different opinions about how art should be treated when it is not behind a rope or a glass box or a security system.  I've been told--at the same place--by two different authority figures not to touch/climb on the art for fear of breaking them, and by another that it was meant to be a tactile experience and was designed to withstand people interacting with it.  I can understand both viewpoints.  I suppose I think that unless an object outside is placed in an out-of-reach location (say, a heroic statue of George Washington in a public plaza) or has a sign saying "don't touch" the art/object is fair game.  Obviously this opinion is qualified by treating the objects with respect, as you would any property not belonging to you.  Plus, I figure that if a bronze sculpture, discovered under the ocean in a shipwreck from ancient Greece, is still in decent condition two thousand years after it was created, my five year old can hardly do much more damage to a recent art creation exposed to weather.  I assume that metal and cement are pretty hardy materials and can withstand my three-year-old and your three-year-old as well.

Oops, I didn't ask my mom's permission to post this picture of her!  I am including it because it illustrates one of the aspects of the power of art to simultaneously bring out the playful in us (whatever our age), as well as the deeply, quietly thoughtful.  Whether actively engaging with the art, pondering by ourselves in a separate space (for example, playing with the gravel rocks by oneself), or in conversation with other observers, the links between art and our perception of our world, our reality is sublime.  I sometimes learn the most from my children, sometimes from people who normally have nothing to do with art in their regular routine, and sometimes from learned scholars who study nothing but a single work in history.  Don't you just get tingles when you think of how much insight and beauty there is to be told or shown by those around us?  I hope it's not just me!

Finally for this pseudo-museum visit recap, my personal favorite was a piece that was reminiscent of a Native American sacred circle.  I climbed in and lay right down in the ground to look up through the rainbow-hued shapes framing the sky.  It was such a calm and peaceful moment.  I may even have closed my eyes for a moment to soak it all in.  Then all of a sudden I hear, "Mommy?  What are you doing down there?"  Quiet moment over, but sweet tender feelings overwhelmed me as I peered up at my children peering down at me all surrounded by a cozy space.  A space that could fit all of us together and eternity besides.

 

Do you count this little wander as a museum visit?  Have you explored a sculpture garden recently?  What are your opinions on touching the art work if there is not a sign explicitly saying not to?  Have you and your children felt broadened in spirit and in mind by interacting with art?  I'd love to hear all your thoughts on any of these topics!