You’ve just flown a thousand mile to see family, kids in tow, TSA behind you. You’re in search of some way – any way – of diffusing all that pent-up energy they have. If you’re headed for Dallas, Raleigh, Birmingham, or Greenville, SC we have the magic potion: a trip to a really good children’s museum.
Ever wonder why the sky’s blue? The Dallas Children’s Museum has the answers. The museum focuses a child’s natural curiosity, waters their imagination. They can build cities, cook a four-course meal, and be a cowboy – all in a single day. You just might learn something too. Beats the bejeebers out of taking them to a movie.
Want to stroke a shark? Birmingham’s McWane Science Center lets your kid do precisely that. Bamboo and Bonehead sharks are the objects of their affection in the Shark and Ray Touch Tank. The McWane houses four floors of science and wonder. To get your kids to come along tell them they’re going to see dinosaurs. That should work. And so they will.
Hanker to hunt for fossils? The Children’s Museum of South Carolina in Greenville indulges kids in the primeval urge to dig. They get to dig away, scarping sand away as they search for the 65 million year-old remains of ocean animals. Too staid? Grab the older children and enter the hurricane simulator. Be buffeted by the 78 mph winds of a Category I storm.
Splash around a bit at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh. Splash! Uncovers both the power and the fun of water, and does it in a way that sticks. Properly dried off, steer them to Moneypalooza where they learn how to spend, save – and earn. These are the sorts of lessons lawmakers should have learned when they were kids.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: McWane Science Center)
