We had lots going on yesterday but for one reason or another, almost everything got canceled or "re-prioritized."
First of all, Rich had to work yesterday -- and today too. And Josh has been busy working on his Constellation presentation for school this week.
Josh was invited to two birthday parties at the same time - obviously he could only go to one and it was a slumber party for his friend Sean. He's home now and extremely tired!
One thing Josh really wanted to do was go to the National Astronomy Celebration at the Tellus Science Museum. But with his baseball game and the slumber party we didn't think it would be possible. We've had a few days of rain and Josh's baseball game was canceled. So we jumped on the opportunity to head up to Tellus.
It really beat sitting around the house all afternoon counting the hours until it was time to go to Sean's!
There were all sorts of activities planned, like solar viewings and looking through telescopes and other "outside" activities. But, unfortunately, the weather had other plans and it rained off and on all day yesterday!
That didn't stop the fun though. We only had a limited amount of time there this time so mainly focused on the "extra" events they had going on.
The Observatory was opened and the astronomer was there to explain about the telescope and answer questions. Josh was totally enthralled by this! And when the astronomer said he was going to point the telescope toward Betelgeuse, Josh impressed all present by saying that was in the constellation Orion!
Now we can't wait to go back one evening when they have the observatory open so we can see some stars!
They also had some people from the local Astronomy clubs answering questions and handing out things. Josh was able to get a handout that he can use for his presentation so he was very excited about that!
The boys made bracelets with UV Beads. The beads are white and when they get hit with UV light they change color. They were surprised to see even on a cloudy day, the beads changed bright colors! And yes I used this as an "Always Wear Sunscreen Even on Cloudy Days" lesson!
The local meteorite collecting club was there with meteorites for the kids to look at. This one was VERY heavy!
And then we played in the children's area for a while.
Their favorite part is running around the inside of a (fake) large hollow tree. The ceiling has a screen and you can choose different weather to show on the screen. Of course the favorite is thunderstorms! But they go in the tree and just run around in circles. Sam will do this as long as I let him I usually have to pull him out!
We weren't there for long, but we were there long enough to kill some time, learn something new and make use of our family membership there! That's the best thing about having it so close to us.
Wow, that sounds like a really cool place! The one time we got to go out with the local astronomy club and view the night skies through their telescopes was awesome. It would be so great to have a nearby place where we could do that again... without having to stand in ankle high grass! :)
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