Raindrops

Wednesdays are one of our free days, and after having a stay-at-home-in-your-jammies-because-it's-raining-day on Monday, I knew we had to get out of the house today. Will suggested a visit to the Health Museum, and it was a great idea! We pretty much had the museum all to ourselves and there's a new temporary exhibit about the water cycle that is really cool.

At the very front of the exhibit, there is a puzzle area that shows the different steps of the water cycle. Henry loved this part, of course! The rest of the exhibit is set up as a maze, so it is perfect for young kids. You get to pretend you are a raindrop and your goal is to stay clean as you go through the watershed on your way to a healthy ocean. There are lots of human issues that might trip up those raindrops, such as chemical pesticides, pouring paint into the storm drains, using single-use water bottles, and more. So as you travel through the watershed, every so often you come to a spinner. If you spin a dirty habit (like using Styrofoam takeout containers), you end up in the unhealthy ocean and have to try again. Needless to say, the boys absolutely loved running through the maze and spinning the wheels. And even though Will swears he didn't learn anything, his favorite new fact is that ladybugs are natural aphid predators, so you don't need all those nasty pesticides after all. The boys also learned the value of wetlands as a way to clean those raindrops before they reach the ocean. Here's Raindrop Will moving very slowly through the "wetlands." I think we were raindrops traveling to the ocean at least ten times today. The boys are already planning another trip to the Health Museum, only next time, they're bringing Daddy along for the ride!