At age 13 "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was one of my favorite movies. (I pretty much loved all of John Hughes' movies.) In the era of Casio keyboards I found it clever that Ferris was able to assign each key with the sound of a different bodily function. Little did I know that the Smead Discovery Center at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History has similar capabilities. They have an organ of bird calls. Play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and you will hear the tweets of chickadee, robin, cardinal, robin, chickadee, chickadee, chickadee...
We took the kids to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History on one of the final days of their special exhibit "Dinosaurs- Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries". The paleontologist, Scott Sampson, who appears on the PBS program "Dinosaur Train" was even scheduled to give a lecture. Sean loves that show and has not only learned about dinosaurs but about the difference between an herbivore and a carnivore.
A giant bronze stegosaurus, Steggie, greeted us as we walked to the front door of the museum. We were off to a good start. Both kids were free to walk around, touch the displays, gawk at the dioramas, and gaze with amazement at the dinosaur bones. Here was a perfect place for both kids to enjoy equally. Ninety minutes later, just when we thought we were heading out, we were nudged towards the Smead Discovery Center on the lower level. If we lived a bit closer, I would camp out here once a week. It is like a condensed museum just for toddlers to early elementary school aged children. They can touch everything. Tarantulas, hissing cockroaches and fish are in aquariums. Fossils are on display with bones, shells, hides, feathers and preserved animals that kids can examine. Sean and Kate spent most of the time in the fossil bed uncovering remains again and again.
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