Visiting the Works–A Spur-of-the-Moment Field trip

Last Saturday we visited a local science and history center, focusing on the fun science areas. It was a last minute decision to go. As in, we looked at each other and said, “Hey, let’s do a late quiet time and go to the Works.” We started by looking at some landscape paintings in the travelling art gallery. Some were very neat, taking several canvasses to show different parts of the landscape around you.

Next we learned a glassblowing demonstration was beginning. I forgot to take any pictures of it, but the woman doing this was great with kids. Sure, there were some adults in the audience, but she really spoke to the children and answered their questions about how glassblowing works, why it works, and how things may go wrong. It was tons of fun. After that we started attacking the rest of the building, beginning with the preschool area. Emma had a lot of fun here playing in the Farmer’s Market. Oliver loved the ball ramps. He is almost pathologically drawn to balls. It is really quite funny. There were all sorts of amazing things to play with, but he found the balls in each area. Makayla sat and looked at a few books while we were in this section. She’s a great older sister and is learning how to be patient. Here is Caleb, and this is where he spent most of the time – in my arms. Now, I’ll be honest, I do not like go to the Works without at least one other adult to help keep track of the children. It is a fairly spread out area with lots of different activities to do, and keeping the little ones engaged while helping older ones and carrying the baby – well…. you get the idea. After the preschool area Oliver headed straight for this ball table. His Daddy was a big help and Oliver loved the attention. Daniel started building cars to race down the track with the Kid K’Nex. It was funny because there was an older gentleman (working there) who told me I would need to help my son build something or he’d never be able to race it. Hahahahahaha! I kindly told him my son was much more mechanical than I, and that he would do just fine. I was right. He built several cars and his final design won every race it entered. Not bad for a 3 year old! Meanwhile Joseph was in anatomy heaven. This boy has a fascination with all things human body. He was naming the bones and counting them in this picture. Here he has nearly reassembled the human torso, he is adding the eyeball. Yep, this eyeball – Emma had much more fun playing with the pieces, not putting them together. Makayla was interested in this casting of a mastodon foot, and she explored several of the science activities, but I did not get very good pictures of those – they were in the darker area – a lasers exhibit, a microscope with a video monitor, and other things in the color and light area.

It was a fun trip, and the best thing is that we did not even get through half the building. The upstairs level is an Ohio history museum, and there are some more buildings with other smaller exhibits.

What field trips have you taken recently? Were they spur of the moment or planned?