cogito ergo sum

For our Friday Activity today we chose to visit Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkley. My older children were with us also, since they had it off for Veteran's Day week-end. Yesterday, we folded a LOT of laundry, read books, played soccer, and had fun with friends at the playground. Today, however, I had promised my children a real good time, and this museum was just the right place for all of my children, Charlton included, to enjoy themselves.

Lawrence Hall of Science is part of the University of California-Berkley and is located in the university's campus. All of this is located right in the middle of Tilden Park, which offers extraordinary views of San Francisco Bay Area.
We let the children play outside for a few minutes before we entered the museum. A spacious outside area located in front of the entrance, equipped with a huge sculpture of an Orca Whale as well as a model of our DNA, was the perfect playground for any age kid. My kids loved climbing over the whale and the DNA model. Charlton really tried hard, but got stuck on his way up.


Upon our entrance in the museum, the children immediately showed that they liked this place by dispersing themselves throughout the exhibitions in record time.

After trying every experiment and game many times over, the children were ready to make their own roller-coaster:

Charlton tried to help any way he could:

This was heaven for Jefferson and James, but I have to say that Gillian and Charlton had a great time as well. We stayed in this area for about forty minutes. After their hard work, the children were feeling hungry, so we took them outside on the other side of the museum, another play and learn area. While eating and playing, the children learned about earthquakes, sand, mud, dams, and enjoyed a beautiful view of the Bay Area.

With their stomachs full, the children were ready to explore some more. We went to an exhibition with lots of fun learning activities. They learned about the perception of light, movement and speed. They sat on a "roller coaster" and enjoyed a short ride. They entered a room where strobe lights made you feel you were moving in slow motion; they experienced sea sickness when they entered a room that used lights to make you think you were rocking like in a boat, and they observed a model roller-coaster go up and down. I was having fun, too, and who thought science could actually be so much fun.

We ended our day at the museum with a fun exhibition that was dear to Jefferson's heart, Kapla blocks. I had never heard of Kapla blocks before (wooden construction blocks), but they seemed to be a hit with my kids. James, as always, was eager to explore everywhere on his own, and Charlton had no problem playing with the big kids.

We truly had a wonderful time, and what is more we learned a lot. We will definitely be coming back.