Field Trip Friday: The Children's Museum of the Upstate

 

This year I plan on taking more opportunities to take learning away from home, and experience it first hand. At least once a week we will pack up and spend a few hours, or the whole day, exploring. I am challenging myself to think past the standard field trips and zero in on my kids' interests, explore the unknowns of my surroundings and find the value in any outing. In order to help keep myself accountable and to allow others to share their field trips- and their outside of the box thinking- I am starting a new link-up: Field Trip Friday. Please feel free to share any outside of the home learning experience!

This week I am sharing a trip that is not at all outside of the box, but it was really fun and my boys have been wanting to go to this museum for months. This day trip was our birthday present for them, so this past weekend we packed up the car and drove south to Greenville, SC to the The Children's Museum of the Upstate.

It's a huge museum- 3 floors tall. And has all sorts of fun stuff to explore. It's got enough to cover any aged kid so that families with large age spans will all have a great experience. Annika loved the Bi-Lo Market. She spent a lot of time filling  her cart with produce and putting it back....and filling it up again. It was situated right next to the climber (pictured above) so she spent a lot of time there while the boys climbed as long as they wanted.

The construction center was a big hit too. The older boys spent time with the magnetic crane. Annika made paths with huge blocks or helped Lakin load bricks into a wheelbarrow to send up the conveyor belt.

The vehicle area was a lot of fun too. A couple large-enough-to-sit-in cars, tons of Automoblox pieces to build your own car with and send down test tracks. For my car obsessed kids it was heaven!

The water area- the best part to any museum according to my kids- was one of the last places we visited since they were sure to come out soaked. They had 2 areas- one for the 5 and under crew and one for the older kids. Annkia got to hang out and pour water and collect ducks (and get soaked) while the older boys got to manipulate water in tons of cool ways.

Once they were thoroughly soaked we moved back up towards the exit, but got distracted quite a few times- in the music room, in the market again, in the Healthy Heros section.

Annkia discovered her love for slides this day. Especially this one- which the boys also found hilarious. It's a stomach. And it makes all sorts of "digestive" noises.

And that was our trip! Have you taken any field trips this week? Or have an old one to share? Please add your link!