The Thinkery and Home Depot Kids Workshop

The Austin's Children's Museum recently moved and reopened as the Thinkery. When Boogs was younger, I used to purchase an annual membership to the Austin's Children's Museum. We were very curious to see how this new museum compared to the old one.

Boogs really enjoyed the outdoor playscape. It offered plenty of wonderful places to climb, play in a small pond/stream, and run. The museum was very crowded. There were some exhibits that Boogs decided he did not feel like waiting in line for. Out of the main floor exhibits, Boogs liked the simple machines wall best.

 

The Light Lab exhibit had many hands-on activities for exploring light. We waited in line for about 10 minutes for Boogs to take a picture of his frozen shadow. He thought it was very neat that the camera was able to only capture a shadow image and not a full person image. In the En Mi Familia exhibit, Boogs made sure he sat in the wishing chair. He never told me what he wished.

Boogs two favorite indoor areas were the Currents water exhibit and the Let's Grow farmer's market exhibit. There is a sign at the Currents entrance warning parents that there kids WILL get wet. Boogs spent quite a while with a drum set played by falling water drops. He also enjoyed turning a crank that made water shoot out all over him. The Chicken Coop and cooking area in the Let's Grow exhibit were a definite hit. Boogs kept gathering different ingredients to cook and serve me different types of omelets. Some of the omelets had interesting ingredients like lemon zest.

Boogs had fun at the Thinkery, but I believe he is right on the edge of being too old to truly appreciate all of it. We will probably go a couple of times this year, but are not going to get an annual membership.


Last Saturday, we actually remembered it was a Home Depot Kids Workshop weekend. Boogs is always happy when we get to go work on a new project. This month's project was to make a desktop calendar.

 

I love watching Boogs work on these type of projects. He is very careful about following the instructions exactly. He built the calendar and painted it at Home Depot. We had to wait until the next morning to put the number and month stickers on it. For the past week, Boogs has been using the calendar and changing the date each morning.

Next month's project is to build a race car. We have already done that project and Boogs is not interested in making another car. Maybe I can talk Boogs into working on one of the projects in the woodworking kit he got last year for Christmas (2012). For some reason, he prefers to make these kinds of project at Home Depot rather than at home.