Above: Called the Treehouse museum cos there's a huge treehouse in the center of the museum that the kids can climb up and down and read books in it.
Above: went to the role play rooms first. This one was the scientist and doctor one. So you can peer into microscopes, and there were many different slides of insects and plants etc.
Below: then view X-ray films of bones, chest etc.
Below: pretending to be a teacher. ds2 and I had to sit there and be his students.
Above left: we then viewed the Japanese exhibits on Totoro
Above right: and then on Anime/ animation. They attempt to answer Qs like: why are the eyes of comics characters always so big? what's with the hair? and so on. Kids were given transparencies of various body parts and clothes, then you can mix and match then trace to draw your own comics.
Above left: I loved to dress my Barbie dolls when I was young. Now I don't have a daughter (yet?), and ds1 is old enough to insist he doesn't want to wear stuff. So I try everything on ds2. It was very fun for me too. haha.
Above right: Viewing frames in the Zoe-trope, as they call it. Basically, the figures are drawn moving bit by bit so when you turn the frames quickly in the Zoetrope, you get animation.
Above: ds1 only wanted to wear the costume if it were perceived to be "manly". So a wizard or firefighter was fine. He flatly refused to wear the Totoro apron earlier.
Above: ds2 hated the jester's headpiece, but was happy with the costume (right).
Above: some Elf costume I think (left), can't recall! And my point with these 2 pics are: ds2 seems to like stereotypically girls' toys. He liked playing with food/ cooking/ serving, and then he wandered into the doll house (right) and actually stayed there to play with a model dollhouse for awhile. ds1 didn't even want to step into that doll room.
Above left: another costume. By then, he had less patience with me, and didn't want to dress up much after that. sigh, if not i would have gone on... so fun. :-)
Above right: ds2 playing on African percussion instruments in the music section.
Above left: African thumb piano. play the keys with your thumbs.
Above right: playing life-sized chess.
Above left: ds1 playing the marimba. there were many different instruments in that room, although most were percussion, because percussion are usually indestructible (as compared to stringed) and can be shared amongst many kids in a hygienic way (as compared to woodwind and brass).
Above right: the Peruvian section, with birds of paradise and other cultural stuff.
Above left: the musical notes have velcro behind them and the board is made of felt. so you can compose your own ditty.
Above right: ds2 playing the big piano. haha.
Above: map of the world with flags (left) and map of USA (right). With both, you could play game quizzes and get the kids to quickly run to the correct answer and step/ jump on it. For the map of USA, there were the main products of each state illustrated too, and famous icons of each state as well.
Above left: the China section.
Above right: The art and craft section was empty, so ds1 could do his craft with the full attention of the staff member. She's very nice and friendly, and kept being very interested in ds1's work, which pleased him to no end.
Above: the craft was to make a 5 page book, with a cover decorated with the materials they provided. ds1 ended up with a book full of Ultramen and Omnidroids.
Above left: the Medieval Kingdom section. ds1 was so thrilled to see all the knights, armor, weapons and princess in waiting in the tall tower... He arranged his calvary, infantry etc etc. ds2 and I were already quite bored but he was still at it and refused to go for storytime with me. So I brought ds2 for the story telling session, and left him there alone. Good thing he listened to me and was still there when we returned, in just about 15-20min? Was there for at least 30min more for him to wrap up his "battles".
Above right: a puppet show window. ds2 kept playing peek-a-boo with it only.
ds1 is shown giving a puppet show to me in the video clip below. it may not be very clear cos I used my digicam, anyway he was part singing a song too. About the prince asking the princess to marry him. Couldn't help laughing towards the end cos he was bouncing the puppets much too violently. :-)
