Yesterday, March 14th, in addition to being Albert Einstein’s 136th birthday, was Pi Day. March 14th = 3.14 = Pi Day. Since Physicist Larry Shaw put together the first official Pi Day celebration in San Francisco back in 1988, the deliciously mathematical holiday has only grown exponentially in popularity.

Last year, we focused more on the delicious side of Pi Day festivities. This year? We got down to pi business. Because many of our visitors are still in elementary school, trying to explain pi exclusively with terms like “irrational number”, “mathematical constant” or “Madhava-Leibniz series” isn’t exactly the most fruitful plan of attack.

So how can you make the math fun? Multiplication? No problem. Geometrical shapes? Sure. But the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter? That’s a bit bigger of a fraction to follow!

Enter Museum Educator Sarah Terry. I asked Sarah, who returned to CMNH at the end of 2014 after first joining our team in October of 2011, how she approached a subject that seems, on the surface, to be rather dry and difficult to build a day of fun around.

“I’ve always thought math was a lot of fun,” Sarah said. “There’s something so satisfying about working with problems and equations that can be solved. In the humanities, you don’t come across too many situations where there is a definitive right answer. It tends to be based on opinion. Well-reasoned and supported opinions, but still debatable. The rationality of mathematics always seemed comforting in comparison.”

But can Rational = Interesting? Can Rational = Fun? Sarah was confident it could be both.

“When you come across something like pi, which is an infinite number with no apparent pattern or repetition, it’s pretty mind-blowing,” admits Sarah. “How can something as crazy and enormous of a number that’s been calculated out thus far to over 12 trillion digits also be considered a mathematical constant? Every circle that has been or ever will be created will find that its circumference divided by its diameter will be pi. It’s unwieldy and baffling and I looked forward to coming up with activities that could show our visitors that things as awesome as pi actually make math – yes, math – pretty cool!”

Using CMNH’s Colorful Classroom space as her home base, Sarah taught visitors young and old about pi. Some had never heard of it. Some had learned about it in school but had forgotten the specifics. Some were wearing Pi Day shirts. Using a variety of colorful craft activities coupled with the promise that if you located her over the course of Pi Day and recited a fact about Pi, Sarah would paint the pi symbol on your cheek, visitors left yesterday with a newfound appreciation – and hopefully, enthusiasm – for the wild, wacky, infinite constant that is pi!

We hope you and your family had a Happy Pi Day and look forward to you spending Pi Day 2016 with us here at CMNH!

Circles, circles, everywhere!

“Pi lets us show off the oddball side of math and lets us stretch our imaginations,” Sarah said.

What’s a Pi Chain? Good question! Here’s the answer: 0-9 are each represented by a color. Following the order of numbers in pi, can you make an accurate chain that is correctly represented by the 10 colors? Can you make a longer Pi Day Pi Chain than your friends and family?

Even the streamers never rested from the continual recitation of pi!

The award-winning duo Peg + Cat visited the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire yesterday. Curious Peg & her hilarious best friend Cat get into math-related hi-jinx each day on their PBS program. While they are ably assisted in their adventures by characters such as Ramone, The Pirates, Richard the Space Alien, and even George Washington & Cleopatra, Peg & Cat and their delightful wordplay and songs are the reason families keep tuning in.

With the news that Saturday Morning Cartoons are now officially a thing of the past, let’s take this opportunity to look at some famous dynamic duos from the world of children’s television shows.

Chip ‘N’ Dale made their debut in 1943 in a series of animated shorts that pitted them against either Pluto the Dog or Donald Duck. While often taking background roles in many Disney shorts and specials, a new audience met Chip ‘N’ Dale in 1989 when they anchored their own cartoon with “Chip ‘N’ Dale Rescue Rangers” as part of the Disney Afternoon block of programming.

Beany & Cecil began as a Puppet Show in 1949 created by famed Warner Brothers animator Bob Clampett. Beany had the ability to fly using his patented beanycopter while the childlike Cecil the Sea Serpent often stayed in water and was so large that his tail was rarely seen as it would continue “off screen”. It relaunched as an animated show in 1959 and then was relaunched again in 1988 as the “The New Adventures of Beany & Cecil” cartoon.

Rocky & Bullwinkle were the stars of their own variety show that ran from 1959-1964. Created by Jay Ward, the show was responsible for introducing not only the legendary title characters, but Dudley Do-Right, Boris Badenov, Natasha Fatale, Mr. Peadbody & Sherman. Many of the characters were given life by voiceover legends June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Scott and Daws Butler. The show was popular with children as well as adults due to its clever wordplay and intelligent writing.

Bert and Ernie debuted on Sesame Street in the summer of 1969. They were the first of Jim Henson’s creations to appear on the show – a part of it from the very first episode, pre-dating Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird. Best friends Bert and Ernie are meant to represent the curiosity and behaviors of 6-7 year olds. Ernie, famed for his dedication to his rubber ducky, loves pulling tricks on the pigeon-loving Bert, the most popular (and absurd) of which is pulling off Bert’s nose for comic effect.

Scooby Doo & Shaggy premiered in the Saturday morning cartoon, “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” in the fall of 1969. The two perpetually frightened – and hungry – best friends have starred in a large variety of tv shows, comic books and movies since their debut. Each generation seems to rediscover Scoob, Shag, Velma, Daphne and Fred solving supernatural capers in their Mystery Machine.

Danger Mouse & Penfold first premiered in the United Kingdom in 1981, but saw their popularity reach even greater heights when US markets (most notably Nickelodeon) imported “Danger Mouse” – a cheeky take on James Bond – in 1984. Danger Mouse occupied the role of the heroic British spy while Ernest Penfold is his consistently nervous hamster sidekick prone to yell out, “Crumbs, D.M.!” or, ‘Oh, carrots!” before falling to pieces in the face of danger.

The Tick & Arthur are two lovable – if not often highly ridiculous superheroes – who live in The City. Originally created by Ben Edlund in 1986 for New England Comics, The Tick & Arthur were exposed to a much larger audience when their 1994 Saturday morning cartoon debuted on Fox. Fox was the home of the next incarnation of The Tick as well when a live-action version debuted in 2001. The Tick embodies several of the most popular mainstream superheroes in his origin, powers and behaviors (a healthy mix of Superman, Batman & Spider-Man) though his catchphrase (“Spoooooooooon!”) is wholly his own. The much more responsible and down-to-Earth Arthur is often getting him out of jams – some caused by supervillains, some caused by The Tick.

Wallace & Grommit, the brainchild of Nick Park from Aardman Animations, made their debut in 1989 in the Oscar-nomniated short film, “A Grand Day Out”. Their next two shorts – “The Wrong Trousers” & “A Close Shave” – and their first full-length feature, “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” all won Academy Awards. Though Wallace is an inventor – specializing in Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions – most would agree that the silent Grommit is the smarter of the two, getting Wallace out of trouble or helping his inventions go more smoothly when he’s not busy knitting, playing chess or drinking tea. Though their adventures and occupations change with each outing, one thing that never changes is Wallace & Grommit being the best of friends.

Dora & Boots have been inseparable since their introduction in 2000 with the premiere of “Dora the Explorer”. Boots, who’s always sporting his trademark red boots, assists Dora during her adventures as they solve riddles and and figure out puzzles while often focusing on a strong bilingual component. Dora & Boots’ adventures proved so popular that they not only spun off their own books, video games and stage shows, but a brand new show as well: 2005’s “Go, Diego, Go!” which focused on animal rescue and environmental concerns with Dora’s cousin Diego.

Peg & Cat from Peg + Cat have only been entertaining families since 2013, but they’ve made such a favorable impression that the show won three Emmy Awards for its first season! Created by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson, based on the book “The Chicken Problem”, the math-focused adventures of Peg & Cat bring them in contact with an incredibly large array of characters and showcases some of the best songwriting ever created in the history of children’s programming. Peg & Cat are deeply loyal, deeply hilarious and deeply curious. These qualities make the show an absolute joy for children and parents alike. Thank you again to New Hampshire Public Television and PBS Kids for making it possible for Peg + Cat to be a part of CMNH’s big day!

Were you familiar with most of these dynamic duos? Do your children know any of them? Who did we forget? Let us know your favorite duo in the comments!

Happy Pi Day everyone!

Pi Day is celebrated each March 14th. Get it? 3.14? I don’t want to get too bogged down in the origins of Pi Day or how the mathematical constant known as pi works, because I want to get to the part we’re all waiting for: PIE!

Because pi without the “e” is far less delicious than the kind with the “e”, many people celebrate Pi Day by baking pies! Sadly, we didn’t have a chance to bake and eat all of our favorite pies here at CMNH, so we did the next best thing: Conduct a Pi Day Pie Survey! We surveyed our staff, volunteers, and two school groups – one from Sanford, ME and one from Kennebunk, ME – and asked them a pretty simple question.

“What’s your absolute favorite pie?”

{Click on the chart to see a bigger version!}

Here are the very scientific (and questionably nutritious) results! How did your favorite pie fare?

A few pies only garnered one vote. They were: Peach, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Pear & Gouda(!), Chicken Pot, Raspberry, Blackberry, Peanut Butter, & Butterscotch Pudding.

We hope you’re all having a delicious Pi Day!

It’s time to meet another member of the Experience Guide Staff at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire!

Sarah is at CMNH the majority of the week and can usually be found hip deep in arts and crafts supplies in the Muse Studio.  You may have even heard Sarah’s voice while you were shopping for a pair of jeans.  Yes, you read that right!  Sarah has a lot to say so let’s jump right in and find out more!

Zach:  Sarah, how long have you worked at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire?

Sarah:  I’ve been at the museum since October – so about 11 months!

Z:  Why CMNH?

S:  I’ve always loved working with kids and when I saw that CMNH was hiring I thought it would be a great opportunity to do different activities and exploration with families each day.  I loved that each day would be a new and different experience!  The other part of that daily surprise is the fact that I get to teach each day.  Interactive teaching with the visitors is the highlight of my job.

Z:  What originally brought you to New Hampshire?

S:  I came to Dover because I was accepted in to the Masters of Fine Arts program at UNH in Durham.  My focus is Creative Writing – specifically Poetry.

Z:  Where did you complete your undergrad studies?

S:  I attended Columbia University in New York City.  My focus in undergrad was Creative Writing but I also spent much of my time at Columbia attending and participating in musical performances.  I’ve been studying voice since I was six-years old so I definitely enjoyed working with classical music and opera at Columbia.

Z:  Wow!  You may likely be our only Experience Guide with an opera background!  Tell me, what – if any – experience did you have working with families before your time here at CMNH?

S:  For many, many years, I taught at a musical theater summer camp in my hometown of Allentown, New Jersey.

This Way to Allentown!

Z:  That sounds like a lot of fun!

S:  Yes!  “Musical Theater Magical Camp” was a very enjoyable place to work!

Z:  Wow!  With a name like that it sounds even more fun!

S:  It really was a lot of fun.  Each session ran for 3 weeks and was open to children from 5-12 years old.  We would spend Week One getting to know each other, learning about theater, playing games and becoming comfortable with being on stage.  We would cast a full musical in Week Two and then teach them choreography, design and make the costumes, and create the set.  Then, after rehearsing throughout Week Three, we would put on a performance on the last day for the entire camp and all of the returning families.

Curtains up on the, “Pirates: The Musical” set, circa 2009

Z:  Did any of the children ever experience stage fright?

S:  Oh, yes!  We would often get parents who would sign their children up for our camp in an attempt to kind of bring them out of their shell.  These are the children that would be quite shy at the start of camp; often they would be the younger campers.  Which made it such a wonderful process that at the end of three weeks we’d be able to see these kids that had entered the process unsure of themselves and their abilities come out on stage and blow us away with their confidence!

Z:  I’m currently working on a production myself this summer outside of CMNH and I’m having some trouble with a few of the actors hitting their spots and remembering their lines.  Can I recruit you to come and fill them full of your trademark confidence??

S:  Well, I’m pretty busy at the museum this summer but we’ll see what I can do!

Z:  Sarah, switching gears a bit, I’d like to know if you or your family visited museums when you were growing up?

S:  We did.  We went to a ton of museums as a family.  My father is a software developer and he has worked on a number of projects and exhibits for museums.  He and his brothers did most of hardware and software for the Sony Wonder Museum in New York when it first opened.

Z:  “New York” meaning New York City?

S:  Yes!  Right on Madison Avenue!  I was able to explore the museum before they officially opened to the public while my father worked on different projects and exhibits.

Z:  How old were you?

S:  About 6 or 7.

Z:  I’m jealous.

S:  [Laughs.]  You should be!  My dad has worked with a number of museums since then and I actually got to do some voice-over work on one of his projects.

Z:  I’m somehow even more jealous now.  What was the voice work?

S:  It was an exhibit for the Children’s Museum of Houston that was also getting installed at the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey.  It was a Magic School Bus weather-based exhibit.  I provided the voices for two of the children in the Magic School Bus.

All Aboard the Magic School Bus!

Z:  Wow!

S:  He also worked for the Levi’s flagship store in Union Square in San Francisco – so for a long time, I was the voice of many of their in-store kiosks.

Z:  Did you actually get to travel to San Francisco?

Sarah’s voice will help you buy your next pair of jeans!

S:  I did!  The whole family spent the summer in San Francisco.

Z:  And how old were you then?

S:  I was 12 years old and it was wonderful to be there for the whole summer.  We really got to know the city.

Z:  I have to ask – did you visit any museums?

S:  We did.  We went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  It . . . well . . .

Z:  Yes?

S:  It was actually . . . an interesting experience.

Z:  I’m going to need you to tell me more than that!

S:  Yes.  Well.  They had a number of installations that were very advanced and were . . . well, perhaps a little over my 12-year old head.

Z:  I see.  Well, Sarah, please tell us:  What is your favorite museum in the world?

S:  That’s a really tough question to answer.  I very much love the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.  I visited it constantly while at Columbia.  But . . . I’d have to say that the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ will always hold a special place in my heart.  When my father was working on the Magic School Bus exhibit, my friend and I were allowed to be at the museum before and after hours and we were given free access to all of the IMAX shows.  Most importantly, we were allowed to wear V.I.P. necklaces. [Laughs.]

Z:  I always knew you were a V.I.P.!  Sarah, what is your favorite exhibit at CMNH and why?

S:  My favorite exhibit is probably the Muse Studio.  I love the way we’ve been able to mix artistic creativity with scientific exploration.  You’ll see families and staff drawing, painting and collaging conjoined with learning how a prism works and how a lima bean plant grows.  It’s definitely the part of the museum that, as a child, you would have had difficulty getting me to leave.

Z:  Even as an adult we have a hard time getting you out of the Muse Studio!

S:  This is true.  [Laughs.]

Essential Information about Experience Guide Sarah

Favorite Color:  Green (Most shades of green, but not Turquoise!)

Favorite Animal:  Dachshund

Favorite Movie:  Contact

Favorite Type of Music:  Classical  /  Favorite Artist:  Elvis Costello

Welcome to a new series on our blog that helps YOU – our readers & visitors – get to know our Museum Experience Guides!

Erika can be found at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire most weekdays and is always ready to greet families with a smile! You might recognize Erika even if you’ve never been to CMNH! How’s that? Well . . . maybe we should let Erika explain:

Zach:  Erika, how long have you worked at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire?

Erika:  Just over a year and a half.

Z:  When you first came to CMNH, you were . . .

E:  . . . an intern! Yes. I interned here for a short while and then . . .

Z:  . . . and then you became an employee?

E:  Yes!  Then I became an Experience Guide at CMNH!

Z:  Tell me – why CMNH?

E:  I love museums. ALL museums! I live here in Dover and I love working with children and families. I found out about CMNH and I really wanted to become a part of such a wonderful place.

Z:  I must mention this because I’m not sure how many in the museum field can claim this, but you don’t just work at one museum. You don’t just work at two museums.  You actually work at three different museums! That must be quite a whirlwind!

E:  It certainly can be. I’m constantly going from museum to museum. I work the majority of my time here at CMNH, but I also work at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye and the SEE Science Center in Manchester as well.

Z:  My goodness!  That’s a lot of work!  Do visitors ever get confused when they see you at more than one museum?

E:  That’s actually happened a few times. I’ll be at CMNH all day on a Friday and then at the SEE Science Center on a Saturday and visitor’s will look and me and then do a double take and seem confused until it dawns on them where else they’ve seen me.

Z:  Now, sadly, after more than a year and a half with us at CMNH, you’ll be leaving us later this summer. You’ll be attending George Washington University.

E:  Yes, I will. I’m extremely excited.

Z:  This will be to obtain your Master’s Degree. What will your degree be in?

E:  Museum Education.

Z:  Museum Education?! I would think that you would already have plenty of museum education working for so many museums!

E:  (laughing) You would think!

Z:  But one can always learn more!

E:  Exactly! And I certainly plan to!

Z:  Erika, you grew up here in New Hampshire, correct?

The Annual Pumpkin Festival in Keene, NH

E:  I did, yes. I grew up in Keene, NH.

Z:  Did you visit museums as a child?

E:  I did. There was a small Children’s Museum in Keene that’s no longer there. We used to visit that museum A LOT. I loved it.

Z:  Did you visit other museums?

E:  Oh, yes. We would visit both the Museum of Science and the Boston Children’s Museum in Massachusetts. We’d also visit the Seacoast Science Center in Rye.

Z:  Did you ever visit this museum when we were located in Portsmouth?

The Children’s Museum of Portsmouth, 1983-2008

E:  I did, but I was so little that I don’t have very clear memories of the experience.

Z:  That’s ok. We won’t hold it against you. Erika – tell us – what’s your favorite museum outside of the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire?

E:  My favorite museum is actually an aquarium. I consider aquariums a type of museum . . .

Z:  (faux-sternly) Hmmmm . . . we’ll allow it. Proceed.

E:  The aquarium is L’Oceanografic in Valencia, Spain. It acts as a science museum as well, so you can definitely allow it. (laughs)

Z:  So why were you so taken with L’Oceanografic?

E:  For several reasons. Apart from the exhibits, one thing I was immediately taken with was the entire set-up of L’Oceanografic. It’s the biggest aquarium in all of Europe and it’s made up of about a dozen zones with each one devoted to a different body or water or type of aquatic ecosystem. One building might showcase the Mediterranean Sea while another building is devoted to the Arctic. There are also underwater walking tunnels and sections of the facility that contained small bubbles that the visitor could stick their head into and suddenly be surrounded by fish on all sides. You felt like you were in the water with the fish. It’s an amazing sensation.

L’Oceanografic Underwater Tunnel

Z:  Wow!  I really want to visit L’Oceanografic now.

E:  And I haven’t even told you about the glow-in-the-dark octopuses yet!

Z:  Oh, man. Something tells me CMNH doesn’t have room for glow-in-the-dark octopuses. Erika, could you share with us what your favorite CMNH exhibit is? And why?

E:  My favorite exhibit, no question, is Dino Detective. I love – LOVE – anything to do with dinosaurs! I also love that exhibit because it’s one of the easiest exhibits to get down to our young visitor’s level and interact and explore with them while they learn about and dig for dinosaurs. I also enjoy teaching visitors about fossils and evolution.

Z:  Well, Erika, we hope that you’ll still come back in the future and visit CMNH  after you’ve moved to Washington D.C. and check in with the visitors and staff!

E:  Of course! I’ll always love CMNH!

Essential Information about Experience Guide Erika

 

Favorite Color:  Blue

Favorite Animal:  (Tie) Three-Toed Sloth / Hedgehog

Favorite Movie:  Cinderella

Favorite Type of Music:  A cappella

Growing your own fruits and vegetables means that you know exactly what goes into your food and exactly where it comes from. This offers peace of mind to families who are concerned about feeding pesticides and genetically modified foods to their children. Not only that, having a home garden promotes good nutrition and gives families an activity that they can take part in and enjoy together.

Families are also motivated to grow their own food to stretch their food budgets. According to the US Department of Agriculture, for every $1 spent on seeds and fertilizer, home gardeners can grow an average of $25 worth of produce! That can be a significant saving for families and a great rationale for getting started.

Wanting to inspire as many growers as possible, we’ve constructed our own fruit and vegetable gardens along the river behind the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire. We are partnering with Master Gardener Leslie Stevens to offer a FREE six-part series covering everything from seed starting and building your own raised beds, to composting and maintaining your own home gardens. Three raised beds will produce food for our visitors to help monitor, maintain, and watch flourish, all while learning the ins and outs of gardening.

The children who participated in our most recent session enthusiastically planted snap peas and potatoes. During the next session, we will be adding tomatoes and strawberries to our outdoor beds. Future sessions will cover helping plants grow and how to harvest fresh produce when it is ripe.

Families are invited to stop by the Museum’s front desk and find out how to can join our Growing Gardeners Club at any time this summer. We hope families will be inspired to see what can blossom in their own home garden.

We go through a lot of baking soda and vinegar in my house. We’re not cooking with it. We’re not cleaning with it. We’re mixing “potions” with it, erupting volcanoes, mixing it with food coloring and painting with it. Splashing salt on top to see what happens. Raiding the recycling bin and building courses for the bubbly liquid to travel down. (I highly recommend building such courses in a bathtub or on an outside deck!)

Although I’ve been an educator both in schools and the Museum for nearly 20 years, I’ve received some great insights into the way kids learn about the world observing my own kids try to figure out “what happens if” and “how does this work.”

The author's son in a previous winter when snow was abundant!

This past weekend, my 9-year-old son was lamenting the pitiful ½ inch of snow on the small hill he likes to sled on in the yard. “That’s a problem,” I said. “Can you think of a solution?” After trying to relocate snow from other parts of the yard to no avail, he asked for a bucket. His solution: to pour bucket-loads of water down a path on the hill. How long will this take to freeze? How many layers of ice do I need to put on the hill to make it thick enough to hold the weight of me and my sled without cracking? Does the water freeze faster if I put cold water in my bucket?

My son was playing, getting messy and having fun, but most of all he was determined to have a place to sled by the end of the day (which was how long it took for the multiple layers of ice to freeze). Did he realize that he was conducting experiments? Forming hypotheses? Using scientific reasoning? No, but that’s okay.

Here at the Museum, we may not have the icy hill in the backyard, but we know we’ve done our job when we observe kids (and adults) engaged in asking questions, experimenting, or creating something new together. Are you looking for some “what-happens-if” fun during the cold winter months? We’d love to have you visit and experiment with us.

And check out these websites for some science inspiration you can try at home – recommended by Museum colleagues through the Association of Science and Technology Centers:

“The SciGirls website, http://pbskids.org/scigirls/, is awesome! It’s great for girls and boys.”

“www.edheads.com is a great website that has some really fun kid-friendly interactives with accompanying teacher guide (including virtual surgeries, crime scene investigations and nanoparticle development.”

“Carnegie Science Center has a website as part of our girls program at www.braincake.org.”

Activities for school, home or group projects on a variety of science topics: http://www.kids-science-experiments.com/

The idea for the first Kid’s Café came about in 1995 at the Children’s Museum in Portsmouth in a tiny alcove under the stairs. What began as a simple table-top kit with food items to sort utilizing the food pyramid quickly turned into a full-blown exhibit highlighting other cultures from around the world.

I remember, as a floor staff member, watching the children play with the food and having them request more items to role-play with. We quickly added plates, napkins and utensils and watched a whole new exhibit come to life.

With the increasing popularity of the mini Café and a desire to bring more cultural activities to our space, the Café soon moved to the 3^rd floor of the Portsmouth museum and became a more substantial exhibit called the Kid’s World Café. There we offered food from Japan, Canada, Germany, Turkey and Mexico.

When the Museum relocated to Dover, as an exhibit team, we knew that we wanted to bring the idea of the Kid’s World Café with us. With increasing emphasis on global societies and understanding and appreciating world cultures, our exhibit team created an area called One World that encompassed several exhibits, including the Kid’s World Café. One World includes interactive components that offer educational opportunities for families to learn about masks, clothing, footwear and food from seven cultures of the world. In the summer of 2008, we opened the new museum and the Kid’s World Café introduced visitors to the Greek culture.

In September of 2011, wanting to bring updated changes to this popular exhibit, the Kid’s World Cafe changed cultures from Greece to Mexico!

As an exhibit developer and museum educator I am often perplexed and surprised by what makes an exhibit so enticing to our young visitors. After creating exhibits for over 20 years, I have learned that using familiar components and every day objects, in this case items found in a kitchen or restaurant, offers children the opportunity to role play in a setting where they know what is expected of them. Children are often more open to learning about a new topics when they can draw upon prior knowledge and familiar topics to do so.

With the change of a new culture this year, brought new additions to the space. An interactive “Innovation Station” sharing board which offers visitors an opportunity to share recipes and traditions from their cultures with other museum visitors. The sharing board has recipes to take and enjoy making at home, and also invites families to leave their own favorite traditions for others to try.

So far, we have had visitors leave several family favorite recipes including “The Best Guacamole” and “Quiche in a Cup” that we will begin adding to our website for visitors to download and make at home.

The Kid’s World Café exhibit encourages children to use their imagination while interacting with other children and adults in that space. Learning and sharing information together is a winning combination and one we encourage throughout the museum. It is our hope that by experiencing and learning about other cultures, children will have a better understanding and appreciation of different cultures around the world.

You can’t go past the Kid’s World Cafe without hearing “Would you like extra cheese with your taco?” or even hearing specific words from the Mexican menu like “Guacamole” “Agua” or “Burritos”.  The museum’s exhibit team plans on changing cultures in the Café every few years so be on the look out to experience a new culture in the coming years. Until then … Bienvenidos a Cafeteria de Ninos!

Care to share?

If you’d like to download our young friend Kimberly’s recipe for Tostadas (she’s the girl shown here making tortillas with her abuela from Mexico), click here. And if you have a Mexican recipe that your family enjoys, please feel free to share it here in the Comments section! We are always looking for new recipes to share with our members and friends.