EverWonder Children’s Museum, Monsters and Robots
The first couple of years with a baby can often translate into less time and even lesser inclination for long-distance travel. Some people will forge on, undeterred by sleepless nights but that’s not who I am. I like taking it easy.
While writing about Ursula K. Le Guin’s writing routines and her take on interruptions, my current favorite blogger/writer/artist/parent Austin Kleon has a lovely thing to say –
Keeping that in mind, I am taking it slow. We are reading books, making messes, eating leisurely lunches, making messes while eating those aforementioned lunches, learning how to clap, and walk, and talk.
But recently we made time to visit the EverWonder Children’s Museum in Newtown, Connecticut. I have written about it earlier here. Unpretentious to a fault, it’s a nice little fun place for kids.
They were hosting Microsoft’s Coding with Minecraft event and the thing that threw me off the most about it was the ratio of girls to boys. It was 1:14. What do we need to do to get more girls into coding? Make everything pink? To be clear, I say that with sarcasm. Growing up, I didn’t care much for the color and as it turns out, neither did the two women who were at the event on behalf of Microsoft.
While we are on the subject of Minecraft, I should add that Microsoft is trying to distance itself from the creator of the game, Markus “Notch” Persson. He sold Minecraft to Microsoft for 2.5 billion in 2014, and since then he has developed a controversial online persona. Google his craziness if you must, and you will be flooded with more tweets and stories than you need.
While the seven-year-old tinkered with making chickens rain and building brick roads, I took the one year old to the toddler play area. I must say it was nice to see him make a beeline for the books.
Speaking of board books, There’s a Monster in your Book is a big hit with the little one. All through we shake and spin and flip the book to get the monster out, but at the end, there’s a twist. Yes, a twist in a baby book if you can believe that. I am smiling as I type this.
As for the second grader, he is into Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot. The underlying themes are super deep and it says a lot about inclusion and acceptance, amongst other things. Although it’s on my list of “books I want to read”, I am rather busy with the monster, unruly and impossible as he is.
