Oklahoma Tornadoes: Helping Your Kids Cope With Bad News
By: Carrie Fitzsimmons
Public Relations Coordinator
Parents are once again faced with talking to their children about a tragic and frightening event after the massive devastation that resulted from the Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes on May 20, 2013. With many area families remembering the April 27, 2011 tornadoes that devastated our area, events like this can be very stressful and upsetting for everyone, especially young children. So, how do you talk to your children about natural disasters?
Fun with Lights and Technology
By: Jenette Dean
Early Childhood Manager
Did you know that young children learn best by multi-sensory stimulation? I realized while attending the NAEYC (National Association of Education of Young Children) conference in Atlanta last November that light tables and light boxes are being used in innovative and exciting ways in early childhood classrooms across the country. Ideas for open-ended creative activities using light tables include techniques for teaching art, math, science, and reading activities. Light offers intense sensory stimulation and light tables serve as a sensory rich activity. Sensory rich activities provide “food” for a child’s developing brain.
Smash, Bang, Pow!
By: Liza Blair
Arts Manager
Something happened in my son around age three that dramatically changed the way he interacts with the world. He developed an overwhelming enthusiasm for destroying block towers and disassembling anything built.
No longer was he content with building and admiring his handy work. No, not any more. The real fun was smashing his masterpiece into tiny pieces. With one swift swing, a 30-piece, tall Lego tower would be nothing more than a few dozen blocks on the floor. Continue reading →
Tree Houses, Parachutes and Safe Risks
By: Jayne Griffin
Director of Education
The Magic Tree House™ Traveling Exhibit is coming to Creative Discovery Museum this summer. The title from this wonderful book series always reminds me of the words I so often heard from my mother - “He did WHAT?”- after I dutifully and routinely reported my big brother’s adventures.
The Magic Tree HouseTM Traveling Exhibit
These adventures included making a parachute from a handkerchief to slow his jump from my aunt’s 8 foot tall chicken house, using scrap pieces of plywood to make a boat that would float in the creek (of course, it sank instead), and building a tree house using real hammers and nails that was too fragile to hold even our pet dog.
My mother always said my brother’s adventures made her hair turn gray, but my brother’s hair-raising adventures may reflect an important part of childhood that is missing for many children today. Continue reading →
Epic Fail.
“Epic Fail”, the t-shirt read. Why would anyone advertise failure on their chest? I remembered my first epic fail.
I was 8 or 9 years old. My mother had a beautiful garden full of vegetables we enjoyed throughout the summer and I wanted my own flower garden. My parents gave me permission, emphasizing the amount of work involved in tending a garden and assuring me that the responsibility was all mine. I was so excited. It was going to be Continue reading →
