Since intersession is almost over and we’d done practically none of the educational things I’d had big dreams of doing, we got our butts in gear yesterday and headed to Raleigh for a day at the museum. We chose the Museum of Natural Sciences because it sounded the most interesting for a 6 year old. Admission is free, so except for the gas we burned on the trip and the $4 parking fee (oh, and the coffee I had to buy to stave off a caffeine headache) it was free family fun! We left Sanford after an early lunch at home and were able to see the entire museum and make it home for dinner.
I don’t have the energy to write a full review, but some of the highlights were:
- The 5 whale skeletons. It gives you an amazing perspective of the true size of these animals!
- A giant ground sloth skeleton. I never really thought much about them, but assumed they weren’t much bigger than a sloth you’d see today. So very wrong on this one! They were HUGE!
- Various dinosaur bones and skeletons. My kids love dinosaurs, so they really enjoyed these.
- The “Meet the Animals” show where they brought out real snakes for the kids to see and touch, as well as explaining why we shouldn’t be scared of them. (That didn’t stop me from nearly having a panic attack when he pulled out the first snake, though!)
- Seeing many venomous and non-venomous snakes behind glass, so they’re a bit easier to identify out in the real world. The only venomous snake that’s common in Lee County is the copperhead, by the way. And now that I know what one looks like, maybe I won’t freak out if another benign snake gets in my house!
- The giant *live* cockroaches. We frequently saw palmetto bugs (which is a nice name for giant, ugly roach) when we lived in SC and those things terrified me, but they’ve got nothing on the ones we saw yesterday!
- The Discovery Room where the kids could play and touch everything. They really enjoyed that.
- The Living Conservatory, which houses butterflies and other living things.
We thought it was a great little trip and both of the boys enjoyed it. I’m not sure they learned much, but it was a lot of fun and certainly more educational than sitting around and watching TV, which is what was the most likely thing to happen since it rained pretty much all day. Worth the drive, for sure!
