The ROM

Last Friday, we took another trip to the big city to visit the Royal Ontario Museum. Aunt Jenn and Uncle Jay bought tickets for the girls for Aislinn's 7th birthday, and we had an awesome trip.

We went with friends again which made the whole driving/ parking experience much better! :) and left us with 6 hours to explore the 5 story building.

We started in the Egypt wing, and the girls really got into what they were seeing since all our previous discussions and activities from Story of the World gave them a good perspective. Hmm, favorites? the animal mummies and the replica of a tomb. A lot of the artifacts from the ancient Egyptian life the girls could recognize as well.

Next we moved on to the minerals room. I think Aislinn could have spent all day in there. Surrounded by sparkly rocks and minerals and then to see the cut jewels as well -- pretty cool!

Our next stop was the biodiversity floor, and I was truly in awe. This museum has done an amazing job of setting up the exhibits to be interesting, hands on, and interactive. This floor by far made the visit phenomenal, and would be well worth exploring again. The kids area was on this floor as well, and the girls got to try on costumes, uncover dinosaur bones and touch all sorts of things. The staff were so great too, and happy to talk and explain things to the girls and draw them into the exhibits.

After finally pulling ourselves away, we did a quick tour of the Canadian display which was in all honesty extremely boring. It contained paintings and antique furniture and that was all. Needless to say it was deserted, and we spent just enough time there to walk through and out. Then we visited the First peoples displays, which had some interesting things, but not much interactive, so the girls focus was quickly lost.

The other display I need to mention, was the dinosaurs -- Wow! It had been a long time since I had visited the museum -- my childhood I think, and I had no idea they had such cool stuff! You could really get a feel for the size these creatures were, and the girls were happily pointing out the skulls and features of the dinosaurs they had "uncovered" earlier.

All in all a terrific day, and to me, it's amazing the amount of learning that can happen in a place like that compared to how many books you would have to read to get the same understanding. To pet a beaver and a raccoon, stand beside a white rhino, walk around, and check out the toes of a mummy, pick up a snake skin, an owl talon, a whale bone... stand beside a dinosaur...

can you tell I really get into this stuff?

Anyway... learning? check! (for this week anyway!) :)
Here are some of the pictures... the girls took most of them.