Our Summer: Explorers {Atlanta Children’s Museum}

A few weeks ago we met up with Vanessa from Silly Eagle Books and her girls to visit the Children’s Museum in Atlanta. Do you have a children’s museum in your area? THEY ARE SO FUN. The first time I went (several years ago, when Lydia was small), I had no idea what it was. When I walked in, I was blown away–it’s super simple and super amazing at the same time–it’s just a giant room filled with every single fun thing kids like to do.

Our children’s museum has this whole giant play area that begins with a farm (including the opportunity to milk a cow), goes to the farmer’s market, the grocery store truck, the grocery store and straight to a kitchen and table. The kids get to roll boxes of food off a truck, play cashier at the grocery store and then make the food in their own little play kitchen. It is so incredibly fun!

My very favorite part is the painting. They just set up a giant piece of plexiglass and let the kids paint on it. When they are done, they squirt it with water, squeegee it off and it drains into a gutter underneath. (I think I’m going to make one of those for a birthday party sometime! How easy!!)

There’s a giant water table (complete with raincoats and fishing poles!) and the biggest moonsand table ever! They even have stations for you to display your sculptures!

Lydia loved the giant ball machine–with levers, pulleys and more so kids can push and pull balls up over their heads and around the room!

There’s even a stage with tap shoes, a train set and giant tinker toys. I’m telling you, they thought of every fun thing!

The special exhibit at the Children’s Museum right now is called The Big Adventure. I knew we were going to like it because of the airplane. I think I told you Asa’s 4th birthday party (in September) is going to be a Flying Ace party. So, whenever we see a bi-plane like this, we get pretty excited!

All the exhibits (if you can call them that, they are really just play areas!) for The Big Adventure were about different kinds of explorers and adventures–there was a giant spider web to crawl through, a broken bridge to put back together, a crazy path for trikes, a rock wall and an underground tunnel.

The kids loved this part best and even put on explorer hats, knee pads and binoculars. They were super explorers!

I love the whole “adventure” and “explorer” idea because kids need to do stuff that’s a little scary and hard. They need to use their imaginations and have fun dreaming big! I want my kids to do big things for God and I think even these little ideas of discovering new lands and going on adventures will help them see the big dreams God has for them.

Explorers are big at our house because my kids love dressing up as explorers. Right now their faves are Vikings and Laura Ingalls Wilder (she explored the west, right?). And I love it!

Here’s a few explorer and adventure resources for you if your kiddos would like to have a big adventure at home…

Voyage with the Vikings{A short chapter book about some kids use Adventures in Odyssey’s Imagination Station to visit Vikings. We read this over lunch a few weeks ago. The kids really liked it!}

Adventure Bible for Early Readers {This is the Bible Lydia has–it’s a 3rd grade reading level. It has lots of fun extra reading sections and special notes for kids.}

Calendar Connections Explorer Cards {This is really a homeschool supplement–daily trivia about explorers for each calendar day. We did this a few months ago and even though a lot of it was over their head, they loved it! They still talk about Leif Ericson and Eric the Red! Did I mention it’s a FREE DOWNLOAD?}

Jungle Doctor and the Whirlwind {I linked to this on Facebook yesterday–ChristianAudio.com has a few kids’ audiobooks on sale for $5 right now. This one is a true missionary story–I’ve actually never read/listened to it, but I downloaded it because I would love for my kids’ greatest explorer/adventure heroes to be missionaries! I’ll let you know what I think about it soon!}

And last but not least, one more Viking idea for you. (Go ahead. Click it. I’ll wait.) If anyone actually makes that, please let me know so we can come right over to play!

If anyone is in (or near) Atlanta, make sure you visit the Children’s Museum. Your kiddos will love it! (Oooh, and call me, we might wanna go with you!)

Happy exploring, friends!

I was given tickets to the Children’s Museum as a member of the media.