This is day two of spring break in our home, so the kids and I dropped my husband off at work and then we headed into the city. Our plan was to visit the zoo, but we ended up on a grand adventure that took us around the world! (Well, not really, but sort of.)
We arrived at the zoo before it got very crowded and so we were able to move quickly from one habitat to another. We had so much fun seeing different animals and watching them play. The tigers seemed particularly active today, and we had a great time watching the primates.
Our younger son is convinced that he “read somewhere that…” and so he told us these random facts about various animals. My favorite, though, was this one: “Judging from the size of the animal, I’d say that the white-handed gibbon which is black in color, is 17 years old. You can tell because clearly the lighter-colored white-handed gibbon is 15 years old, and the baby has got to be about 2 years old, by my best estimation.” Clearly he was estimating on the baby’s age, but I was convinced that he must have read the age of the other two gibbons because he kept going on about it. Nope - no sign to verify his information, but he spoke with such conviction. They were just random, made-up facts, I *think* in order to give him something to say.
We spent time at each habitat and going in and out of buildings. We enjoyed an around-the-globe adventure in terms of learning where the animals were originally from, and the foods they eat, and the conditions they need in order to thrive. It was interesting to see an animal called an aye-aye, who comes from Madagascar. They are so sensitive to light that the zoo keepers have them in their own little area of the primate house, in an almost completely darkened area. There was a light that ran along the floor to help you see your way, but you almost couldn’t see the person in front of you.
While we were at the zoo, I asked the kids if they wanted to make the short drive to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art once we were finished at the zoo. They all agreed, and I was happy for that, as past trips to the museum haven’t gone too well. We finished at the zoo and drove on to the art museum to continue our adventure.
The museum provided several great opportunities for my son to practice asking for help. He was trying to read his map and figure out where we were. I could have looked at the map and told him, but instead I encouraged him to ask someone who worked there. Without very much hesitation, he walked up to an employee and asked for help with his map. The employee took his time and helped my son get oriented with where he was on the map. This made the entire rest of the trip successful because then he was able to read the map on his own and help us navigate to rooms he wanted to see.
We started off visiting a photography exhibit on the ground floor. The pictures were mostly black and white and we made note of the use of light and how it makes a difference in how much you can - or cannot - see in a picture. From there we took the elevator to the 2nd floor to visit the arms and armor exhibit. It was at that point that I realized we’d be in for a LONG adventure. The kids were hooked on reading every placard that told us about each piece of armor. Thankfully we didn’t have to read every placard in the rest of the museum, but we spent quite some time in the armor section.
We traveled through every section of the museum, except for the special exhibits. We were quite tired after the 5 main sections of the museum and
One of our highlights was finding several paintings by Claude Monet, of the same picture. We have studied in our art lessons that Monet painted many pictures in Giverney, France, including the gardens and Japanese foot bridge. The paintings seen here were all in the European art exhibit, but in different rooms, not hanging together.
We have traveled to every continent today, in some form or fashion. The best part of the day was really how much I enjoyed my kids. They were well-behaved, there were few arguments or problems and they thoroughly enjoyed their day. Our around-the-world grand adventure was a huge success!
