Be Ye Kind

I love this family of mine. 

There's no denying that parenting is work. Some days the work is light and attitude are good. Others, well, others are more taxing, stressful, and make you question every decision you make. 

This past week fell into that second category a few times. 

It had been a while since we spent the day doing something fun together as a family. There are countless projects around the house that need to be completed and many chores to be done (that seems to be a normal occurrence in a family of 7), but Leighton and I felt that it all could wait another day. We packed up the kiddos for The Henry Ford Museum. 

The museum is packed with things to see and do. It is especially perfect for a family that focuses on life schooling and incorporating learning activities into everyday experiences (which could be why we've bought a membership every year since our first visit.) 

We had a fun-filled day and learned a lot in the process. While the kids' favorite parts included participating in a car assembly line and the Giant Screen Experience, my favorite wasn't based around an attraction. 

The museum hosts a Make Something Saturdays event. The theme for the month of March is drones. The kids were able to see the parts of a dissected drone, learn to fly a drone on a simulator, watch a live demo, and experiment creating their own flying machine and test it in a wind tunnel. They each also got their own whirligig to take home. They immediately ripped open their bag and placed the propeller on top of the straw. The had fun spinning and flying and were surprised at how high these simple toys went into the air. 

Over the next few hours, the kids pulled the toys out for a few more rounds of fun before their attention was drawn to something else. In the stroller. Out of the stroller. Up in the air. 

During one such time of whirligig fun, a man and his young grandson walked up to us in excitement.

"Where did you get that?"

I explained where the exhibit was and then related the time that it ended. We happened to be standing under a large clock. 3:30. A half hour too late. Their faces fell as they walked away. 

Jake looked at me and said, "He can have mine."

Are you sure? You've been having so much fun with it.

"Yes, I want to give it to him." He searched though our belongings in the back of the stroller and found the sought-after toy. Then I watched my 11 year old run up ahead and hand it to the little boy.

"Thank you very much! Thank you!" There was excitement once again on their faces.

My heart swelled with admiration as I watched that boy of mine walk back to me. And through tear-filled eyes I told him how proud I was of him.

That. That was my favorite part of the day.

 

He may have given only a small, cheap toy, but he demonstrated a great lesson learned.

You see, I lost track of how many instances in which I scolded him this past week for not being nice. I don't know how many times I quoted Ephesians 4:32: 

"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, 

even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

Be ye kind.

He loves to joke around, but doesn't always know when to stop. He loves to use sarcasm, but doesn't always use discretion. He loves to tease, but doesn't always understand that others don't find his actions funny.

Be ye kind. Just be kind. 

That was our biggest issue last week. That was the area that gave me the most grief.

And then Saturday.

Just when you think you're not getting through, just when you think you've failed, just when you think they don't care, you get a "Saturday."

Friendly. Generous. Considerate.

Kind.

Parenting isn't always easy, but it is always worth it.

Be ye kind.

Field Trip: The Henry Ford (2012 Yeah, Really)

First things first, I have to admit that this trip to The Henry took place quite a while ago. I'm not very good at hopping on posts very quickly. This Blog was originally my idea, but I have the most trouble getting anything up on it. Either way its just a notice to you, but hey at least I am writing the post. (unlike our trip to Somerset Mall for the grand opening of the LEGO store where we helped build a ten foot Buzz Lightyear.) Well, on to The Henry Ford.

Amongst Erika's blog reading and deal searching she came across the fact that Target, the store, was paying for entrance to The Henry Ford certain days this year(2012). It so happened that when she discovered that one of those days was fast approaching. I requested the day off work and on Presidents Day we went to The Henry Ford.

For the sake of those who don't already know and those who have not yet gone to do a search for it to find out, The Henry Ford is a museum in the Detroit area. It houses many things. I first thought it was just cars, You know "The HENRY FORD". But when I went this past summer for Maker Faire Detroit, I discovered that there is lot of other stuff. Mostly it is a way for us to look back at many ways of life from the past. From cars to tractors, dollhouses to real houses, even planes to trains. There is a lot to see and even some to do. (Did you notice that?)

I won't give you a complete walkthrough of everything, but I'll hit most of it and show a lot of pictures. When you first walk in the door you are welcomed by the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile. Now that is just cool. Who doesn't want to see that thing up close?

Very shortly after that we ended up looking at dollhouses, no where near like the one I made for Alyssa. Much bigger and a lot more detail. Alyssa of course loved it. Jake though, very quickly turned to the tractors on the other side of the aisle. When Jake and I made it back to the others we had come across a friend of ours and her daughter who hung with us the rest of the day.

We found a little play house to hang out in for a while.

We meandered through bedrooms of old and then found LEGOS, Tinker Toys, and K'NEX to play with as well as crayons and paper.

We walked among some "engines" that, honestly, you have to see for yourself.

And then we found airplanes. It turns out Henry Ford dabbled in airplanes and commercial flying for a bit. Some of what he did and other history significant planes are on display. Then there is a place with lots of paper and an airstrip.

Now is where honesty has to kick in. I'm sure you can already tell that this visit to The Henry Ford is from over two years ago. This was one of a few posts that Erika has asked me to write. As you can see it has taken me a while to do. There have also been quite a few that she has wanted me to do but I never did get to. This one I am going to finish and maybe even do others in the future.

At this point I'm not entirely sure how that day ended at The Henry Ford, but we have gone many times since then. We even had a membership this last year. We've been for just the museum and we've been for Maker Faire Detroit. Every time is fun though. The Henry Ford is a great place for adult and children alike. There are quite a few things to draw the kids into learning about our history in so many aspects of life. Yet each display has detailed info for a curious adult to spend days reading each. The Henry Ford is gold mine of learning in the Detroit area. It's probably the closest you can get to Smithsonian quality museum in our area that I know of at least.

I could keep going on for quite a while but I'll leave it with this:

If you are in the Detroit area and want to spend a day learning and experiencing our past go to The Henry Ford. And if the season is right come back the next day to check out Greenfield Village next door. The village is another experience in and of itself that I would suggest to anyone.

The "Dinosaur" Museum

So we read a lot of Berenstain Bears books with the kids. They enjoy them quite a bit. There is one in particular in which Brother Bear gets really interested in dinosaurs. Jake loves it and started to get interested in dinosaurs himself because of it. It is because of this interest and the idea of wanting to start taking the kids to some museums and such in the area that we decided to go to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. It  is not a "dinosaur" museum but they do have dinosaur bones on display.

The libraries in our area have a program going where you can "check out" tickets from the library for different educational attractions in the area. I do believe that it is Macy's this year that is actually paying for the tickets. It was through this that we got tickets to the museum. Although we found out that the museum was free anyhow. Coincidentally the museum had a special day for the kids with the Water and You exhibit. They had stations set up throughout with tasks, activities, games, and lessons for the kids to participate in. This made the visit. I do believe that our day would have been much shorter and less enjoyable for our young children had the water stuff not been there.

At first it didn't seem to me that the kids were getting in the museum and what it had to offer. I, of course, started to think that they were not going to enjoy it much, but Erika could pick out what they wanted to see and thus it started to become a hit. As I said there were stations about water facts and activities for the kids to participate in. At each of these they got a little bead for their "Water Cycle" band (yarn). This was probably the most exciting part for them since at each station they immediately went for the basket with the beads. 

Activities included PH testing, bingo, and finding little animals from river water.

Some of the activities set up were things that our kids had already done with Erika at home for school. So they already knew the facts and impressed the UM students heading up the activities. Below and to the left Jake was helping demonstrate what items would float or sink in the water. In the center and right pictures Jake was making a color straw with water of different densities due to the sugar mixed in each. Next to the color straws was the water and oil illustration that the kids had just done a few days before.

Placed throughout the museum were large fans for air movement that I am sure are used in the hotter months. For some reason Jake thought that these were the coolest things in the world and wanted his picture taken with them. They were so cool to him that when I asked him to stand next to a huge leg bone for a picture he thought I was asking him to stand next to the fan.

Poor Zac stayed in the stroller the entire time and did great! He never once complained or whined. At the end of the day Mommy bought him a little dinosaur from the gift shop which he immediately went to roaring and attacking his sister with. Did I mention we've never taught him that dinosaurs roar.

All in all we had a great day even stopping to check the Borders in that area that was going out of business along with all the others. The kids had a great time and I do believed learned at least something that  they did not know before. We walked away with quite a few beads, a book, some coloring pages, posters, tattoos, info on local parks, and resources from the local DNR. The Water and You exhibit was very well done. The students and other adults that headed up each of the stations did an excellent job in presentation of their task and in the work with the kids. This impressed us with how young our kids are in relation to the ages that the activities were probably meant for.