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learning to have fun Connecticut December 2001 |
In the Great Green Room, there was a telephone,
and a red balloon, and ...my son excitedly pointing up at the moon. Can you
blame him? It's not every day you get to walk into one of your favorite
books and play. At the Connecticut Children's Museum in New Haven, the
Linguistic Room is an interactive and vivid re-creation of Goodnight Moon
with all the essential details, right down to a comb and a brush and a bowl
full of mush. (Well, it's not actual mush, but the effect is quite nice.)
The museum-a vibrantly painted and inviting facility-has a strong
educational feel, from the dozens of books in each of the eight main rooms
to the numerous little facts handpainted on walls throughout. Beyond
that-and call me a jealous nerd of a parent- the place is just..cool. In
the Spatial Room, there's a chalkboard house (inspired by Harold and the
Purple Crayon) for unbridled scribbling, as well as wheelbarrows full of
wooden blocks, construction helmets and ample building supplies: tape,
glue, egg cartons, empty boxes- stuff to make your own stuff. Little hands
and minds can also work the gear wall in the Logical-Mathematical Room,
while the Naturalist Room has a great buzz about it, courtesy of the glass
observation hive filled with hundreds of busy live bees making honey and
minding their own beeswax (of course). And as you might expect, the Musical
Room was a big hit with my son-Iiterally, as he ran from the wooden
xylophone to the steel drum to the ocean drum, beating his own manic rhythm
out of each. Fortunately, there was no quiet old lady whispering "hush.”
For further info, call (203) 562-5437. -R.B.
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