Iowa Childrens Museum

Yesterday Jonah and I headed to the Iowa Childrens Museum with my Moms group. It is a huge interactive, playful museum with tons of things for the kids to get into (in a good way!). We went months ago with the group, but Jonah was still a bit too young to appreciate it. That is certainly not the case anymore! He ran through the place like a mad man and actually played with things they way they were meant to be used (versus just putting everything in his mouth...which he still occasionally did).

The first area you come to after checking in is the grocery store. Everything about thins place is so detailed, it's amazing. Complete with tiny carts, different sections of the grocery store to shop, a weekly ad on the wall (that the kids can rewrite over and over), questions about what foods they are buying and cash registers to check out. At this point Jonah is still just racing his cart around, but it was neat to see the kids of different ages drawn to different parts of the experience.

 
Across from the market is an ambulance and the mock childrens hospital. The ambulance has a video screen that shows the kids where they are "driving" and is full of real EMT equipment.

 

 The hospital is broken into a nursery with babies (complete with clothes. blankets, tubs and a rocker) , an exam room, an x-ray room with realistic sounds and a large skeleton, and a dentists office. My favorite part of the dentists office was the big artsy dummy with huge teeth that the kids practice brushing with a huge tooth brush. Jonah tried to brush his teeth a few times before he began to brush the dolls.

 

There is a track room with tons of tracks to send golf balls and cars zooming around. In one area you can build your own little wooden boxcars and race them against other kids. Jonah is a bit to young for the building, but he was certainly drawn to the cars themselves!

The airplane room is a huge room with big model airplanes and full size old airplanes for the kids to play in. The room is all about flight and besides the planes there are lessons about air and wind in there too. Jonah took a ride in a mini plane and tested out the mini wind machines that juggled balls in the air. We had a minor meltdown in this room when a rocket balloon that was released came whistling and howling towards Jonah. It ran into him and sent him flailing and crying through the room (in the opposite direction of me I might add). You had to laugh out loud at his dramatic flight response, but after a few moments cuddling and consoling, he was out of my arms and back to himself...fearless as ever.