I may still have just one more "Too Many Things" post to tackle later today. But I may save it instead. So stay tuned and keep coming back! Until then, let's proceed with regular posting business....
During our last vacation, Hubby, Sweetie and I went to The Children's Museum of Portsmouth. This vacation, we went to The Children's Metamorphosis (The Met) in Londonderry, NH.
Hubby says he preferred the Portsmouth Museum, while I really thought The Met was much better.
Hubby liked the first museum because he felt it offered a ton of different activities and perhaps focused a bit more on cultural differences.
But there were many reasons I liked The Met better. For one thing, it was all on one floor, making it easier for me to get around (Sweetie spent much of her time at the other museum finding and climbing the 3 floors worth of staircases, as if this was a museum sanctioned activity all its own).
The activities themselves at The Met were easily accessible to everyone. If I had to, I could have chased after her on some of the climbling structures or crawled after her into a "cave" (as opposed to Hubby having to keep up with Sweetie in the other museum's 3 story submarine structure, which we couldn't pull her away from).
I also liked the diversity of the activities at The Met. Every activity was educational in nature and offered opportunities to learn about new things (rock climbing), potentially scary things (the dentist or emergency room) and even common, everyday things (the grocery store and music, for example).
But what I found most interesting, and pretty progressive, at The Met was the fact that the Emergency Room section featured shelves full of different kinds of leg braces for the kids to look at and try on. Wow! I had never seen such a thing before. How great!
One Daddy was helping his little girl try on a brace when I first discovered this room. I was so excited to see this that I said, Wow! Braces! That's just like mine, see? and I lifted my capris to show off my own. (Looking back, this may have been a bit too "friendly" of me to butt in and share a part of myself. But, it's pretty rare, I'd think, that a little one learning about something new at a museum display would actually get to meet a real person using the device in question. I was just trying to add to her learning experience, that's all.)
I quickly rallied Sweetie to come look at what I found. Braces, just like Mommy's! Cool! Did she care, though? No, not really. Not at that point, anyway. A bit later in our visit she investigated this room more closely and decided to try on a brace. But she didn't even let me finish fastening it on her, claiming it to be too yucky. (the braces were all in pretty sad repair - kind of dirty and very worn out looking. So I really don't blame her at all). Oh well. at least she saw them.
All in all, I'm sure she didn't care much about the braces display because, to her, braces are normal. She sees mine everyday. They weren't scary or weird or unusual - as they may appear to most other children. They just were.
Thanks to The Children's Metamorphosis, perhaps now many more children will also start to believe that braces just "are". They help people out, just like crutches or wheelchairs. And they're nothing to be scared about at all.
Way to go, Met! Keep up the progressive, good work!
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