Free Fun Friday 2015

The Children’s Museum in Easton is pleased share our success from participating in the Highland Street Foundation’s Free Fun Friday for the fifth consecutive summer. As you may know, Free Fun Friday is a wonderful program that offers visitors a no cost admission to many of the most treasured cultural institutions in Massachusetts.Since 2009, “Free Fun Friday” has drawn more than half a million visitors to venues throughout the Commonwealth. In 2014 alone, the program reached 150,000 people. This year, we are proud to be among the 70 participating institutions. The Museum hosted about 1,600 people for a day filled with arts and crafts, along with fun outdoor activities. For a complete schedule of Free Fun Friday click here.

Kids show off Free Fun Friday
sunglasses outside in the Wild Place

Inside the MakerSpace

Guests were able to explore our three floors of interactive and educational activities. Our new MakerSpace was a huge hit! Every room of our Old Fire Station was filled with children playing and learning. In addition to exploring indoor exhibits, visitors were also excited to discover our outdoor Wild Place on the beautiful sunny Friday afternoon. Along with arts and crafts and other fun outdoor activities, we had a raffle set up for kids to win a stuffed-Dalmatian.

Be sure to click here to check out what else the Children's Museum in Easton has to offer! 

We were pleased to have the U.Fund Dreams Tour join us again this year on our Free Fun Friday day at the Children’s Museum in Easton. The goal of the U.Fund Dreams Tour is for parents to invest in a secure savings account for their child’s future. U.Fund explains all of the components of the savings plans through the interactive “activity pavilion.” To learn more about the specifics of the U.Fund savings plans click here.

U.Fund Activity Pavillion

The “activity pavilion” on the U.Fund Dreams Tour was a key attraction on the Museum’s Free Fun Friday day. The pavilion engages both kids and parents, encouraging adults to plan for the child’s future education. The children are able to choose a profession they want to be when they grow up, and then pose for animated photos. While kids are playing games that teach them to “aim for the moon” and posing for pictures, parents are able to gauge where they are financially with regards to saving for their child’s future. The U.Fund Dreams Tour introduces families to savings programs and plans in a fun interactive environment. Overall, Free Fun Friday at the Children’s Museum in Easton was a huge success. 

STEM

When you hear the word “stem” you usually think of various types of plants. However, when we think of STEM we are really focusing on something different. We at the Children’s Museum in Easton spoke with our outreach educators Krissy Cannizzo and Michelle VanVoorhis about what STEM really means and how we’re using it to enhance your child’s education!

The acronym STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

“The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Coalition works to support STEM programs for teachers and students at the U. S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies that offer STEM related programs,” explains Michelle, “Members of the STEM Coalition believe that our nation must improve the way our students learn science, mathematics, technology and engineering and that the business, education, and STEM communities must work together to achieve this goal.”

Many children grow up learning to be fearful of these fields. They think they are boring or too hard or simply follow in their parents’ footsteps. If you despise these subjects, there is a good chance your children will learn that from you. However, through implementing STEM ideologies the coalition aims to garner more interest in these subjects for the bettering of your children’s education, and ultimately, our society.

As Michelle expands on this idea she says, “My aim is for children to feel that science, technology, engineering, and math are activities they can enjoy doing.  Through these fun activities, children can develop basic understandings and be inspired to continue to pursue interests in these areas.  Parents can also come to the understanding that STEM is not ‘just for boys’ or ‘just for smart people’. “

You may be asking, “how can math, science, and technology be easy?” Well, there are actually many simple activities you can do that use these principles if only you look at them in different ways.

Krissy provides us some examples: “Yesterday I was at a YMCA in West Roxbury where the children built (engineered) boats then tested the strength and durability of their designs using weighted mainipulatives.  I then incorporate mathematics in the experiment by challenging them to add and subtract weight.  

Our second project involved testing and mixing amounts of food coloring to water (mathematics) to make the primary colors and then giving them the opportunity to explore and mix colors on wax paper ( science/chromatology).  After using paper towels to blot up the mixed colors, the children could let the paper towels dry and construct (engineer) butterflies.  

The last project provided the children to briefly learn about the history of dinosaurs and their extinction through the ice ages.  I gave each child a cup of ice with a dinosaur frozen inside which they can explore ways to excavate using salt, warm water vs. cold water, etc.”

There are a lot of different activities parents and families can do with their children that promote this type of developmental learning. Your children will be learning while having fun!

Krissy says, “Visit the http://www.connectsemass.org/stem/ website along with the PBS Zoom and Fetch sites that can recommend activities, games and books, visit their local libraries especially this summer.  The local libraries in the SAIL Network are offering free workshops related to STEM, and of course visit the Children’s Museum in Easton where STEM can be found in all the exhibits.”

The Children’s Museum in Easton works hard to incorporate STEM in both the museum and its programs. Michelle shows us that STEM is incorporated in “The Fetch lab, many of the drop in classes, the Raceways, Wild Place…and parents can incorporate STEM questions almost anywhere, such as counting, estimating, predicting, building, designing, comparing, etc.” The Museum even offers Education Outreach programs that come to you! Check them out here: http://www.childrensmuseumineaston.org/educationoutreach0.aspx

No matter who you are, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are all important in the world we live in. The STEM program is great for getting your child off to the right start! Whether you begin trying some activities at home or you bring your children to our museum, keep these ideologies in mind and your children will be on a great track.

Benefits of Pets for Kids

Are you debating whether or not you should get that new puppy? Or that kitten? Or any pet for that matter? Obviously this decision is difficult and based on many factors, and pets aren’t for every family. One of the main questions on every parent’s mind is, “will getting a pet be good for my kids or will it be a detriment to our family dynamics?” Well we’ve put together a list to help you answer this question. Though as we said before, pets are not for every family or child, in the right atmosphere they can be beneficial for children!

1. Responsibility: Perhaps the best thing a pet can teach your child is responsibility. Pets are dependent on their owners for survival. Having your children help take on the responsibility to feed, water, and exercise their pets teaches self discipline and develops children’s sense of nurturing. Furthermore, it teaches your children about commitment and consequences. Commitment comes with ownership. If you want a pet, you must take care of it. You are responsible for them for their entire life. If you can’t handle the commitment, you will lose your pet (either you’ll have to sell it or it will die).  Lastly, all actions have consequences. If you don’t feed your fish, it will die. If you leave the gate open, the dog can run away. Children will begin to learn to think before they do. All of these are great skills to have for life.

2. Learning: Pets actually help kids learn! Aside from learning responsibility and how to take care of something, kids can learn a bunch from their pets! With pets, your children will learn both verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Through commands they learn how to be assertive with their voice. Through interacting with their animals, they will learn how to read cues because clearly animals can’t talk. Furthermore, being with animals can help ease stress and help sustain focus, this can help when doing homework and in learning other things! Finally, pets can teach your child about bigger life ideas such as unconditional love and the circle of life (humans almost always outlive their pets).

 3. Fun, Entertainment & Physical Activity:  Having a playful pet around can entertain your children for hours. Not only does this give you a break, but it is a much better alternative than them watching television! Additionally, for pets that need exercise, caring for pets is a great way to keep your  children active.

4. Allergens! This item on the list was new to me. When doing research for this post we stumbled upon this website: http://voices.yahoo.com/10-reasons-kids-pet-8288127.html?cat=25. They explained that, “Doctors used to think that exposure to pets caused allergies. New studies have now shown that the opposite is actually true. Web MD reports that children who live with dogs and cats in the house during their first year actually have a reduced risk of developing allergies. Not only are they less likely to react to pet dander, but the protection also seems to extend to outdoor allergens as well. The theory behind this protection is that the high exposure to pet dander allows the immune system to de-sensitize to harmless antigens, leaving it less likely to react inappropriately.”

5. Built-in-friend: This last benefit is dedicated to all the pets who stuck by their humans through thick and thin. Not only is this just for your kids but for you as well. When your kids or yourself feel lonely, stressed, anxious or anything else, a pet is always there to comfort you and give you love and support. They don’t say much, but just a nuzzle, hug, or pat can do wonders for your mood

     To go along with our “pets are good for you” theme, we spoke to Dawn Cordeiro of Farm Visits. Her business brings baby farm animals to you for any occasion and provides a hands on experience with them. 

Dawn supports us and says that interactions with animals “teach kindness and compassion.” “I think overall it teaches them responsibility, you know? To care for another living being.” She expands to talking about farm animals and says that they teach children about “where their food comes from. Children [and people in general] are very distanced from their food origin. It really comes from a farm, not Stop & Shop.”

We next asked Dawn her expert opinion on what makes a good pet and she listed three right off the bat: “Dog, kitty, bunny.” Those aren’t a surprise to hear, but the next thing she says may be! Dawn says that as far as outdoor pets go, goats are the way to go! She explains, “They’re friendly, easy to care for and feed, and they mow your lawn!”

To learn more about Dawn and Farm Visits,

 visit www.farm-visits.com !

Ollie and Bianca!

Ollie Luey and Bianca Mase aren’t your typical 17 year olds. After being friends forever, these two decided to take their talents to the streets! For the past four years, Ollie & Bianca have been performing street shows and touring on their talents. We had the pleasure to host one of their shows on July 25!

Though these two are young, they’ve been practicing their talents for years. Ollie has been playing the accordion for 8 years! She is already an award winning accordionist who made her video debut at age seven with The Dresden Dolls. Bianca has been playing the ukulele and juggling for 4 and 5 years respectively and already teaches circus arts. Once Bianca began playing the ukulele, the pair got together and started working.

At an Ollie and Bianca show a lot goes on: music, dress up, and other clowning around activities. Ollie and Bianca say to expect, “entertainment and having a good time!” The two always play music, and make balloon animals for kids; sometimes they even face paint! Children can even interact with the music by playing some percussion instruments.

Aside from dressing up in their Ollie and Bianca clown costumes, the girls’ favorite parts of performing are the interactions with the kids. “[We love seeing them] enjoy the music, and smile for the balloons.” 

Though they love performing for children (they do kids birthday parties, festivals, and local circus events), Ollie and Bianca have performed for all sorts of different audiences. They’ve performed in Cambridge and Boston as street performers and even had a show about them on Cambridge Cable Access television! In Cambridge, the duo has performed at Octoberfest, the River Festival, The Brattle Theater, and Lydell’s Bakery Summer Movie Nights. They have also been the invited buskers at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

Drawing inspiration from Amanda Palmer, the two always hope “to improve ourselves and be different!”

And they really are different! Ollie and Bianca offer a refreshing twist on clown and circus performances. Be on the look out for Ollie and Bianca in and around Boston and check them out on Facebook by searching Ollie & Bianca!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ollie-Bianca/178255888888619?fref=ts