Jeff and I were good, ambitious parents this weekend and took Ethan to DC and Baltimore to visit museums. Usually we are a little slack on the extracurricular activity front. We always have a pre-trip debate about whether the hassle factor will be worth the enriching/enjoyment aspect of said planned activity.
I think part of our hesitation is my own personal reaction to being dragged on multitudes of "enriching" trips as a child, like to see the "World's Biggest Ball of Twine" in Arkansas (I am not kidding - Scott, do you remember that?). I distinctly remember being an (obnoxious) teenager and pouting my way through the entire state of Colorado while my parents navigated the minivan and pointed out sights like elk amongst the Rockies. And, there was what I fondly refer to as the "East Coast Delusions of Grandeur Tour" when my dad dragged me to Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth and the ilk while I was a junior in high school (resulting in not one teensy point higher in either my SATS or GPA, but substantially more pouting).
Point is - we choose our enrichment carefully. We ended up at the Air & Space Museum (DC) and then the B&O Railway Museum (Baltimore). Given that Ethan feels the way about planes and trains that I felt about ponies at his age - it was a good choice. When we arrived at Air & Space, he was looking in awe at all the planes suspended from the ceiling and said breathlessly, "This is FAN-TAAAS-TIC....."
The train museum was smaller in scale, but still impressed him because he got to CLIMB ON the trains (major mommy bonus points for anything he can climb on that does not result in me yelling "Get OFF of that! Get down NOW!" Yes, I am THAT mom). They had a huge holiday display of model trains -- the target audience was 4-yr old boys and/or 75-year old men, who seemed equally transfixed by the mini-trains. We culminated the trip by a trip to gift shop - more to placate me than Ethan - and Ethan picked out another train. He really needed another, because he only has 400 at home. He slept with his little engine on his pillow and then packed it up in his little backpack to take to school this morning. Awww.
I think part of our hesitation is my own personal reaction to being dragged on multitudes of "enriching" trips as a child, like to see the "World's Biggest Ball of Twine" in Arkansas (I am not kidding - Scott, do you remember that?). I distinctly remember being an (obnoxious) teenager and pouting my way through the entire state of Colorado while my parents navigated the minivan and pointed out sights like elk amongst the Rockies. And, there was what I fondly refer to as the "East Coast Delusions of Grandeur Tour" when my dad dragged me to Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth and the ilk while I was a junior in high school (resulting in not one teensy point higher in either my SATS or GPA, but substantially more pouting).
Point is - we choose our enrichment carefully. We ended up at the Air & Space Museum (DC) and then the B&O Railway Museum (Baltimore). Given that Ethan feels the way about planes and trains that I felt about ponies at his age - it was a good choice. When we arrived at Air & Space, he was looking in awe at all the planes suspended from the ceiling and said breathlessly, "This is FAN-TAAAS-TIC....."
The train museum was smaller in scale, but still impressed him because he got to CLIMB ON the trains (major mommy bonus points for anything he can climb on that does not result in me yelling "Get OFF of that! Get down NOW!" Yes, I am THAT mom). They had a huge holiday display of model trains -- the target audience was 4-yr old boys and/or 75-year old men, who seemed equally transfixed by the mini-trains. We culminated the trip by a trip to gift shop - more to placate me than Ethan - and Ethan picked out another train. He really needed another, because he only has 400 at home. He slept with his little engine on his pillow and then packed it up in his little backpack to take to school this morning. Awww.
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