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If you're not sure what institution to visit, look at Family
Time or other publications or check the Internet for ideas. Talk
to other parents or staff at your school or center to find out if
they have recommendations. |
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Talk to your children's teachers about what topics your children
are learning about in school. Use this information to choose which
museum to visit or what to focus on in a particular museum. |
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Find books on topics related to what you will be seeing at the
museum and read them to your children. You can bring the book with
you on your visit and help your children make connections between
what you have read and what you are seeing. |
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Talk with children about how museums are collections of different
kinds of objects. Children are natural collectors. Ask your children
if they collect anything. What do they collect and why? |
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Let your children do some of the guiding during the visit. When
you enter a room, ask them what they would like to look at first. |
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Ask your children open-ended questions that encourage them to
express themselves, such as:
 What's
going on in this picture (or exhibit)? What do you see that makes
you say that?
How
is this object like (or not like) that one? What is the same or
different?
What
are words you would use to describe this object? What does it remind
you of?
Which
(picture, sculpture, animal) is your favorite? Why?
How
does this exhibit, painting, etc., make you feel?
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Ask your children to tell a story about an object that interests
them. Ask them to think of their own name for a painting or sculpture.
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Play games, such as "I spy" by describing an object and having
your children find it (Can you find the cat in this room?). Or ask
them to find something in the exhibit that is a particular color
or texture or pattern (e.g., blue, red, rough, smooth, striped).
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If your children can read, have them read some of the text or
captions to you. |
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Encourage them to ask questions. Don't worry if you don't know
the answer. You can bring a notebook to write down questions they
have so you can try to find out either at home or at school. |
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Ask your children to talk more about what they have seen. What
did they like best? What didn't they like? Why? |
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Encourage them to talk with family, friends and teachers about
what they saw. |
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Have your children tell you some of the new words they learned
on the visit, and write down the words for them. Ask them to tell
you one thing that they learned during the visit, and write down
that too. |
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Have your children draw pictures from the trip and write down
a story they create about the trip. |
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Have children make artwork of objects they saw during the visit.
You can use the brochures given out at some museums to make collages. |
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Some museums have family guides that you can take with you for
additional activities to do at home. |
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Go to the library to find books about topics that interested
your children at the museum. When reading the book, relate it to
things you saw on your trip. |
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Get your children involved in planning the next trip to a museum.
Were there things that they would like to learn more about? Were
there exhibits they want to go back to see again?
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See our Trip Tips
for Visiting. |
