After watching three different star shows, our son was ready to move on to a different exhibit. Since we had gone to the science center several times without daddy (we took friends with us instead), our son had been talking about building rockets pretty regularly for the past several weeks. In the physics based exhibit, there were lots of hands on activities including building rockets and launching them in competition against another rocket builder or rather launcher… I mostly see parents and nannies building rockets while the kids launch them. To date, our son has yet to build his own rocket.
On our family outing, we entered the physics exhibit and we (mommy and daddy) were charged with building the rockets for our son to launch. While our daughter and son wandered around the space and interacting with other physical “stations” of the exhibit, mommy and daddy began their very own competition to see who could build the rocket that would fly the farthest. A long piece of paper wrapped and taped into a cylinder was fashioned first. Then a cone was attached to the top and three fins were secured to the bottom equal distance apart. Daddy beat mommy completing his rocket a good two minutes before I (mommy) finished mine. Our son shot daddy’s rocket off excitedly. As soon as my rocket was ready to soar, father and son went face to face to see whose rocket would fly further. Our son won using my rocket. To be fair, I have a lot more experience building rockets than my husband who has never gone with us to the science center before our family outing.
The rocketing launching got old after about ten minutes, so the boys (father and son) moved on to other things. First, the set up a spiral of dominos in such away that when the last domino fell it would ring a bell. Next they raced tennis balls while our baby girl scampered to retrieve them (although I think she was more interested in throwing them herself). Then they built an arch in the style of ancient Rome. Finally they experimented with air pressure on plastic toy balls!
Our much needed family outing came to a close after two hours of discovering and exploring. I do not know who had more fun my husband, my son, or my daughter!