Hands-On Fibonacci Sequence Explorations: Combining Logic, Math, and Art

I've realized that much of the hands-on math enrichment that I offer the kids is "number sense"--helping to develop their intrinsic understanding of numbers, their flexibility with them, their pattern recognition of number relationships. Whether it's fractions or geometry or exponents that we're studying, I always see space in their curriculum where free exploration can make kids wiser in what they're studying.

In algebra right now, the older kid is studying proportions and ratios, so what better time to spend some more time on the Golden Ratio?

I introduced the kids to the basic concept of the Fibonacci Sequence and how it's calculated, then asked them to use each number in the sequence as one side of a square. They were to draw those squares on 1cm graph paper, color them in, and cut them out. I told them that they should stop only when the next square would not fit onto a single piece of graph paper, although if we did this project again, I'd tape together larger sheets of graph paper ahead of time so that they could extend the sequence further.

Here's one of the sets that the kids came up with:

Apologies for the poor lighting in these photos, but school gets done on rainy days as well as sunny!

You can make lots of pretty patterns with just these squares. And yes, I DO think that Fibonacci Sequence stacking blocks would be AWESOME!

Next, I told the kids that these squares of the Fibonacci Sequence are also a puzzle, and I challenged them to use all of their squares to make a rectangle. They're familiar with this idea from the pentominoes that we've played with.

Here is the older kid's rectangle:

And here is the younger kid's!

The kids did not confer, so I think it's interesting that both built their rectangles the same way, and neither happened upon the "spiral." In fact, when I later rearranged the pieces to show the spiral, the younger kid still didn't really see it. This is where more and larger squares would have helped by extending the pattern.

I took away the larger squares, and had the kids solve the puzzle to make a rectangle with only the three smallest:

Then I added the next piece, and again asked them to solve the puzzle:

Do this again and again, and you see how the pattern can be formed:

Beautiful, isn't it?

In related news, we were at the US Space and Rocket Center last week for the older kid's Space Camp graduation (more on that another time!!!), and in their museum, look at the display that we found!

It was particularly terrific because it extended the pattern for us to see!

 I didn't look at any additional resources with the kids until after they'd worked the "puzzle," because I didn't want them to see a solution, but later in the day we watched these two YouTube videos from two of my favorite YouTube channels:

Here are some other great Fibonacci resources that we've been exploring:

• Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci
• Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature
• The Rabbit Problem

And here are some more ways to explore the Fibonacci Sequence in logic, math, and art:

• Fibonacci circle art. This project is to circles what my project is to squares. 
• Here's how to draw the spiral from the squares.
• Here's how to see the spiral in nature. We struggled with this for a while, and Syd is still somewhat of a nonbeliever. 

This project gave inspired me to come up with some more extension ideas just for me. I think it would be really cool to design a large-format squares of the Fibonacci Sequence, print it, and glue it to foam board the way that Matt and I did with the decanomial square. Imagine how many more interesting patterns you could come up with. I also deeply need to sew a Fibonacci sequence quilt.

As if I don't already have enough dream projects on my to-do list!

Crafty Book Review: Drawing Wild Animals, and 8 More Art Activities for Biology

I've mentioned off and on for years now how much the kids enjoy how-to-draw books. Every now and then I'll check out a pile of them from the library, and every now and then a publicist will send us a free one to play with.

Our most recent review copy is Drawing Wild Animals, which is coming in super useful for our Honors Biology study. The animals are categorized by class, with examples of mammals, amphibians, and reptiles represented. Some of the animals that the book shows you how to draw, such as the frog, toad, and salamander, are animals that the kids can practice from the book, then draw again as we do nature studies. We can do the same drawing practice, but then visit the zoo to study and draw animals like the tiger, giraffe, rhinoceros, zebra, elephant, lemur, and rattlesnake.

And, of course, some of the animals we can just draw for fun! Here are some sketches that Will made from the book the other day:

Will doesn't consider herself to be a competent artist, which means that she's often reluctant to do art. I'm always thrilled, then, when a resource is so deliciously tempting that even she will happily partake! And, of course, it helps when it's user-friendly enough that she's pleased with what she creates--that's positive reinforcement for practicing art!

Syd does consider herself to be an artist--and oh, she's a wonderful, gifted artist, indeed. Here's what she drew:

I think the detailing on the antlers, and the hair on the... hare... are new techniques that she picked up from the book. Super useful to be able to draw antlers and bunny fur!

Syd has sometimes been less engaged in our extensive biology studies this past year, so I'm contemplating deliberately incorporating more art into our biology. Syd always likes to do art! Here are some of the ideas that I've been researching:

1. I love these free, downloadable artist's study lessons. The first grade packet includes a close reading and extension activities for The Peaceable Kingdom; the second grade packet includes Tiger in a Tropical Storm; and fourth grade has an Audubon plate and The Horse Fair.
2. The Endangered Species Art Contest takes place every year!
3. There's also a National Fossil Day art contest!
4. A magazine collage would be fun for younger kids to create.
5. Look how beautiful these feather prints are!
6. You can make a life cycle story board for for every unique life cycle that you study.
7. This photo tutorial is for a papier mache dinosaur, but papier mache would work for any whole-body animal study, or even as a project on cells or organ systems.
8. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis has an entire curriculum about paleo art. It's young for my two, but easily adaptable.

I feel like I'm on the right track with this, but I don't think I've yet hit on anything that would be a meaningful contribution to our study and would fill Syd with excitement. Let me know if you've got other suggestions for me!

When Your Kids Outgrow Their Building Blocks, Turn Them Into Art!

My kiddos are BUSY this summer, which means I've had a little more time on my hands than usual.

And when I have time on my hands, my hands tend to get messy!

After I've written lesson plans and finished all my freelancing for the week, I've found myself, more often than not, watching Downton Abbey and messing around with my stack of super-old and completely value-less vintage comics. I have decoupaged comic books onto some crazy things in my time, but lately I've been confining myself to the harmless obsession of making decoupaged building blocks using my vintage comics and the blocks that the kids don't play with anymore.

Some I am making entirely for myself. I would NEVER sell my now most treasured Captain America block, for instance!

Comic book shops often sell their "worthless" comics for small change, and that's where I find comic books to craft with. I collect only comics featuring characters whom I really like, of course, but then the danger to that is that I often can't part with what I've made with them.

But part of the deal that I make with myself is that when I make something FOR myself, I try to make some similar things for my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop--gotta pay for those craft supplies somehow, don't you know! So even though I super love Thor, I've listed this block featuring his bromance with Iron Man in Pumpkin+Bear,sigh...

I'm keeping my GI Joe block, though, because Snake Eyes!

But, fine. I'm selling this Iron Man comic book block. I love Iron Man, but that Civil War movie still has me pissed off:

And here's Hulk!

Some of the comics that I'm crafting with are the really beat-up ones that I had as a kid. I LOVED this Tom and Jerry comic in which Jerry sneakily feeds Tom until he's too fat to chase him (which huh. I had a lot of food issues as a kid, and I STILL have them. This comic could not have helped with that...), but it's absolutely falling apart, so now it's a super cute decoupaged building block:

Nobody is tearing my brand-new Thor block out of my grasp, however!

But, yeah. You can have Archie:

But NOT Captain America!

Spider-man, though--I've got a couple of Spider-mans. You can buy him as a rectangular prism--

Or a delightful cube:

But you just can't have my Captain America!

Or my Thor:

Here are another couple of comics that I owned as a kid. I clearly didn't have enough comics, because I have this old Richie Rich one memorized, and also worn down to a nub except for what I salvaged to make this decoupaged block:

Here's my weirdest block, though. I don't know who on earth bought me an Adventures of Kool-Aid Man comic, but did you know that it was published by Marvel? Kool-Aid Man could be an Avenger!

For now, though, he's just a very, very, VERY weird comic book block:

This will likely be my last Pumpkin+Bear update for a bit. I want to try to sneak into my studio to make some comic book magnets using upcycled Scrabble Tiles as a base, but I'm also road tripping and camping with the kids, packing them for camp (and making 100,000 trips to the store for everything on the packing list that I don't own), sewing them some summer clothes, planning some fun unit studies for them, and helping Will finish up her Girl Scout Silver Award project. 

Of course, making Scrabble tile and comic book magnets while watching Downton Abbey would be a nice, relaxing break from my to-do list...

Here's Every National Park Junior Ranger Badge You Can Earn By Mail (Updated July 2023)

July 2023: I just updated my list of Junior Ranger badges kids can earn at home. I crossed out Junior Ranger badges that are no longer available to earn from home, but I added a few new ones, too!

February 2021: I just updated my map of Junior Ranger badges kids can earn at national park sites AND my list of Junior Ranger badges kids can earn from home. Earning Junior Ranger badges is still one of Will's favorite activities!

It's been four years since the kids first discovered the Junior Ranger program at Badlands National Park, and thus began their obsession. I'm never one to let an educational experience go, so since that first thrilling day, I have deliberately organized ALL of our US vacations to include as many Junior Ranger programs as possible, and I've included all of the Junior Ranger programs that it's possible to earn by mail into our homeschool plans.

"How did you figure out where all of the Junior Ranger programs are?" you ask.

Friends, I made a giant freaking map:



Yes, that is EVERY SINGLE NATIONAL PARK SITE WITH A JUNIOR RANGER PROGRAM. I put them all in by hand. I went to every single national park's website, searched for its Junior Ranger program, and if it had one I put it on my map.

When I plan road trips, I check my map for all the national park sites with Junior Ranger programs that we could detour to, and then we detour to them. During our upcoming road trip, for instance, we're visiting Saint Croix Island and Acadia National Park, primarily for their Junior Ranger programs.

But the kids' enthusiasm for earning Junior Ranger badges is unceasing, and yet we cannot spend our entire year traveling to various national parks. If only!

So I went back through every one of those websites, and I noted every park that permits children to earn their Junior Ranger badge by mail. Most of these parks provide the badge book as a downloadable pdf for kids to complete using internet or book research (often the park's own website, but we've also found useful park videos on YouTube). They mail their completed badge books to the park, and in return, the park rangers mail them back their badges and certificates.

It's always, eternally thrilling.

The kids have been doing this for years now, and still have tons of Junior Ranger badges left to earn by mail. They've learned geography, history, and several sciences in the process, experienced the breadth and depth of the national experience in ways they haven't had the opportunity to do in person, and have an intense appreciation for the variety of cultural, historical, and geographic artifacts and monuments that must be explored, preserved, and protected.

Not every national park, or even most national parks, allow their Junior Ranger badges to be earned by mail, mind you. You'll know if one does, because it will say so on its website or on the book, and it will have the book available as a downloadable pdf and include a mailing address for the completed book to be sent to. Many parks will state, kind of pissily in my opinion, that they do NOT allow badges to be earned by mail, and that's their right, but I think everyone loses when they do that--why stifle a kid's desire to learn? Why refuse an opportunity to grow someone's knowledge and love of your national park?

Before you get your kid all revved up on earning these badges by mail, you should know that since you've got to mail the completed badge books to each park, you'll be paying a few bucks for postage and manila envelopes each time. If you're conserving resources, check out the online badges that I've noted in my list--those let kids either do or submit their work online, so you don't have to pay for either supplies or postage.

Fortunately, MANY national parks are happy to have more kids interested in them and working to learn more about them! Here are all the national park Junior Ranger badges that you can earn by mail:

NOTE: I do NOT include Junior Ranger badges in which the badge book is offered as a pdf from the national park site, but kids cannot mail them in or submit them online to earn the badge without a visit to the site. Lots of national park sites offer their badge books as pdfs so that kids can get a head start on the book (which is a great idea!), and some sites even allow kids to mail in their badge books later if they didn't have time to complete them at the park, but this is is solely for badges that kids can earn entirely from home.

I'm also not including any of the newer "virtual Junior Ranger programs," which let kids complete some web activities and then print an image of the Junior Ranger badge. Those can be fun, but this list is solely for physical badges that kid can earn from home.

• Adams National Historical Park (Massachusetts)
• Aleutian World War II National Historical Area (Alaska)
• Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site (Pennsylvania)
• Andersonville National Historic Site (Georgia)
• Andrew Johnson National Historic Site (Tennessee)
• Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (Wisconsin)
• Appomattox Court House National Historical Park (Virginia). Kids can earn this one online! 
• Arches National Park (Utah)
• Arizona Junior Ranger Archaeology (Arizona): badge book here; mailing address here
• Arizona Trail Junior Explorer (Arizona)
• Assateague Island National Seashore (Maryland)
• Aztec Ruins National Monument (New Mexico). Kids can earn this one online!
• Badlands National Park (South Dakota)
• Bainbridge Island Junior Ranger (Washington)
• Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (Alaska)
• Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area (Wyoming)
• Boston African American National Historic Site (Massachusetts) 
• Boston National Historical Park (Massachusetts)
• Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah): Include a self-addressed, stamped bubble mailer to receive a wooden badge by mail.
• Buffalo National River (Arkansas)
• California National Historic Trail (California)
• Cane River Creole National Historical Park (Louisiana)
• Canyon de Chelly National Monument (Arizona)
• Canyonlands National Park (Utah)
• Cape Krusenstern National Monument (Alaska)
• Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail (Maryland)
• Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site (North Carolina)
• Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site (Washington, DC)
• Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (Florida)
• Catoctin Mountain National Park (Maryland)
• Cedar Breaks National Monument (Utah)
• Centennial Junior Ranger (national): badge book here; mailing address here
• Cesar E. Chavez National Monument (California)

• Channel Islands National Park (California)
• Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument (Ohio). This one can be earned online!

• Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (Maryland)
• Chesapeake Bay (Maryland)
• Civil War Defenses of Washington (Maryland)
• Clara Barton National Historic Site (Maryland)
• Congaree National Park (South Carolina)
• Crater Lake National Park (Oregon)
• Denali National Park and Preserve (Alaska). This was my younger kid's favorite Junior Ranger badge to earn by mail. She LOVED researching the sled dogs, and was thrilled when the ranger who mailed her badge to her wrote a letter to her that told her even more about them!

• Devils Postpile National Monument (California)
• Dinosaur National Monument (Colorado)
• Discovering the Underground Railroad (national): badge book here; mailing address here
• Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve (Washington)
• El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail (Texas)
• El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail (New Mexico)
• First Ladies National Historic Site (Ohio)
• First State National Historical Park (Delaware)
• Fort Donelson National Battlefield (Tennessee)
• Fort Hunt Park Junior Ranger Book (Washington, DC)
• Fort Scott National Historic Site (Kansas)
• Fort Stanwix National Monument (New York)
• Frederick Douglass National Historic Site (Washington, DC)
• Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (Alaska)
• Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (Alaska)
• Glacier National Park (Montana)
• Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Utah)

• Governors Island National Monument (New York)
• Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (Arizona)
• Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)
• Great Falls Park (Virginia)
• Great Lakes Junior Ranger (Ohio)
• Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (Colorado)
• Gulf Islands National Seashore (Mississippi)
• Hagerman Fossil Beds (Ohio)
• Haleakala National Park (Hawaii)
• Hampton National Historic Site (Maryland)
• Harry S. Truman National Historic Site (Missouri)

• Herbert Hoover National Historic Site (Iowa)
• Historic Preservation Junior Ranger (national): badge book here; mailing address here
• Hopewell Furnace National Historic Park (Pennsylvania)

• Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail (Washington)
• James A. Garfield National Historic Site (Ohio)
• Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (Louisiana)
• Jimmy Carter National Historic Site (Georgia). This is another badge that had a profound effect on my older kid. She was unexpectedly moved by the story of Jimmy Carter, and he's now one of her heroes.

• John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (Oregon)
• John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site (Massachusetts) 
• Johnstown Flood National Memorial (Pennsylvania). Both kids loved earning this one, and it led us to explore more about our own local dam.
• Juan Bautista De Anza Historic Trail (California). This one can be earned online.
• Junior Archaeologist (national)
• Junior Cave Scientist (national)

• Junior Civil War Historian (national)
• Junior Explorers (Arizona)
• Junior Forest Ranger (national)
• Junior Green Ranger (national)
• Junior Ranger All About Bats (national): badge book here; mailing address here
• Junior Ranger Eclipse Explorer (national): badge book here; mailing address here
• Junior Ranger Junior Paleontologist (national)
• Junior Ranger Let's Go Fishing (national): badge book here; mailing address here
• Junior Ranger Night Explorer (national): badge book here; mailing address here
• Junior Ranger Railroad Explorer (national)
• Junior Ranger River Safety (New York)
• Junior Ranger Underwater Explorer (national)

• Junior Ranger Wilderness Explorer (national): badge book here; mailing address here
• Junior Snow Ranger (national)
• Katmai National Park and Preserve (Alaska)
• Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens (District of Columbia)
• Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield (Georgia)
• Keweenaw National Historical Park (Michigan)
• Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (Alaska)
• Kobuk Valley National Park (Alaska)
• Lake Mead National Recreation Area (Nevada). This is another one you can request by email, but I don't know if you can actually complete it without a visit.
• Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (Nebraska)
• Lincoln Home National Historic Site (Illinois)
• Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (Montana)
• Little River Canyon National Preserve (Alabama)
• Little Rock Central High School (Arkansas). This one got earned in real-life, too.
• Longfellow House Washington Headquarters National Historic Site (Massachusetts)
• Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park (Texas)
• Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site (Virginia)
• Manassas National Battlefield Park (Virginia)
• Manhattan Project National Historical Park (Tennessee)
• Manzanar National Historic Site (California)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park (Georgia)
• Martin Van Buren National Historic Site (New York)
• Mary McLeod Bethune National Historic Site (Washington, DC)
• Midwest Archaeological Center Junior Ranger (Nebraska)
• Minidoka National Historic Site (Idaho)
• Minuteman Missile Silo National Historic Park (South Dakota)
• Missouri National Recreational River (South Dakota)
• Monocacy National Battlefield (Maryland)
• Montezuma Castle National Monument (Arizona)
• Moores Creek National Battlefield (North Carolina)
• Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail (Utah)
• National Mall (District of Columbia)
• National Park of American Samoa Junior Ranger (American Samoa)
• Navajo National Monument (Arizona)
• New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park (Massachusetts)
• New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park (Louisiana)
• Ninety Six National Historic Site (South Carolina)
• Niobrara National Scenic River (Nebraska)
• Noatak National Preserve (Alaska)
• Ocmulgee National Monument (Georgia). We went there last year!

• Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum (Oklahoma)
• Oklahoma City National Memorial 25th Anniversary (Oklahoma)
• Old Spanish National Historic Trail (New Mexico)
• Oregon National Historic Trail (Oregon)
• Padre Island National Seashore (Texas)
• Pea Ridge National Military Park (Arkansas)
• Petersburg National Battlefield (Virginia)
• Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona). The kids earned this one by mail, because we didn't know about the Junior Ranger program when we visited there.

• Pinnacles National Park (California)
• Pipestone National Monument (Minnesota) 
• Point Reyes National Seashore (California). I didn't know about Junior Rangers when we visited here, either--thank goodness for badges earned by mail!
• Pony Express National Historic Trail (Wyoming)
• Portland General Electric (Oregon)
• President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home (Arkansas)
• Prince William Forest Park (Virginia)
• Railroad Explorer Junior Ranger (national)
• Richmond National Battlefield Park (Virginia)
• Roger Williams National Memorial (Rhode Island)
• Russell Cave National Monument (Alabama)
• Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway (Wisconsin)
• Saint Paul's Church National Historic Site (New York)
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (Texas)
• Salem Maritime National Historic Site (Massachusetts) 
• San Juan Island National Historical Park (Washington)
• Santa Fe National Historic Trail (New Mexico)
• Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (California)
• Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (California)
• Shiloh National Military Park (Tennessee)
• Sitka National Historical Park (Alaska). Matt and I have been to Sitka, but we weren't thinking about Junior Rangers while we were there!
• Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (Michigan)
• Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail (Maryland)
• Stones River National Battlefield (Tennessee)
• Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (Kansas)
• Thomas Stone National Historic Site (Maryland)
• Timpanogos Cave National Monument (Utah)
• Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (New Mexico)
• Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River (New York)
• Virtual Junior Ranger Red Rock Canyon (Nevada)
• War in the Pacific National Historical Park (Guam)
• Western Arctic National Parklands (Alaska)

• White Sands National Park (New Mexico)
• Wind Cave National Park (South Dakota)
• W. Kerr Scott Dam and Reservoir (North Carolina)
• Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts (Virginia)
• World Heritage Junior Ranger (national)
• Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (Alaska). Matt and I have been to Wrangell without the kids, too!
• Zion National Park (Utah)

This is one of my absolute favorite activities that we do in our homeschool, but it's partly so wonderful because it's so adaptable. Sure, it can be your entire geography curriculum, or just an enrichment to another spine. You can include it in your history studies, or in the natural or earth sciences. Even if you don't homeschool, these Junior Ranger books are so fun that kids can simply DO them for fun. My kids do, and they think it's a nifty trick that I also let them count them for school!

If your kids love earning Junior Ranger badges, then they'd likely be interested in learning about the national park system as a whole--there's so much to explore there, from history and culture to geology and the sciences. Here are some of our favorite resources for learning about and exploring the national park system:

P.S. Want more obsessively-compiled lists of resources and activities for kiddos and the people who want to keep them happy and engaged? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Sports Legends and Space at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis

We've had a busy summer so far at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis!

The biggest news for US is that after spending a morning engaging children in space-themed activities (Will and another volunteer on another floor helped kids experience how difficult it is to perform fine-motor activities while wearing spacesuit gloves, and Syd and I got to man this super awesome gravitational orbits table and help kids explore gravity and movement)--

--we got to sit in on a lecture by former astronaut Mark Polansky!

He was so great. He walked us through a typical space mission, from launch to touchdown, using video taken from his own trips, and then he had a Q&A.

A Q&A for an auditorium full of children.

Yes, Reader, I DO now know what happens when you fart inside a spacesuit.

And there were two entire questions about going to the bathroom in space, not counting the fart question.

I want to tell you more about this gravitational orbit model, though, because it was so cool. It's a large PVC frame with a spandex-type fabric stretched over it. Syd and I were given several balls of various sizes and weights to use with it. You get all different kinds of kids at a museum, from toddlers to teens, of different abilities and interests, but on this morning it was mostly school groups, so we'd invite them to sit with us around the frame, and then I'd roll a ball to the kid across from me and ask all of the kids to describe its movement.

"It just goes straight across," they'd say.

Or, "It just rolls." Nothing special, obviously.

But then I'd put the heavy metal ball in the smack middle of the frame and invite the kid to roll the ball back to me. The kid would do it, and the ball's path would curve, usually spiraling towards the center of the frame, where it would rest against the metal ball.

The kids had a much more lively time describing THAT ball's path!

So I'd tell the kids that this was an excellent model for how planets orbit a star. The greater an object's mass, the greater its gravitational pull. Syd and I would hand out the various balls and invite the kids to explore, and I'd remind them a couple of times that it's more fun to take turns, so that everyone could see how their own ball acts. As they played, I'd verbalize observations, like, "See how your balls crashed into each other like two planets on an intersecting orbit?" I ready-referenced some questions, like how much mass various planetary bodies have--thank you, Google! If kids didn't get the idea on their own eventually to replace the heavy metal ball in the middle with a lighter one, I'd show them what happens when you do that--it's super cool, because if you try to orbit the heavy metal ball around the ping pong ball, what will happen is that after a lovely dance, the ping pong ball always ends up in orbit around the heavy metal ball. If kids were very engaged, I'd show them how to make a binary star system, or how to send a comet through, etc.

It was just where I liked to be, doing weird, open-ended science with a bunch of random kids.

So that was our big news and our good deed of the day. The Children's Museum's big news is that they've got a brand-new permanent exhibit, and it is the coolest thing that I have ever seen at a children's museum.

It's a kid-friendly, kid-sized, really-real-and-can-be-played-with, replica of several sports. Most areas are multi-sized, including real, though miniature, tennis courts and real, though toddler-sized basketball hoops. My kids are not the sportiest of kids, but nevertheless, every time we've gone they have freaked out with happiness at how fun this place is. Heck, I freak out with happiness, too!

 We're all dressed up because we just came from volunteering. That's the one downside of volunteering--we're never dressed in our play clothes here!

Here's Syd kicking a field goal in the football area. I love how this random employee is cheering her on:

Here's baseball on a different day. We'd come to the museum for the volunteer recognition dinner, and we got to play after-hours in Sports Legends first:

See how the baseball field is miniature? It destroys me with its cuteness!

I don't have many photos of the tennis courts, some of which are miniature, as well, because Syd absolutely fell in love with playing tennis on this half-size court and so that's what we did, forever and ever and ever!

Yes,  here we are on an even entirely different day, when the museum held a family party for all of its volunteers and staff. You get a lot of parties at the Children's Museum!

My personal favorite is the hockey rink:

I don't have any photos of us playing hockey at the family party, because we played two-on-two and it was highly competitive (I've told you that we're really competitive, right? We're really competitive), and then for some reason the actual Boomer the Panther, the actual mascot of the Indiana Pacers, randomly decided to join our game, I convinced him that he was on my team, and we kicked some serious butt. Obviously, I was not going to stop playing hockey just to take a photograph of myself playing hockey with Boomer the Panther. I might have missed a pass!

When you begin to fade in the heat, there are indoor parts of the exhibit, as well. This one is really interesting--this is inside the National Art Museum of Sport, and Syd is using colored chalk on blue paper to mimic the style of one particular sports artist:

And here she is rowing with a crew!

This shooting hoops game is my favorite thing on the planet:

Their climbable tree house reminds me a lot of the tree in Disney's Animal Kingdom:

Can you see tiny kids of mine in every photo?

The miniature golf exhibit, though, might be the most unique:

It's miniature golf, yes, but the holes are based on ones from REAL golf courses!

How cool is that?!?

Fun even for adults:

Because Indy is all about racing, there are pedal-operated race cars that you can race around a track or drag race with:

Here's Syd watching that previous video to try to see who won:

Don't tell her, but I think it was Will...

And then, I don't know, here are some random pics of us at the family party eating stuff and being weird:

I call our volunteer time here service learning, but all it really is is play.