new visit to an old fave
The Discovery Museum in Acton opened in 1982, when I was five. I don't know when I went for the first time, but I definitely have early memories of that Lego area in the museum's original building. So do the boys: we made lots more memories there together over the years. Not so much lately, though, so I was excited to hear (halfway through the month) that, for the museum's 40th anniversary, admission in October is discounted to the 1982 rate of $2.50 a head. I guess we can swing that! So yesterday we made the trip (and combined it with a stop at the feed store, just like we did back in 2014).
primed for discovery
Of course, the museum property is changed entirely from what we were used to back when the kids were little, to say nothing of what it was in 1982. The original building closed a couple years ago, and while the new one is pretty awesome, it doesn't capture the DIY 1970s (1982 was totally the 70s) amazement of the original. And since then the property has added a big new parking lot with enough solar panels to power the entire operation—super cool!—which required taking down most of the trees that used to make up the Fairyland woods area. The boys felt the sting of the changes even more strongly when they got spoken to for not wearing shoes in the outdoor play area and for being too far away from a parent (I suppose it is mainly a museum for little ones).
Still! Most of the time was fantastic. Despite being big enough to survive without supervision, the boys were entranced by all the exhibits. They loved that they remembered so much about them from a couple years ago, and also they were able to appreciate it all at a little more sophisticated level. We enjoyed playing with prisms, magnets, sand tables, and musical instruments, and we all had to admit that the water room and air tubes in the new museum are easily better than the original. And of course all three boys made pictures on the pendulum table. If we could still get in for a dollar with the SNAP card we'd definitely be going a couple times a year, and if you have younger kids it might even be worth the price of 2022 admission when it comes back next month. It's a great place!