Being on maternity leave means it’s easier to do some things with Ace, like visit the Michigan Science Center in the middle of the week. We took our trip last week and he absolutely loved it.
I was worried that it might be a little too advanced for him to enjoy since he’s only two, but I was happily surprised to find there was plenty to keep his attention.
We started in Kid’s Town, the area specifically meant for his age group. There he played in the ball pit, and with the play kitchen and miniature cars and tracks. There was a school group in that area at the same time and it started to get a little crowded after a while, so we moved on to the larger exhibits.
At one point, a couple of the scientists put on a demo using liquid nitrogen. Again, I thought it would be too advanced for Ace, but again, he proved me wrong. I should know by now to give this kid way more credit. He sat attentively and occasionally asked me questions, but he was totally into it. He was especially impressed by the cloud, the rocket blast-off, the balloon and the teapot experiments and still asks me about them even though it’s been over a week!
By the time the demo was over, it was getting close to closing time. All of the school groups had gone, and we pretty much had the run of the place for the last 45 minutes of our visit. He played with some gear toys in the Spark!Lab , and explored the roadway, bridge and construction vehicles in the Engineering exhibit.
We saw so much, but there was still so much to see, so we’ll definitely be back to explore some more. It’s safe to say I’ll be adding the Michigan Science Center to our regular rotation.