Another great resource for moms, nannies or people who take care of children and don't want them to be in front of a TV all day are FREE museum days. In Los Angeles all of the major museums offer free days throughout the month which is super helpful in keeping your month interesting and fun. I discovered this in my unemployment days and I added these FREE days to a running Mommy List I have started and distribute to those mommy friends in need. In this month alone I have visited 3 museums: Kidspace, the Gene Autry Museum and the Craft and Folk Museum.
We've been to Kidspace a million times. It is one of th best Kid's museums in Los Angeles. It is very hands on and educational. Their free day is the first Tuesday of the month from 4-8pm. Generally free days are super busy so we went early and despite our earliness there was still a line to get inside (see below)! This month we spent our free time in the big creek they have. It was a very hot day so the cool water of the creek felt great. Miss P spent two hours in that creek. I literally had to pull her out because she was freezing!
The Gene Autry Museum is not as exciting (imo) as Kid Space but they still have some activities that are kid friendly and I like to revisit museums because they tend to change things. Case-in-point the kid's kitchen. I went specifically for that but when we got there we were told that exhibit was closed. Bummer. So we wandered around and found that they had a kid's participation area. The museum workers were hosting a limbo contest so Miss P jumped in line and did her first limbo. When we were done limbo-ing we were put in prison, rode on Gene's horse, put in a John Wayne movie and we even panned for gold which was the new thing for us this time. Miss P got to take home 5 bits go gold!!!
The last museum I went to was more of an adult museum and I didn't take Miss P. Instead I went with my mentor who is really good at inspiring me and true to form this place despite my hesitation inspired me. We met at the Craft Folk Museum and toured a shoe exhibit. I didn't think it would be any fun and the exhibit was small but perhaps the best part about the exhibit was talking to the shoemaker himself. He had set up shop in the museum's lobby, in the front window which allowed for passerbys to peer into his workspace and hopefully encourage them to come inside and check his shoes out. We talked to him for quite a long time. He was an eccentric man and it was cool to see what his thoughts were as he was making a few pair of shoes that were our favorites. For instance, one pair of his shoes reminded me of Hawaii and I told him that but he said what inspired him was an early morning on Molholland Drive and some unique wire he found at Nike (his job at the time). I never knew that shoemaking could be so interesting. Made me appreciate that there are truly a lot of different walks of life and I am only experiencing but the one. i certainly do not know what its like to make shoes for KISS! The museum wasn't that big so after the shoe exhibit we walked through an exhibit where some of LA's premiere artists made artwork speaking to their thoughts on war. Once again, what I thought would be boring was inspirational. I think I mostly enjoyed talking to my mentor and exploring ideas that sprouted as we toured the museum. So my advice to my readers is to jump online and see what museum discounts may be available in your city. There is so much out there sometimes you just have to Google and look.
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