The first time I went here I wasn't expecting much, save for some lame exhibits. I was floored! They have an exhibit called Earth World on the 4th floor. It's nestled in a corner, you can't see any part of it when you're coming up the stairs. But when you get to the door, your eyes fill up with fake trees, man-made plastic mounds of dirt, ponds, gyms made out of grass and plastic ants. Even today, all the adults' eyes went wide with wonder. "Whoaaaaa!" You think back to your childhood, you totally want to go in and play along with the kids. If you're a teacher, there's a way . . .
There's a kid in my class. He's two. Long blond hair, uses a lot of D sounds with S's and T's and K's. I saw him eyeballing the large ant hill climber, which is a large network of tunnels you can climb through, complete with hidden slides, steps made out of dirt pebbles, odd crawl spaces, and surprise ants. You can use these surprise ants to your advantage if you want to go into the climber as an adult.
This kid was moving slow with his arms stretched out at his sides. He was scared. I bent down and said "Hey _____, you want to come with me to see the ants?"
His eyes grew wide with terror. "Anda?" Translated: "Ants?"
"Yeah, it's awesome. Come on, I'll help you through it. You'll like it."
I could feel him pulling away just a little, so I moved slower. With every turn you find yourself being more and more immersed into the ant climber. The lights grow dimmer, the walls get darker. His steps grew slower as we moved deeper and deeper.
We came to a tunnel opening. Inside was a huge plastic ant. This is fucking scary to small children. It's a monster to most. As I had hoped, he let out a little yelpish "No! No!" I turned around and said "It's okay." I crawled into the tunnel and knocked on the head of the ant. "See, it's fake."
I grabbed his hand, pulled him closer, and then moved past the ant, which was when he started smiling and laughing. He said "Dome on, Peta!" This is the situation where you can crawl in the space yourself to help the scared kids explore, acting as both the savior of your students' fear and secretly indulging your inner child, to which mine is too vast to ignore.
You also will be able to scope out another job: the slide handler. This kid and I came to the slide, after having said hello to many other students of my classroom. They all followed me, laughing. "PETER!!! PETER'S IN HERE!!!" The kids all followed us to the slide, where I helped organize a line together in order to have the kids safely go down the slide one by one. At the end of the line it was my turn.
You just have to know how to work the system without having your coworkers look poorly on you.
Other exhibits include World Works (a huge room full of paper making activities, light shows, water piping, Rube Goldberg machines, shipping and handling conveyer belts) and Our World (a mini town including a bus, a grocery store, a post office, a green screen dance room where kids dance and see themselves on TV, a restaurant, and a hospital). These places allow you to do play acting, one of the main things I love about working with children. I would go up to the restaurant cash register with a fake onion in my hand and yell "You sold me a bad onion! I want my money back!" This makes the kids bonkers. One yelled "No! You get what you paid for or else I'm calling the police!" I said "Go ahead! They'll agree with me!" They went on the horn, 911. They turned around and said "The police are on their way! You're going to jail!" I stepped back, arms up "Okay, okay. It's not that bad of an onion."
If I could be a professional amusement babysitter, taking kids to random fun places around town, that would be the perfect day job for right now. But, you usually have to be a teacher or counsellor to do something like that. So it's days like today when I feel the happiest in my current work situation.
Check out the website for this place:
http://www.mcm.org/
Antony and the Johnsons -- "Another World"
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