SunWatch Indian Village and Archaeological Park

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February 11, 2019 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

SunWatch Indian Village offers exploration and learning both indoors and out. Visitors will enjoy watching an introductory film in the indoor theater, viewing artifacts and learning about the history of the Village and its inhabitants in the Interpretive Center, and immersing themselves in the 800-year-old lifestyle by visiting the reconstructed structures, located in their original, exact locations. Learn more here.

The indoor museum teaches about Ohio native peoples and how European white people came for trade and decimated the native populations. It’s very accurate.

There are lots of artifacts that are family-friendly like clothing, musical instruments, and toys.

Native houses and a garden are in the courtyard.

We attended a special event last year to learn about native food. Our Boonshoft membership is reciprocal.

Guides taught us about native foods – growing, preparing, and preserving.

We tasted some stew with hominy and bear meat.

Native foods and preserving

There are lovely hiking trails along the river.

There are events all year round for families to learn about the area and the native peoples who inhabited this area.

Sunwatch Hours and Admission

April–November
Tuesday-Saturday
9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Sunday: noon-5:00 p.m.
Closed on Mondays

December–March
Saturday
9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Sunday: noon-5:00 p.m.
*Closed Monday-Friday, except by appointment

Closed: New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Easter

Adults $7.00
Seniors (60+) 6.00
Students (6-17) $6.00
Members are always FREE!

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Boonshoft Museum of Discovery

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December 9, 2018 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Our favorite event every month is the Boonshoft Homeschool Day.

It’s the first Thursday of the month from September through May.

I purchase a membership each year since we all attend the homeschool days each month and it pays for itself in two sessions.

My middle girls attended invitation only Summer Field Camp and loved it.

There are homeschool science activities all day long. The earlier activities are geared for younger kids.

We like to show up for the 1:30 Do Lab activity.

They usually have stations set up at lab tables around the theme of the day. My kids like to learn together.

Safety first!

We’ve learned about ponds.

They have great equipment we don’t otherwise have access to, like microscopes.

The kids have learned about coding and robotics.

We’ve learned about African American inventors and their inventions.

We’ve learned about Native American history and archaeology.

We like chemistry and physics.

Testing water salinity from the pond.

We all shocked pennies and watched them change color.

Biology is not a favorite.

Bone density day was ok.

We dissected eyeballs and a heart for the last homeschool day last year!

After the 1:30 Do Lab, there are often animal meet and greets at 2:15 and science theatre at 3:30.

Boonshoft offers a small zoo, StarLab, hands-on science exhibits, special exhibits, NOVA weather station, archaeology exhibits, space exhibits, a children’s museum with a fun playground, treehouse birdwatching, pond and walking paths through the woods. There are fun special events throughout the year.

Boonshoft is a fun afternoon for our whole family!

Hours

Monday – Saturday: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday: Noon – 5:00 p.m.

Admission

Children (3-17) $11.50
Adults $14.50
Seniors (60+) $12.50
Children (under 3) Free
DSNH Members are FREE

Check for discounts and deals or how to become a member.

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Dayton Art Institute

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September 24, 2018 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

The Dayton Art Institute is a great beginner art museum for people of all ages.

It’s small and doesn’t take long to go through. There are some important examples of art for every era.

For military families, DAI is FREE all summer long. Students and kids are always FREE.

My teen daughter and I visited to check it out.

We were a little silly.

Some of our favorites:

Visit DAI:

REGULAR HOURS
MONDAY	Closed
TUESDAY	Closed
WEDNESDAY	11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
THURSDAY	11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
FRIDAY	11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
SATURDAY	11 a.m. – 5 p.m
SUNDAY	Noon – 5 p.m.

Leo Bistro is now open!

MUSEUM ADMISSION
Suggested general admission to the museum’s collection galleries:

Adults: $8
Seniors, Groups & Active Military: $5
Members, Students, & Youth: FREE

NOTE: Special exhibitions, programs and events may carry an additional admission charge.

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Städel Museum

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June 9, 2016 By Jennifer 1 Comment

We love art museums! Most of our travels center around visiting art.

The Städel Museum in Frankfurt offers 700 years of art under a single roof.

What to see:

Old Masters

van Eyck, Vermeer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Rembrandt, Botticelli

Modern

Monet, Degas, Kirchner, Picasso

Contemporary

Francis Bacon, Warhol

Prints and Drawings

Durer, Pollack, Ernst, Cezanne, Delacroix, Raphael, Rembrandt

We were excited to see the Impressionist art after studying them!

This statue of Esmeralda and the Goat by Antonio Rosetti is lovely.

We saw some fun contemporary art:

We still don’t know what to think of this one:

Don’t miss the fun outdoors exhibit with mirrors and let the kids run around.

This was a fun exhibit on the Städel Museum lawn – a round beaded curtain.

A rare image of the mama:

Admission

14 € for adults

24 € for families

Admission is free for children under the age of 12.

Free wifi!

Hours

Tue, Wed, Sat, Sun 10 am – 6 pm
Thu, Fri 10 am – 9 pm
closed Mondays

Prints and Drawings

Wed 2 – 5 pm
Thu 2 – 7 pm
Fri 2 – 5 pm

The Städel Museum is about 1.5 hours from Ramstein and 2 hours from Spangdahlem.

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Speyer Technik Museum

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February 16, 2016 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

We visited Technik Museum Speyer and admission next door to the Museum Wilhelmsbau is included!

We loved seeing cars, planes, space vehicles, and the train at the Technik Museum!

There are places throughout the museum where you can insert a coin and the machines actually move. It was very educational.

Alex loved the big tires!

There’s a gorgeous antique carousel too!

Outside are airplanes to explore and slides!

We stopped at the cafe and got ice cream and drinks.

The kids loved this fun sculpture in the courtyard.

We loved all the costumes and music machines next door at the Wilhelmsbau Museum.

Admission:

9-5 every day!

Children under 5 years: Free
Children 6 to 14 years old: € 12
Adults: € 14

It’s about an hour from Ramstein and 2 hours from Spangdahlem.

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Natural History Museum Field Trip

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October 2, 2012 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

We went to the new Natural History Museum of Utah to explore.

It’s a HUGE place with so many exhibits and collections.

Alex really liked all the skeletons of animals.

Katie loved seeing the bugs. Especially since these weren’t alive.

Sweeping for fossils.

This was a huge gravel pit outside on a patio where the kids could sweep and uncover an entire dinosaur skeleton.

Giant sloth…Sid?!

Alex loved looking through the magnifying glass to see the brine shrimp, er, sea monkeys.

Way to knock out some of our Tapestry of Grace projects at the field trip!

weaving, plied cordage, twining.

A model of layers of an archeological dig of a hut.

It was a playground!

Just a cute pic of my babies.

Watching wind erosion inside a tunnel.

Alex was obsessed with these fact wheels. He just wanted to spin them.

How cool is this? They offered notebooking pages in their science lab for museum attendees to write about their experiences.

Tori drew roly polies and said she likes them. Katie drew beetles and said they were pretty. I love it!

Alex was so exhausted that he fell asleep right as we were pulling into the PF Chang’s parking lot. He did wake up for the rice and noodles though!

Visit the Natural History Museum of Utah:

Daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Wednesdays 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Adult $13.00

Senior 65 and over $11.00

Young Adult 13 – 24 $11.00

Child 3 – 12 $9.00

Child 2 and under FREE

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Clark Planetarium and IMAX Field Trip

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August 18, 2012 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

When I heard we could go see an IMAX about Pangaea for FREE, I was excited.

And the Clark Planetarium is always free. This doesn’t get any better!

All we had to do was make clay dinosaurs since the IMAX is Claymation. Easy peasy!

The nifty electricity ball

Working on their scavenger hunts from the planetarium’s website.

A really cool projector-illuminated Earth…

We saw meteors, moon rocks, and Mars rocks.

Katie is irritated with me here that I interrupted her “scavenging.”

Display of different kinds of space rocks

Alex was fascinated by the pendulum that showed the movement of Earth

The movie was great.

We had popcorn, slushies, candy, and it was 3D!

Alex did really well sitting still and watching it and keeping his glasses on.

The film was snarky and fun and Claymation!

It gave us some opportunities to have conversation about Creationism and evolution and dinosaurs.

We just learned about Pangaea in our science book!

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Hill AFB Aerospace Museum

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July 19, 2012 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Our trip to the Aviation Museum

We visited the Hill Aerospace Museum.

Always chokes me up to see that POW/MIA flag…

BIG airplane

Even the wheels are big! The kids measure up.

Holding up the nose

Fun being able to climb all over helicopters!

Uncle was nice to lift up the kids so they could see inside an airplane.

Lights! Buttons!

Showing the different areas of the Ogden armory

reminiscent of M.A.S.H.

Katie being goofy

Me and my Bubba

Katie and cousin silhouette

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Treehouse Museum

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July 17, 2012 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Our kids’ museum has a literacy theme. We love the Treehouse Museum.

We started with the castle room this time and worked our way down.

Not the Chosen One…

Dressup Castle

Queen and her jester

Royal Cousins

Cool light table

Marimba! pretty cool music

Awesome view microscope. Alex loved these and could do it all by himself!

Baby doctors Tori and Katie

More dress up…

Crafts stations…don’tcha know that boy went for the scissors!

Climbing the treehouse

Kate loves cows

Firefighters…

an Air Force horse statue. These are all over town decorated with regional attractions. I love it.

Visit the Treehouse Museum

Hours:

Monday
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (September – May)
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (June – August and MLK Jr. Day, President’s Day, Labor Day & Christmas Break)

Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Friday 
10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Sunday  Closed

Closed January 1, Memorial Day, July 4, July 24, Thanksgiving & Christmas Day