Yes, You Can Take a 4-Year Old to Museums

Whenever we go on a trip, and certainly around Washington, we visit museums and take CJ with us. Maki and I love museums (Maki joined us in NYC on Saturday afternoon) and we figure CJ will love museums if we get him started early.

On Saturday morning, mom, Alex, CJ and I visited the Museum of Natural History. The dioramas filled with stuffed animals from Africa were lifelike and very well done. CJ loved looking for the baby animals and guessing the names of the animals. We all enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit, as well as the reptile exhibit. I wish the exhibit had more hands-on elements, or even some interactive kiosks, but otherwise, no complaints. We need to watch Night at the Museum, the Ben Stiller comedy set in this museum.

On Sunday morning, we all made the mandatory visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Alex says he has spent many, long days at this museum, especially when he was living in New York. We started our visit the Egypt collection, culminating, of course, at the Temple of Dendur, my favorite spot in the museum. Then we visited the armor collection, including a special exhibition on Tibetan armor. Then we wandered into musical instruments, and then dashed through European history. We also enjoyed a Jeff Koons exhibit on the roof of the museum featuring three sculptures; the most fun was a stainless steel sculpture that looks just like a dog balloon!

CJ obviously can’t read the descriptions and can’t sit through long explanations, but he enjoys looking at everything, commenting on what he sees, and looking at the varied items. Next time, we will have to catch the Children’s Museum, which we hear is terrific and fun for kids.