Exploratorium

Last weekend we took the girls to visit the Exploratorium. This was actually our second trip to the Exploratorium, but our first to it's new location at Pier 15.

A day at university

This past weekend was another busy one for us. The start of the warmer weather marks the start of the non-stop festival season here in the Bay Area. I swear that this time last year we attended a festival of some sort almost every weekend, sometimes even more than one per weekend. Well, this weekend was no exception with festivals to attend on both days.

Let's start with a look at what we did on Saturday...

This Saturday was Cal Day, the annual open day at University of California Berkeley. Back home in Australia university open days are pretty much just the domain of prospective students and their parents. Here, however, the open day is a festival for the whole community. Sure, there are heaps of stands set up to provide prospective students with information and the whole event is like a giant pep rally of school spirit, but there are also lots of fun hands on kid's activities to keep the little ones entertained. And that, of course was the whole reason we were there!

Ava and Lola at Cal

Borax Crystal Snowflakes

I recently came across a fabulous winter project: Borax crystal snowflakes.

Have you made them before? Part craft, part science, they're incredibly simple to make using only a few ingredients and look stunning when they're done.

Borax crystal snowflakes

Super Bouncy Fun

Ava and Lola love super bounce balls. In fact Ava loves them so much they made it onto her Christmas wish list last year. As much fun as super bounce balls are I wasn't really keen on buying her a box of them for Christmas. I just knew that I had to come up with something a little more creative than that. Imagine my delight when I came across The Bouncing Ball Factory kit a few months back. It was absolutely perfect!

Home made super bounce balls

Curiodyssey

A few weeks back we took the girls to Curiodyssey in Coyote Point just south of San Francisco.

At Curiodyssey kids and adults alike can "Touch Science. Meet Animals" and the girls did just that.

The girls got to see plenty of creatures native to North America including possums, bobcats, turkey vultures (possibly the ugliest bird ever!), coyotes, otters, tortoises and porcupines. They were able to meet some of these up close and personal (the possum and tortoise) but most of the others were best kept behind their locked gates - I'm looking at you coyote! There was a raccoon enclosure but the furry little guys were very well hidden and we couldn't spot them. Ten months of living in America and I'm yet to see a raccoon - I'm not counting the one I saw squished on the side of the road on our drive to Sacramento!

All animals at Curiodyssey are rescue animals unable to be returned to their natural habitat. They have either been rescued after being injured or, such as in the case of the coyote, were illegal pets which have been imprinted by humans.

Ava helps Lola pat the possum gently

Sun Prints

Ava is on Summer Vacation at the moment so I've been preparing all sorts of fun craft/science projects to keep her occupied.

Yesterday was warm and sunny so we headed up to the roof deck to make Sun Prints.

Sun Print paper + Cheerios = Fun print

Sun Prints are basically a very simple form of photography. Objects placed on the special Sun Print paper will leave an image behind when placed in the sun for a small amount of time. The Sun Print paper is made by Lawrence Hall of Science here in Berkeley. We picked up a few packs on our recent visit which you can read about here.

Lawrence Hall of Science

Time to cross another place off the "Bay Area with Kids" list...

A few weekends back we visited Lawrence Hall of Science here in Berkeley. 

Lawrence Hall of Science is actually part of the University of California Berkeley - let's call it Cal for short. Being a university town, a major part of Berkeley is made up of the Cal campus. And it is huge. 

Cal not only offers a learning environment for college students but is home to a large array of family friendly, community venues from Botanical Gardens, to sporting venues and science museums.

I wasn't really sure what to expect at Lawrence Hall but I had heard from other parents at pre-school that it's a hit with kids around Ava's age. Well, it certainly was a hit with Ava too!

Lawrence Hall is full of fun, interactive science exhibits that kids can get involved in. 

First up we made paper planes and attempted to fly them through targets. I say "attempted to" as I don't think we actually got any through the target! We had fun though and that's the main thing. 

This one looks like it might go through...

California Academy of Sciences

We visited California Academy of Sciences back in December just a few days before Christmas.
I had been eager to visit the Academy before the end of the year due to a few special Christmassy themed exhibits. A visit to the Academy was one of the featured activities on the girls' advent calendar.

Now, we had actually attempted to visit the Academy back in November when we spent an afternoon in Golden Gate Park. However it was Thanksgiving long weekend and it was extremely busy. Plus a surcharge during busy holiday periods pushed the ticket price up to $35.00 for adults and $25.00 for children making for one very expensive afternoon.

Surprisingly, when we visited the Academy two days before Christmas it wasn't as busy as I had expected. I guess everyone was busy with Christmas preparations. I booked our tickets online to avoid the queues and even managed to find a coupon for a discount. Got to love retailmenot.com :)

Kim and the girls with Claude the Alligator