One of the best parts about parenting is seeing your kid excited about something you love, and I've discovered that Julian is a bit of a museum junkie like his papa. We're in Oxford at the moment, and I've been taking care of him in the mornings while Almudena works, and then she takes over while I work in the afternoons. Part of our morning routine is to go to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where he gets to touch ammonites, pet a stuffed cheetah, and stare at dinosaurs. He's even learned how to use the zoom and focus on a microscope, even though he's not yet three.
It's good exercise too, because he runs all over the place. His attention span doesn't stay on anything long (the record is fifteen minutes on the microscope) but he'll flit from display to display for an hour or more before wanting to go off to University Park to play football or climb trees. My proudest moment as a museum-loving dad came when he learned his first dinosaur word--iguanodon!!! He's also learned ammonite, malichite, and tyrannosaurus rex, although he has trouble pronouncing that one.Do I have a scientist in the making?
Photo of Oxford University Museum of Natural History interior by Michael Reeve, 30 May, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Photo of Iguanodon Bernissartensis at the Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen in Brussels, Belgium by Paul Hermans, 28th of December 2007, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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2 comments:
Wow! Fifteen minutes is an amazingly long time for a three-year-old to focus on anything.
As a kid I travelled around the world with my parents. Because I was so young (four to six-years-old), my growing brain became forever transformed. So I know this: Your young son travelling with you is a wonderful thing. The tastes, smells, history and ancient landscapes he absorbs now will be with him forever.
That's the plan! Also, both his parents are addicted to travel, so we don't want to stop just because we have a kid. He's a bit too much of a city boy, growing up as he is in Madrid, so the green fields, little villages, and very climbable trees of England are fascinating to him.
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