Last week, Ryan and I went to a homeschooling event at the Perot Museum in Dallas, Texas. The website states:
Home School Family Science Day allows parents and students to explore the Perot Museum’s 11 permanent exhibit halls, engage in a variety of hands-on activities and exercise their brain through interactive kiosks and educational games.
Nine stations will be set up throughout the Museum that offer activities that provide learning in scientific principles from a range of fields including chemistry, physics, biology and geology. From fossils to the expanding universe, you and your student will have a blast learning about the many different fields of science, technology, nature and more!
The event that we went to was Crack the Case, Forensic Family Science Day. We were going to have the opportunity to be crime scene detectives! We called ourselves the Curry Crusaders!
We got there around 10:20am (the event was scheduled from 10am-1pm). We started in and went to the first station. Ryan did fine, but what I noticed was that there were nine stations with usually 2 people running the station. The problem was what I overheard: that there would be 300 students coming through. This resulted in a lot of traffic and long lines for each station.
I was frustrated. It seemed to be a bit disorganized. On the other hand Ryan did not seem to mind at all. He was as cool as a cucumber. We made it through all of the stations. There were a few that were difficult for him, so I tried to help and facilitate when I could. He spelled WE MAKE A GREAT TEAM.
As we went along, we wrote down our notes about who we thought did the crime. At the end, I was trying to figure out where we were supposed to submit our guess. Ryan and I came up with the following answer: THEY ALL PLAYED A ROLE IN IT.
We still couldn’t figure out where to submit our guess. We ended up asking one of the stations with the friendliest volunteer (she was very kind to Ryan during the blood type sample station) and she did not know. We asked at one more station and two museum workers and they did not know either. I was getting irritated by this point. We had been there for almost 3 hours.
Finally we were told to submit our answer to the place that we checked in. As we were doing that, the kind volunteer found us and reiterated the same thing and she wanted to be sure that we knew where to go. She also added that there was “no real answer” and that it was up to the student to figure out the ending. This was just wrong to me. I assumed that there was a real answer (almost every clue pointed to a different suspect). This reminded me of “everyone wins” kind of events and I just don’t really care for those. I guess that I am a bit competitive.
Due to the chaos and juggling our stuff, the letter board, and our evidence sheet, I never got any pictures inside. This is one that I took on our way out.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what Ryan thought of the event. I was worried that he did not enjoy it. I asked him his thoughts once we were home:
REALLY WITH YOUR HELP, I MADE IT WORK. UNDERSTAND WISHING TO DO MORE REALLY COOL ACTIVITIES LIKE THIS. TOO COOL TO PARTICIPATE IN THEM. MOM, I AM KIND OF HAPPY TO GO ON FIELD TRIPS WITH YOU.
*****
Ryan learned about Thomas Edison with Adriana Barriga last week. He told Adriana that I HAVE A STORY at the end of the lesson. She asked him what it was about and he replied HAVING THE WETTEST SUMMER.
THERE ONCE WAS A MAN NAMED THOMAS. THOMAS MADE INVENTIONS. THOM TORE SOME WET CLOTH. THEN THOM HAD MORE TORN CLOTH. HE TOOK THE TORN CLOTH OUTSIDE, LETTING THE TORN CLOTH DRY. THOMAS GOT THE DRY TORN CLOTH, TOOK IT INSIDE, BUT REALLY TRIED TO THINK OF A WAY TO EASILY MAKE THE TORN CLOTH STAY WET. THOM SOAKED THE TORN CLOTH IN THE SINK, THEN TOOK THE TORN CLOTH OUTSIDE. THE TORN CLOTH HAD DRIED OUT TOO.
THOM REALLY HAD A COOL IDEA TO MAKE THE CLOTH STAY WET. THOM TIED THE TORN CLOTH TO THE FOUNTAIN. THE TORN CLOTH STAYED WET GOING INTO THE SUMMER. THEN THOM TRIED TO SELL INVENTION TO THE TEXAS RANGERS. HIS INVENTION MADE MISERABLE TEXAS RANGERS THE TOP TEAM IN THE MLB. THEN THOM BECAME RICH.
TO THIS DAY, THE TEXAS RANGERS THANK THOM FOR THE INVENTION.
I am in my head. 
Dear Ryan,
I have always been fascinated by inventors and their inventions. I would like to tell you about my good friend who is an inventor. His name is Doug Foeller. He has over 30 patents. We met in Florida when I had a car dealership there called Northside Auto Brokers. He started a collector car auction that sold old cars and trucks. Last spring, I helped your Uncle Owen & Aunt Linda sell their convertible at Dougs collector car auction in Bradenton, FL. That is a hobby of mine. Years ago, Doug would bring cars to me that he wanted me to clean before the collector car auction each year. He made a lot of money on his many inventions so much so that he was able to play with and collect antique cars. Keep on dreaming up these invention ideas of yours. I suspect one day you will come up with an idea good enough to “parent”.
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