The Writing on the Walls

We have had such a wonderful time watching children and families enjoy Play Power for the past few days. The cries of "Wow! This is awesome!" and "Mom - look at this!" and the peals of laughter are such music to our ears after being so many weeks without children. Staff have already spent hours watching kids doing some amazing playing, seeing how they're using the various components, thinking about what comes next.

Play Power has a few labels that ask open-ended questions like "What else can you try?" and "What could this be?," which are a prototype until we've had time to evaluate their best placement. We tend not to have a lot of labels in the Museum. There's just so much else going on around here that people don't necessarily get a chance to read what's on the walls! Well, that was not so today.
As executive director Janice O'Donnell shared in an email exchange to the X-team just moments ago:
"A few minutes ago two kids were discovering Air Play. Mom watched what they were doing, glanced at the label, and asked the kids, What do you think will happen?"

To which Graphic Designer Valerie responded:
"And just now I went out to the exhibit to place the last little label on the beautiful organ and I met Keith, who is 8 years old. He sometimes plays the organ at his church so he wanted to name each note that he played as he walked around the organ. It was a satisfying moment!"

We are so loving watching and talking and thinking about this exhibit!

And we had a nice surprise this afternoon when former Experience Coordinator Laura Hodo, who left the Museum in March to move home to Arkansas, returned for a visit. She loved exploring Play Power and seeing all of the changes to the Museum and told me that she's a big fan of this blog and has been checking it daily. So this is in honor of Laura, our #1 fan!