Guatemala Children's Museum

To celebrate Ben's 4th birthday we made a visit to the Guatemala Children's Museum.  It is a wonderful museum and we always enjoy our visits there.  We took a few of the boy's friends from Guatemala City with us.  Their parents are the caretakers of our mission house in Guatemala City.  It was their first time to go.  Seeing the excitement and joy on their faces made the day extra special.

arriving at the museum

astronaut Ben

Each station at the museum has workers there to teach and help the kids.  This station was teaching earthquake safety. 

They built structures and then watched to see if they could withstand an earthquake.

                                   

At this station they learned about making paper.

Here they are pressing their paper to get all the water out.

homemade paper

learning about keeping the earth clean

the sweet birthday boy

Super Ben!

learning about air

life-sized Light Bright
Ben loved playing here!

fun with bubbles

learning about energy

cute little doctors

operation time

learning about the body

Going down the tongue slide in the germ room.  In here they learned how to care for their bodies and keep them clean and healthy.

Pretending to be ambulance/ rescue workers.

Ben driving the ambulance

This was fun!  The worker hid a hurt "body" nearby and the kids had to go find it, put it on the stretcher, and carry it to the ambulance.  They loved this part.

Their favorite part of the museum has always been the ball room.  It is filled with plastic balls.  The kids (and adults) put the balls into tubes that take them to the top and stores them in large containers.  When the containers get full a siren blares and the balls rain down from the ceiling.  It is loud, fun, and exciting.  We always enjoy it.

the ball room

learning about recycling

                                      

learning about electricity

The teacher had the kids all hold hands and then she sent a shock wave through them.  Most of the kids liked it.  Cruz did not!  If you notice in the video they are all smiling and then they all jump when they feel it. 

We ended our visit with some play time outdoors.  There is a fun playground area.  The kids get to wear these cars and dress up like traffic cops.  There are mini roads for them to "drive" on.  There are stop lights and a mock gas station.  It is really cute to see them all pretending together.

Officer Cruz

We had a super fun afternoon.  It was a great place to celebrate Ben's birthday.  He got to run, play, explore, and learn.  I'd say he had a great day!  We all did.