Dinosaur Museum

We took a chance and rode the bus one hour across town to find a science museum we’ve only read about.  I tried to call for days, and there was never any answer.  There was no other solution but to GO and see for myself.  We found it, and it was open!  (The published phone number is the number for the office that manages the museum, not the museum itself. DUH!  More of that ambiguity that’s so rampant in this life!)

Here are some shots of our family day dinosaur museum trip.  The amazing thing is that the very day we chose to go, there were four German paleontologists studying the dinosaurs!  They’d come all the way from Germany to study the dinosaur fossils of China.  So they gave us some very professional explanations but in plain English that we could understand.

It was fascinating!  They were actually handling the fossils!  You can see the ladder in the background of this picture. They were getting a close-up view of upper parts.

We took along our one dinosaur book as a reference. We looked up Sauropods. DD took a few notes in her notebook with her Crayola marker.

Here is my husband  and Sprite with one of the German paleontologists.  Very friendly guy.

Okay, I was trying to be creative here.  I actually got on the floor. It didn’t work like I envisioned it.

One of the paleontologists asked me about Sprite”s school situation. I told her that we homeschool.  She had that “Oh…” response.  I then remembered that it’s ILLEGAL to homeschool in Germany.  So I causally said, “Yeah, that’s illegal in Germany isn’t it?”  Do you know what she said?  She said, “It’s a much smaller country [than what?  USA? China? I wasn't sure].  And we have plenty of schools for everyone.”  Huh?  I really didn’t understand her point, but  I refrained from saying “Huh? What’s the point?”  Instead I said, “Oh, it’s not a matter of room in the school, it’s a matter of giving an excellent education to your child.  And it’s a matter of freedom.”  That ended the conversation.

One thing I’ve noticed in my world travels: AMERICANS (compared to many other nationalities) LOVE FREEDOM.  We value freedom more than almost anything.  And I agree.  I love freedom.  Freedom is foundational!

More Posts Like This One:

1. Field Trips That Don’t Match Your Curriculum
2. Dinosaurs
3. Art Museum Visit
4. Fun in Xian — Stele Museum

Tagged as: dinosaurs, field trips, science