Spent the morning at
NEMO, the biggest science center in the Netherlands... us and every school child in Amsterdam. It's four floors of hands-on science experiments. Kids loved it. I briefly lost interest on the
second floor and found a chair on which to sit and knit for about 15 minutes until the kids were ready to head up to the next floor. Have to say that the Dutch are much more progressive than Americans when it comes to sex education. My eldest was mostly interested in the interactive puberty display that talked about how to manage pimples (she's 11), but there was so much more to see. The time-line video about the rates that boys and girls mature was hilarious. Ti's eyes were popping out of her head as the cartoon boy kept looking down his
tidy whities to see the progress. She didn't go into the peep show (you had to be 12), but as we walked by, she could see the video playing. I think her quote was, "So that's how sea horses do it!" The gorillas were next, which might have been interesting to her had her parents not been standing there. The "peep show" had those wooden figures (see picture to the right) in sexual positions. I was learning something! Not sure you would see displays like that aimed at kids 12 and up in the States, but I could be wrong--haven't lived full time or worked in U.S. schools for almost 20 years and am sort of out of touch. Kids had a great time at NEMO.
We then bought tickets for the
Canal Bus, which will also be good tomorrow. Nice way to get around. It stops at many of the big sites, and you can get on and off for a 24-hour period. Beautiful sunny day so it was perfect. It dropped us off at the
Anne Frank house and so we did that museum as well. I was there 20 years ago and it has changed a lot since then. It's always packed so we tried to go late in the day as we heard if you can go late in the afternoon or early evening, you can avoid the crowds. We didn't have to wait in line more than five minutes, and only had to wait that long because the ticket sellers had a shift change. It is still a powerful experience, but I think I was more moved 20 years ago, probably because it was my first time.
Spent the morning at NEMO, the biggest science center in the Netherlands... us and every school child in Amsterdam. It's four floors of hands-on science experiments. Kids loved it. I briefly lost interest on the 
second floor and found a chair on which to sit and knit for about 15 minutes until the kids were ready to head up to the next floor. Have to say that the Dutch are much more progressive than Americans when it comes to sex education. My eldest was mostly interested in the interactive puberty display that talked about how to manage pimples (she's 11), but there was so much more to see. The time-line video about the rates that boys and girls mature was hilarious. Ti's eyes were popping out of her head as the cartoon boy kept looking down his
tidy whities to see the progress. She didn't go into the peep show (you had to be 12), but as we walked by, she could see the video playing. I think her quote was, "So that's how sea horses do it!" The gorillas were next, which might have been interesting to her had her parents not been standing there. The "peep show" had those wooden figures (see picture to the right) in sexual positions. I was learning something! Not sure you would see displays like that aimed at kids 12 and up in the States, but I could be wrong--haven't lived full time or worked in U.S. schools for almost 20 years and am sort of out of touch. Kids had a great time at NEMO.
We then bought tickets for the Canal Bus, which will also be good tomorrow. Nice way to get around. It stops at many of the big sites, and you can get on and off for a 24-hour period. Beautiful sunny day so it was perfect. It dropped us off at the Anne Frank house and so we did that museum as well. I was there 20 years ago and it has changed a lot since then. It's always packed so we tried to go late in the day as we heard if you can go late in the afternoon or early evening, you can avoid the crowds. We didn't have to wait in line more than five minutes, and only had to wait that long because the ticket sellers had a shift change. It is still a powerful experience, but I think I was more moved 20 years ago, probably because it was my first time.
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