This Blog is written by Collette Michaud, CEO and a founder of the Children's Museum of the Sonoma County. Please comment on the blog. We want to hear from you. Suggestions, ideas, comments are all welcome!
On December 18, 2010, we held the first Exhibit Design Workshop with children ages 4 - 12. It was a spectacular success with 33 children participating in the workshop.
We divided the children into three groups. Each group was led by a facilitator and a sketch artist, who drew like mad trying to keep up with all the ideas the kids were coming up with.
Afterward, the kids played with our mobile exhibits in the new space. It was very exciting to see so many kids in our new home.
If you'd like to see the wonderful ideas the kids came up with click here. Many of the kids signed their names next to the ideas that they came up with. Please comment on any designs you especially like.
A special thanks to our fabulous facilitators, Linda Herman, Amanda Kirk, and Theresa Giacomino. And another huge thanks to our talented sketch artists, Brian Fee, Steve Purcell and Brian Scharf. And last, but not least, a ton of thanks to the mastermind of the event, Robin Stephani.
The event was made possible by Wright Contracting, which provided all the yummy snacks and supplies for the day.
And last of all, thank you to all the children who participated in the event! It was a terrific success!
If you're interested in having your child participate in the next exhibit workshop, please email us at info@cmosc.org with the subject line "Exhibit Workshop for Children".
Last Thursday, December 16, 2010, we signed the lease for our new home! The day before, eight volunteers from Medtronic volunteered a day of their time to help us start getting the site fixed up. They helped with general clean up, yard work and painting. And they did it with a smile on their faces!
We are so grateful to both MEDTRONIC and their wonderful employees and also to FRIEDMAN'S Home Improvement Store for donating most of the supplies to get us up and running.
We are so excited about our new home as well as the wonderful response we've been receiving from businesses and donors about the future children's museum!
In photo: Jennifer Pearlmutter, Erik Kunz, Linda Gibboney, Patrick Anderson, Susan Wayshak, Karen Gunderson, Kevin Mauch, and Maria Arreguin.
There are so many exciting things happening for the children's museum. The biggest one is that we finally have a home and are actively working towards opening up in it by 2012. Check out the Press Release for more details.
Here's a picture of Herb Williams, the Board President, Jean Schulz and me in front of the new children's museum!
A week ago I attended my sixth Association of Children's Museums conference in Minneapolis, MN. Once again, I was struck by the wonderful sharing nature of people who work in this field. Everyone from the Executive Director to the floor staff is so excited to share their ideas and is truly interested in helping to make all children's museums wonderful places no matter where they are located.
I visited the Minnesota Chidlren's Museum while I was there as well as the Science Center, both of which were amazing. The Minnesota Children's Museum sees over 400,000 visitors a year and is housed downtown in a 60,000 sq building! They too, started out in a small building before moving to the size building they are in now. They have the most incredible ant tunnel maze. Definitely a must see if you're in the area! I also saw plans for a terrifically creative climbing structure at the Phoenix Children's Museum complete with flying bathtub. It opened to the public today! I can't wait to make a trip there to see it with my two boys one of these days.
The only down side of the trip was the winter like weather there. Luckily I got out of there before it started to snow...in May!
Oliver spent at least an hour last Friday at the Museum on the Go playing with our new circuitry activity. At six years old, I predict that he is destined to become a scientist or electrician! We finally had to start packing up the activity otherwise he would have kept on playing for at least another hour.
He amazed everyone when all by himself he hooked up all the gadgets and had them running at the same time from one battery source.
His grandmother deserves the prize for “Most Patient Caregiver of the Day”. She didn’t want to interrupt his fun saying “When will he get a chance to do this again?” Yay for Grandma! She gets it
Last Thursday night we held our first Science Night at Sonoma Mountain Elementary School in Petaluma. The night started at 6:30 and ended at 8pm. We estimate over 150 children and parents turned out for the event with over 70 of those children.
We especially enjoyed the volunteer help from 10 fifth graders who did a fabulous job manning all of the exhibits. And thankfully, our loyal high school volunteers, Haley and Mariah, also were on hand to help with the color mixing activity.
In addition to our regular exhibits, there was a life science table on the life cycle of frogs and a kaleidoscope table with various ways to view our world including the infamous "Disgustoscope". It was an exciting night! Thanks to the PTA of Sonoma Mountain Village for inviting the CMOSC to come to their wonderful school.
If you came to this event, please comment on your experience. We want to know what you think!
The Museum-on-the-Go is featured on this wonderful local blog by Holly White-Wolfe. Holly visited the Museum-on-the-Go booth last weekend at the City Kids Event in Santa Rosa. She hung around the booth for a quite awhile interviewing parents and children about their experience at the Museum-on-the-Go. She took tons of delightful pics, which you can see up on her blog. Check out her snazzy slide shows! Don't ask me how she created them though!
She also was in the audience for the Professor Wizzywig's Science Demo. Be sure to check out our school page later on this month for more info on the Professor!
Sono-Ma is truly a labor of love by a caring and very talented mom! It's chock full of wonderful ideas for how to spend time with your family in this wonderful place we call home - Sonoma County.
I'm so honored Holly took the time to come to the Children's Museum of Sonoma County's booth and write such a thoughtful and charming article with the help of the Professor.
Last week, we brought the Museum on the Go to the Sonoma County Library for 3 days in a row as part of their Summer Reading Program. It's the first time the Museum on the Go has stayed in one location for an extended period of time. We wanted to see how the Children's Museum of Sonoma County was accepted and to continue raising the awareness for the project. It was definitely a success! The first day we saw over 170 children and 60 adults! We packed the room for both of our science demonstrations with 45 kids each time. All three days, kids had a blast with the average visit lasting an hour. We had one grandmother who came at 11 on the first day when we opened the doors and didn't leave until after 2pm! She sat patiently for 3 hours and watched as her grandaughter played with magnets, made flying machines at the wind tube, and painted her face. What a great grandmother!
In total, over 500 children and adults visited the Museum on the Go over 3 days at the Santa Rosa Branch Library. And most of them were first timers to the Museum on the Go. We are excited that we are reaching out to so many new potential visitors and fans of the Children's Museum of Sonoma County!
I am excited to announce that we have not only an exciting new name, Children's Museum of Sonoma County, but also a new president! Herb Williams of Delphi in Santa Rosa comes to us with significant nonprofit experience as well as marketing and communications strategies. He has been an adviser to the Children's Museum since the early days. I am so excited to turn over the duties of the president's job to someone so capable and to work in partnership with him.
As for me, I'm not going anywhere! I will continue concentrating on the day to day operations of running and growing the museum. Not much will change for me except that I am now called the Chief Executive Officer. I am still fully committed to seeing a children's museum become a reality for Sonoma County!
We continue to search for the perfect site for the CMNB. We have three strong site possibilities in Santa Rosa. However, none of them are a slam dunk and all will require significant funding and remodeling. Our criteria continues to be a site that is donated or is offered at a significantly reduced rent, on site or street parking, and nearby amenities within walking distance.
We remain vigilant in our search and belief that the perfect site is out there for the CMNB! We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding! In June we are scheduled to begin site planning with a wonderful museum and educational consultant, Jeanne Vergeront. Her credentials include starting the Minneapolis Children's Museum! She has also helped in the planning stages of countless children's museum across the nation. We are excited to begin work with her!
In total, over 500 children and adults visited the Museum on the Go over 3 days at the Santa Rosa Branch Library. And most of them were first timers to the Museum on the Go. We are excited that we are reaching out to so many new potential visitors and fans of the Children's Museum of Sonoma County!