San Francisco Garden and Flower Show 2011

Two weeks ago I had no intentions of visiting this show until I came across the kids event "Sproutopia" being hosted as a part of this show. The activities and workshops for kids seemed exciting and we decided to go and I was glad we did for this show is hosted annually.

Bonsai Planting We reached in time for the "Bonsai for kids" workshop. Each kid was given a tray, a pot, a chopstick and a bonsai. There were 2 instructors and about 2-3 volunteers helping the kids. Parents were specially instructed to stay back and just watch! It was about 45 minutes activity and at the end of it each kid had their own Bonsai planted in a pot and caring instructions to remember.

Bugs: Another workshop was on bugs and insects in the garden and kids got to touch the millipede and beetle as well as see various species of bugs in bug boxes with magnifiers. Some of the insects they saw were centipede, daddy longleg, wolf spider with egg sack on its back, honey bee, ladybug and potato bug. There were some specimens in of butterfly, moth and other beetles as well.

Among other activities were making fancy headbands, planting grass seeds in a sack to make a funny face, when the grass grows it would be the hair and kids can style it the way they want. A cool idea!

Carnivorous Plants: There were displays of carnivorous plants: sundew, pitcher plant, venus fly trap and butterworts. Each of the kids also got to take home their own pet carnivorous plant. We got to know a few interesting facts:

• Venus fly trap has sensors on the inside of the leafy part and the it closes only when a buf touches sensors on the insides of both the parts and for atleast 20 secs. What a great way to avoid false alarm.


• Carnivorous plants do not need any fertilizers as it can be strong for them and they can die.


• They grow abundantly in the hot and humid climate.


• They need to be watered with rain or distill water.

Miniature Gardens: There were displays of miniature garden's by elementary and middle school kids. Each of the garden had a theme and some were my kids favorites like: the island of blue dolphin, jack and the beanstalk, Alice in wonderland, Candyland etc. Award ribbons were displayed for the best ones, however we thought all of them were excellent.

After spending couple of hours in the kids section we headed to explore the actual show. We were amazed at the different plants and garden and indoor plant accessories that were displayed.

Garden displays: The most intriguiging part was the actual displays of the garden. They were a feat to the eye as well as wallet! Amongst the gardens were also the displays of corn snake and bearded dragon lizards!

Overall we spent about 4 hours at this place and could have spent more but the kids were really tired!

Techno geek challenge at MOCHA

Museum of children's art, MOCHA hosts "Family Extravaganza" once a month and this week's theme was "Techno geek challenge". Kids and parents had to team up and make art out of electronic and waste material. As a reward, the kids would get a gift!

The variety of material that is offered to kids is really amazing(and that's why I like MOCHA!). The kids just have to bring in their imagination and create wonders. The kids were provided with circuit boards as a base and hot glue to make their structures. More

Since we recently had read a book "The moon", I and the little one decided to make a space craft. While rummaging through a miscellaneous box, the little one found a metal shaped foot and a thermacol piece(to be her moon) and she wanted to make a footprint on the moon, just like Neil Armstrong's! The elder one made the theme of Cinderella with a fancily dressed figure, carriage and dinner table etc.



After working on the art for more than an hour we decided to go to other tables. The kids made a fish tank scene in an empty DVD cover, some painting and played with clay.

Aquarium spotlight @ MSI and Fujitsu Planetarium

Marine Science Institute (MSI) hosts aquarium spotlight days for parents and kids to come in to their facility and look at the marine life that they have. Its the time when kids can touch the fish, sponges, mussels, sea stars, crabs, leopard shark etc and feed some of them. The facility also has the skeleton of a 44 foot gray whale which some how made its way in to the Redwood creek in 1990.



The kids got to see the flat fish like the California halibut, diamond turbot, starry flounder which camouflage themselves really well with the sand and pebbles at the bottom of the ocean. There were tanks with surfperch, monkey eel, swell shark, sea anemone. The kids could hold the sea stars and got to see their tentacles and mouth. There was a huge tank with the leopard shark and kids fed it pieces of squid.



There was a lab set up where kids could look at the drop of water from the creek under microscopes and see the planktons like the diatoms, copepods etc.



We then took a stroll on the small beach next to the institute and observed dead barnacles on the poles, algae, shells and floats on the water.

After the marine science immersion I decided to take kids to the Fujitsu planetarium as it was the second last Saturday they would be open for this season. We watched the show "Cosmic journey" which was about the planets in our solar system. We then were shown the view of the sky that night and shown how to spot the Orion, the hunter (the belt, shoulders), Taurus the bull that he fights and Orion's 2 dogs. The narrator also showed the Leo constellation. He identified the stars Sirius, Beetle juice, Rigel, Polaris, Aldebaran and the star group Pleiades, the seven sisters. He pointed out that the stars which are red, orange color are cooler than the blue - white stars.

After the show we tried to identify some of the stars in the sky!

Dr. Seussology @ Museum of Children's Art

My kids are always ready to go to any art event, so last weekend I took them to MOCHA(Museum of Children's Art). The theme was Dr. Seussology to celebrate Dr Seuss's birthday, and all the art was to be focused around it. There were 5 tables setup for the activities : making hats, clay modeling, painting, building figures from egg cartons and decorating them and making fish from cut-outs. The kids tried their hand at each of the tables.


There was a story reading program and the award -winning author Elissa Haden Guest read her book "Harriet's had enough!". The little one loved this session. Then the kids make drawings based on the story.


The museum also had display of top 150 selected drawings from the Cray-Pas Wonderful, colorful world 2011 contest. It is a national contest for K-8th grade. It was unbelievable that kids as small as Kindergarten and 1st grade could draw immensely detailed and colorful pictures.


It was a good place to spend couple of hours and we returned back with whole lot of art work.