Clan Martinez: Learning about CIC #31

Hey mister - care for a sandwich & soda?

We finally had a field trip yesterday (now that we're in our last week of summer!) Julio took the day off and helped me take 8 of the daycare kids to West Branch, Iowa - home of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Turns out admission is free for daycare groups (kids under 14 are free anyway, but it still saved me $12 on the adult admissions) and it is one of my all-time favorite field trip destinations.

This year the kids were particularly attentive and entertained by all the field trip had to offer - probably because we haven't been able to have the weekly field trips we usually have in the summer (silver lining to those floods, I guess!)

Anybody from Iowa who has not been to this library should make a point to get there - especially if you have kids (8-12 years old, they get more out of it). They have a very well put together permanent display which is incredibly informative about the Hoover legacy - beyond the stock market debacle of 1929. Kids learn about how lives here and abroad were affected by WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII.

There is also an area for temporary exhibits - this year it is "Children in the White House", which features several of Caroline Kennedy's dolls, and a lot of video footage, photos and artifacts of the children who lived in the White House over the years.

The Library and Museum are also part of a National Park, which has a small historic village including the birthplace of Herbert Hoover. They have a free program for children called "Junior Rangers". Each child receives an activity booklet with quizzes and puzzles related to the displays in the park, and if they complete the requirements for their age group, they receive a badge and certificate and are "sworn in" as Junior Rangers.

We try to get there around 11am, which gives us time to see the permanent and temporary exhibits and watch a movie in the library, then we have a picnic lunch followed by a movie in the park visitors center, which kicks off our Junior Ranger project. It is a full day but we are still able to get back into town in time to swim a little before the kids get picked up by their folks.

We were going to have a cookout at the pool last night, but somebody had a party and took over all the tables. So we had family game night and a walk around the neighborhood after having a cookout on our deck. Harrison was disappointed to miss out on extra swimming, but I have to confess I enjoyed being more secluded (as opposed to cooking out at the pool), because I have been wrestling a migraine for the last couple days. The walk also gave Harrison and me some more opportunities to take photos. Harrison got some great ones of a family of rabbits that came out at dusk to have their picture taken.