A group of staff went to Pretend City in Irvine and the La Habra Children's Museum on Tuesday April 27. This was my third visit to Pretend City and probably my third visit to the La Habra museum since it opened in 1977. The first visit was many years ago, the 2nd within the past couple of years and yesterday my 3rd. The two museums, although very different share two things in common. Neither is in a purpose-built facility and both had chickens hatching. After that they are very different. I'm going to let my fellow travellers post their impressions and I'll follow up a little later. I have included a few photos to give a flavor of La Habra (first 2 photos) and Irvine (bottom 2).
I was very impressed with Pretend City. A miniature city is a great concept that provides a variety of learning and play opportunities for the children while connecting them with a common theme and activities such as getting timecards stamped and redeeming them for play money through an ATM.
ReplyDeleteFor example, children could race boats, float ducks and fish in a water area. There were clever realistic touches with an environmental theme such as a sign reminding visitors of "fishing limits" (and "no whaling!").
Our tourguide described this as a "quiet day" but there were a lot of parents and children who looked like they were having fun. I liked that the museum (which I hadn't realized was a nonprofit organization) puts on special events every 1-2 weeks such as autism night for families of autistic children (an event for which 69 families showed up).
The La Habra Children's Museum is older - a train station was converted to a museum in 1977. It had some exhibits that looked like fun, such as a caboose that kids could walk through, a model train and a stage where chidren could perform, complete with a microphone and sound effects buttons "backstage". I liked the wishing wells where visitors could watch coins roll inside - this is a great way to get donations!
Two different museum experiences: Pretend City is new, bright and shiny, very much “hands on” all exhibits are for interactive, collaborative play between children and parents. I liked all of the small touches, from the “grass” design imprinted in the carpet, to the spongy flooring used in the “Park” which was the center hub of the city. All of the exhibits were being played in, and it was fun to see how the children interacted. According to Chantal, the Director of Education, and our tour guide, they re-set the exhibits and clean every day, they have 4 sets of all items in the exhibits. We noticed the “Library” exhibit was not yet open, and children could donate their play money to help fund the library; philanthropy is encouraged as part of play. Everything is indoors here; the museum appears to be housed in a light industrial, business park area.
ReplyDeleteLa Habra is older, and appears to be well used, maybe a bit worn on the edges like a favorite toy. It’s a mix of more traditional museum exhibits to be looked at, and others that are interactive and encourage play and creativity. Like Pretend City, they also had an art room. There is a rotating display room that changes about every four months, it’s currently “Farm Animals and Friends” including some live goats and chickens on display. The high school 4-H club comes in each morning to take care of the animals.There is a train theme in parts of the museum, such as the model train room, and real train on the tracks outside the building, that can be boarded. There is a “Preschool Playpark” for children from birth to 5 years. It was a large room with various areas compared to Pretend City which had a very tiny space set aside for infants and toddlers. I liked the dinosaur area, with red sand and fossils that could be discovered by using a “paint brush” to sweep away the sand.
It was interesting and useful to see two very different children's museum experiences. One new, one old, and how the idea of exhibits and interactivity have developed through the years.
There were a lot of similarities and a lot of differences between the two museums we visited. Overall, I would say the La Habra children's museum was a local institution that is probably beloved in the community but not well known outside of town. It was older and generally a bit frayed at the edges. Pretend City was more of a destination--an attraction that would likely bring in children and families from all around the region. It was larger and obviously better-funded and staffed, and there was lots of outreach activity. To offer library analouges, I'd say the La Habra Museum was more like an older city library--Upland Public Library, perhaps. Pretend City was more like Victoria Gardens--a brand new facility built to be colorful, exciting and innovative, and a place that people would travel some distance to visit.
ReplyDeleteThere was quite a bit of similarity between exhibits and themes in the two musuems. Just to give a few examples off the top of my head, both had:
- a toy car that children could sit in an pretend to full up from a fake gas tank
- a sand digging area
- an art studio
- baby chicks hatching and growing up
- a soft anatomical toy with stuffed "guts" that would help children learn body parts
- a stage with a sound and light board controlled by children
- lots of costumes for dress up
- a kitchen area where children could prepare a "meal"
- a special area for toddlers and younger children, etc.
However, despite all the similarities, the two museums had a very different feel. The La Habra museum was in an old train depot, so the rooms were arranged in sequence, one after the other. Children could move sequentially from one room to another, but didn't have a central area from which they could survey all their options and access any part of the museum. Because the exhibits were older and had probably been added and changed over the years, there wasn't a sense of thematic cohesion to the museum. It felt like a bunch of individual exhibits, each of which had been added along the way as time and money permittted, rather than an environment designed to create a partiuclar experience.
Pretend City, on the other hand, was obviously the product of a deliberate creative vision. The idea was to recreate a city environment, with many of the features of a city that a chid would recognize (park, post office, house, library, supermarket, restaurant, etc.) and allow the children to experience "working" in these places through various interactive play environments. There were a number of innoviate elements that tied the entire environment together and created the feel of a city. Time cards could be stamped at each location and then used to collect "wages" in the form of play money from ATMS. Roads with lots of pedal cars ran around the museum from building to building so children could drive from one area to another. Telephones in each building could call any other building, allowing children and parents to talk to one another. While I think these elements would probably be lost on younger children, they might be recoginzable to older children, and they would also impress parents and potential donors with the feeling that this was a well-designed and thought-out integrated environment, rather than just a bunch of exhibits and toys thrown into a warehouse. When I learned about some of these features, I had an immediate "that so cool!" reaction.
**More to follow**
**Comments continued**
ReplyDeleteOne other thing worth mentioning is our reception at the two museums. At Pretend City, were treated as professional colleagues. Chantal Lamourelle, their director of education, and obviously a key member of their staff (she was responsible for the design concepts of the exhibits) spent a long time with us, and was able to explain the ideas behind the exhibits and the developmental and educational concepts she had built into each one. She was also able to tell us quite a bit about outreach, fund raising and daily operations. She was energetic, passionate, articulate and obviously a big part of the success of Pretend City.
The La Habra Musuem was a bit different. First of all, we were charged admission (unlike at Pretend City.) Our tour guide was a young woman who worked at the front counter. While she knew the musuem well (she had been visiting since she was a child), she didn't appear to be a key member of their creative or administrative staff, and she was not able to give us the same insights into design or operation of the museum that Chantal did at Pretend City. This fit in with my overall feeling about the two musuems. Pretend City wants to be a model for other museums, an active and well-known participant in the children's museum community and a regional destination for Orange County and perhaps all of Southern California. The La Habra musuem has a more modest local focus, and doesn't feel the need to be a regional destination or a widely know and recognized landmark in the children's museum world. There's certainly a place for both types of institutions, but I suspect that when we begin planning for a children's museum on the second floor at Victoria Gardens, we will want to be more like Pretend City than La Habra.
When we started our tour of Pretend City Chantel, the Director of Education explained that the exhibits where created with a high amount of detail so visitors may find something new each time they visit. This reminded me of hidden Mickeys at Disneyland. For example, the buildings/exhibits such as the Ralph’s grocery store or the Library are modeled after two existing buildings in the Orange County area. The intention is to help children connect with their community by helping them recognize physical buildings and the function they serve.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed the unified theme of the museum. It is a children’s size city where they can explore various aspects of everyday living such as gardening and grocery stores and how these are linked (are we making kids grow-up to fast?). There are also working phones within the exhibits for children to talk to each other and mailboxes for children to write messages and/or deliver messages should they choose to work as a mailperson.
Another great feature was the home exhibit where a family from the community is chosen to represent their respective home life by making a video for display in the exhibit. The video depicts the everyday life of the family and offers information about their culture. If I remember correctly the family they chose for the current exhibit is Vietnamese. For the exhibit I would have preferred to see more manipulatives or decorations that depicted the Vietnamese culture however, they could have been scattered around the other exhibit areas or damaged. So I really can’t say for sure if they had more at one time. The restaurant exhibit also changes its menu selection however it did not seem as if this coincided with the house exhibit (it is currently American cuisine).
As for the La Habra Children’s museum it was quaint and I think they do the best with what they have. The nature walk has an impressive selection of taxidermy wild animals which they encourage children to touch. This is supplemented with sounds and live creatures such as a spider with scorpion pincers (I forgot what they are called) and other reptiles. The bus and dinosaur dig are definite highlights of the museum and overall I thought the exhibits were conducive to play as a means to learning.
In addition to the previous comments made about the La Habra Children’s Museum it seemed like the calendar of events offers many programs that are akin to the activities that the La Habra County Library offers. The museum offers craft stations, Hip Hop classes for pre-school age and Dad’s Pirate adventure day charging double the price of their admission ($7 non-residents, $6 La Habra residents) or more depending on the program. The La Habra Library also offers programs such as the Music and Movement storytime, Young Artists workshop and ABC kids storytime where kids can make crafts and hear stories that are similar to the classes offered at the museum (I believe free of charge).
As a frugal parent if I lived in the Orange County area I would probably take my daughter to the La Habra Children’s Museum once a year and I would probably visit Pretend City multiple times (especially since they are the same price and the cost is cheaper then going to the movies). This is due to the many layers of activities that are inherent in the Pretend City exhibits. As it is a city theme activities at one exhibit can transfer to another and I think this is why it is important to have (as Jason stated) a “cohesive” theme.
I found what Jason said about who was showing you around to be quite interesting (and astute!)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, if someone wants to get a tour of either AR or VG, unless there are extenuating circumstances, Michelle or I are doing this tour. (And if we are not available, then it goes to Renee, then Cara, etc.) But no way is a part-time page giving a tour. Just isn't going to happen.
Ever.
RK