Day 5

This morning we had decided that we would go to the Canadian Museum of Civilization (civilization.ca). If you're ever visiting Ottawa, there are more than a dozen museums to visit, but this one should definitely top your list! The Canadian Children's Museum is a museum within a museum. It's set up like an outdoor global market. You can ride a rickshaw in Thailand, shop in a French bakery, work on an ocean barge, operate the currency exchange booth, or explore Egyptian hieroglyphs - and that's not even half of the activities! Taken from the Museum's website: "The Canadian Children’s Museum (CCM) has been developed around a central theme — The Great Adventure — and gives younger visitors an opportunity to travel the world. Over 30 permanent exhibit spaces have been designed as a series of contextual environments situated along a random circulation route. Exhibit themes promote intercultural understanding and emphasize process rather than the acquisition of a detailed body of knowledge. A rich assortment of materials including props, costumes and hands-on artifacts supports open-ended, inquiry-based learning experiences. Based on a client-centred approach, the space facilitates small group interaction and immersion/role-playing." I brought Angus to this museum in 2008, but as you can guess, he got very little out of it. This time around, however, it was a non-stop race from activity to activity. He absolutely loved it! In true Angus form, he always made his way back to anything that he could drive: a car, bus, rickshaw, motorcycle...it was exciting to watch him be so excited. Isn't that one of the BEST gifts of parenthood? You get to see the world from a completely different perspective. One that's innocent, pure, and fun...the way it should be. After a long day of working/playing, we headed home for naps, some swimming, and I had to get myself to a Future Shop to buy a new DVD system for the drive home. I did buy one, stopped at Chapter's, and went home to help start with dinner (since Ryan was going to be joining us, my Dad & Jan made sure that the dinner was special). We had a great evening with good food and good conversation. I was the first person to call it a night at about 10:30 p.m. (for those of you who know me, hardly surprising!). Day 6 was going to be a long day...we were planning to stop in Pointe-Claire to visit Grammie Knowles, and we had to make it to Edmundston by dinnertime.

TODAY'S GRADE: A