Play Time
We are so fortunate to have a great museum so close by. I grew up not far from this museum and spent many a day here. It was free for Salem residents and still today it is free for them. I no longer live in Salem but I do support the Peabody Essex Museum and we take the boys there often. They have grown to love it as much as we do. Right now they are having an exhibit titled Play Time and we went yesterday and we had a great day. The boys played together and laughed a lot. It made me so happy that we can provide this for them. I look at it as sharing a piece of our own growing up. Of course, we took their Mom here also when she was a little girl.
"PlayTime is the first major thematic exhibition to survey the rapidly evolving role of play in contemporary art and culture. Nearly forty works by seventeen leading contemporary artists—including large-scale installations, sculpture, photographs, video and tactile interactives—examine how play catalyzes creative expression, enchants the ordinary, and helps us understand ourselves in new ways." I hope we can get back there one more time before the exhibit closes in May.
They loved the balloon room. I had to go in with them but with my claustrophobia, I kept one foot holding the door open for a quick exit. You really are suppose to exit at the other end but no way was I diving into that mess...
Jaxson is hanging back. It was very dark in there. A light at the end showed a pink "something" kneeling and then when you got to the end, it jumped up. You know I didn't go, right.
This was fun. A sweater just laying on this block. What would you do with that to make it fun and playful? Well, you could share that sweater with your Papa. All the blocks had different things to play with.
I'm not quite sure what this was. He was dancing though, so it had something to do with music. He does have a good time with himself.
Both boys spent a lot of time with this game making Avatars. They picked the model, then named them, dressed them, picked hair color and descriptions of what their Avatar would be like. Liam made at least 5 and Jaxson, probably three. They really loved this and had to type all the info in themselves...well, maybe Jaxson needed a bit of help but not Liam.
I love this quote. If only we played more as adults. Then again, the boys are always making us play. I love that part of being a Nana. Without the boys I'm not so sure we would go out and do all these fun things.
So once again the boys took us on an amazing adventure. There was so much more there to do than what I posted here. If you have a chance to see this exhibit at a museum near you, grab a few kids and go. They will show you how to have fun and laugh, even for a few hours. You know though, I thought about this after we left and for days going forward. All of us should play more. We putter around doing chores and we do daily life tasks. Ask yourself, when was the last time you played? Give it a try. Go ahead, reinvent the rules. There is more to life than being busy.
“When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another—and ourselves.” ~Jack Kornfield
All of the photos in this post with taken with the I-phone 7 Plus.