Places to Play in PA: The Franklin Institute

I am beginning a new segment on my little blog-- a lottle coverage of places our family has visited to that our kid friendly in PA. I love this state-- I dont realy feel as if I can call myself a local as once a Jersey girl, always a jersey girl ;)

We went to the Franklin Institute about a month ago when Matt had to work in the city and one benefit of going during the week was at about 2:00 all the schools cleared out and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We also hit a personal setback when our little guy threw his paci out of the stroller oh say, about an hour after we got there and he was def. not a happy camper at times without it. That being said, we did have a nice time.

My kids favorite attraction hands down was the heart-- they must have gone through about 20 times! Thinking back to when I went there as a kid it was my favorite thing to (although I remember a fish tank being inside it then), so I am so happy they have never changed this exhibit. We also loved th electricity room and the sports rooms a lot-- these had a lot of hands on things where the kids could see science and have it click right away.

The only room we didn't really like was the kids play area designed for younger kids-- it seemed empty and as if half the exhibit had been put away... not sure about that since they have some great things to work with there. Also not cool-- we went to see a BLACK HOLE movie and it 1. terrified my kids (dont know what I was thinking) and 2. was so inaccurate and lacking all sound reason Biblically, that we made a quick dash for the door about 5 minutes into it. We also saw the 3-D Oceans movie and the effects were great, but was expecting something on sharks and we got sardines. Thats not their fault, but mine... but really, who'd film sardines when their are sharks nearby? Seriously...

All in all we had a great time and the kids retained alot of what they had seen and I would def. go again in maybe 5 years as not a whole lot changes on a year-to-year basis, but still, as I said before, a great day trip!