Museum adventures for children

mussummer032: Museum adventures for childrenWeek long summer adventures for children have been a sellout at the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield since they were announced three months ago. Children ages 5-10 are challenged daily from 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in a summer camp atmosphere where themes change weekly and activities are fun and educational. In three weeks, they have learned about and experienced “Frontier Life,” “Oceans of Fun” and “Color My World.” Still to come are “Mad Science” and “Around the World in Five Days.”

“Some of the children have been with us all three weeks and plan on coming back for the last two,” said Jackie Brouillette, educational services manager. “Parents have commented about their original fears that they wouldn’t be able to get the children out of bed, dressed and ready in time. Instead, they tell me the children are up, dressed and excited well before it’s time to go.”

On a recent visit to the museum, “Frontier Life” was the theme, and the children were getting a true appreciation of what it was like to be a child around the 1890s. Starting early in the morning, they learned how to churn butter and then used the churned butter to make “snickerdoddle” cookies.

Later in the morning, they toured some of the pioneer buildings on the museum grounds such as the courthouse, jail and Chinese “joss” house with docent Ken Varley. Varley was dressed for the part as a western sheriff complete with frock coat, vest, felt hat, tin badge and six-shooter. Before Varley could begin his tales of old Kern County, nine-year-old Michael Harp spotted a picture of the original Beale Clock Tower hanging inside the courthouse and proved he knew something about history, too.

“That tower used to be in the middle of the road but an earthquake destroyed it,” Harp told Varley and the rest of the children. Harp was right, and Varley commended him for his knowledge.

Then, Varley grabbed their attention with an old picture of a public hanging and the story behind it of citizens taking justice into their own hands to lynch alleged horse thieves without a trial. Further, down the road, Varley stopped in front of the joss house, a traditional place of worship, built for the museum by Kern County’s Chinese community. As the awestruck children listened, Varley recounted in vivid detail the1903 shootout at an L Street joss house that ended infamous outlaw Jim McKinney’s reign of terror.

“The beauty of the summer adventures is that the learning is fun,” Brouillette said. “Parents tell me how their children come home knowledgeable about history, culture and science they didn’t even realize they were learning.”

Each of the themed weeks includes education, crafts and nutritional breaks featuring cooking or prepared foods from countries about which the children were learning. For instance, in “Color My World” all of the activities were based on colors. The nutritional part focused on the colors of different foods and why they are eaten.

But “Color My World” also encouraged the children to use their imaginations and creative ideas. Museum volunteers spent one morning utilizing their artistic talents to paint images on children’s faces. Each child came up with their own idea of what should be painted. Most ideas were born out of particular experiences or interests.

It wasn’t difficult to spot Cassie Davis. Her brightly painted orange face had a series of criss-cross black stripes. “I’m a basketball,” Davis explained, “because that’s my favorite sport.”


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