Since I finally finished THE BOOK (aka Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less)) and turned in the first drafts for the production team to work over, I decided to reintroduce myself to my family. You know – the people who put up with me hiding in the office for the last month, a furiously-typing-nose-in-multiple-books-in-need-of-a-shower woman who’d high-jacked the front bedroom? I figured I owed them.
These guys? I like them a lot. The little ones, I mean, not the dinosaur.
So we went on a week long road trip and took off to see some places we’ve had on our family’s must-visit list for awhile. The first stop, The Creation Museum in Kentucky. With a dinosaur lover or three in the family, we wanted our children to understand the science behind a God-created world. And I wanted to be able to read the educational signs without having to edit.
Here are some tips for visiting the Creation Museum with a family now that I’ve had a chance to check it out for myself.
Pretty, pretty landscaping throughout.
The first thing I noticed when we arrived at the Creation Museum is that the parking lot and drive ways were beautifully landscaped I noticed too, but once I saw the gardens I wasn’t surprised. We also saw that parking lot has a parking guide who not only points out an open parking spot, but serves as a security officer for the parking lot.
I liked that a lot because we had a luggage rack on the back of our van to save space and Sidney didn’t feel like he had to unhook all our suitcases and move them inside while we were touring the museum. The cars were near enough to the museum entrance you could pack a lunch if you were trying to stay on a budget and just do the picnic-in-the-parking-lot thing.
Lots of kind-friendly detours throughout keep it interesting for all age levels.
I highly recommend the two-day pass when touring the Creation Museum with kids. We were able to space out the main museum walk through the Seven-C’s and the other fun things we wanted to do like hiking through the gardens and watching the planetarium show. It would have been impossible to fit everything we wanted to do into a single day without turning our experience into an over-managed-child-frustrating-mother-crazifying nightmare. Two-Day Passes = A must for families. This way we could let each of our children enjoy something that was of interest to them without rushing them through the experiences.
Amazingly smooth meteorite – one of several different examples in the display.
Right away inside I noticed the cool exhibits tucked away along the walkways and corridors. Look close so you don’t miss the cool meteorite display with samples of actual shooting stars. My kids loved that and I was amazed to see how different the samples were.
The tracks he left in the sediment went more than 10 feet. Very cool.
Or the fossilized horseshoe crab that was buried alive – as evidenced by the long track he left in the mud layer he was buried in. Evidence of a rapid burial by some catastrophic event. It would have been easy to miss if I hadn’t been warned to keep a look out! So here’s your warning – watch for them because they are usually pretty cool.
The finch exhibit – a living look at genetic diversity and a chance to discuss Darwinism and natural selection.
Anyone familiar with Answers in Genesis will be familiar with their Seven C’s of Earth’s ultimate timeline. Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, Consummation. We are currently in the time period after the cross, of course, and awaiting the second coming of Christ (the last C). The museum walk through history takes you through the Seven C’s, with much attention to the first four.
Everyone starts with a foundational point of view.
First you are introduced to the basic foundation of the Creation Museums scientific method – the assumption that God’s Word is accurate is the foundation for examining the evidence. The same evidences used by all scientists – who also examine it with a foundational mindset. Which foundation do you start with? Because that of course impacts how you choose to interpret evidences of past events.
One of several possibilities of an original horse kind.
I loved the Creation story video and exhibits. The beautiful displays captivated my children, who were so excited to see their Bible stories come to life. And the educational signs challenged adults as well – would horses have looked then the way horses look now? Likely not because they had to have contained the genetic information for all the horse kinds that developed through natural selection over the last 7 thousand years.
Thinking, thinking – always thinking…
The Corruption was thought-provoking to say the least. WARNING– There was one room in particular with a series of photos projected against the wall. It was a little scary. The sounds and the images together were depicting the fall of creation, so obviously not a light subject matter to begin with, but for my 3 year old and newly-6 year old the images were overwhelming and we moved quickly to the next room.
With the fall (Corruption) came carnivores, venom, death, disease, war, etc. The images in the room after this were challenging.
The Noah’s ark replica was fascinating to the children, and to my husband. He’s such a handyman around the house I think he was trying to imagine what it would be like to try to build something like that himself! The flood video? Wow!
A to-scale replica – note the dinosaurs going up the ramp.
We went to one of the special programs available that day, Dragons of the Land, Air, and Sea by Buddy Davis. It was a treat to meet him and the kids totally enjoyed the hands-on portion of the workshop, building their own dragon sculptures.
Concentrating on making his dragon just-so.
When given their choice in the bookstore my kids chose a Buddy Davis DVD and I’m not surprised they wanted to see more he had to offer.
The kids enjoyed meeting Buddy Davis and we now own one of his DVDs and a book set!
The second day we went to the planetarium, explored the petting zoo and the gardens in-depth. The gardens will be another post all their own because I have too many photos to share. The planetarium show we went to was the newest one, Worlds of the Cosmos, which described the planets and other celestial bodies. I wasn’t sure if Micah would get much out of it at 3 years old but when we got back to the hotel room that night he was drawing Saturn and the rings on the mirror so something stuck! It was the perfect show because we had been studying the solar system in school a little bit, so everyone except Vivian liked it.
The kids ice-cream sundae w/big dinosaur cookie was the best deal at the concession stands.
We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Richwood, Kentucky about 15 minutes south. It was perfect. Close enough that getting there was very easy (no traffic while we were there) and the rates were reasonable. Under $100 per night with Sidney’s Wal-Mart employee discount and the rooms had two queen beds, a pull-out couch, a sink outside the bathroom in the kitchenette area, a fridge, a microwave, a dining table, and a desk area for my technologies. We saved enough on meals out to justify the price of the room vs. camping and the Holiday Inn Express was the one place close by that we found would allow us more than 4 people in a room without a fuss. It definitely worked well for our family and I would recommend it.
That museum looks amazing. Very interesting that it shows the different viewpoints also. That is one thing I’ve always struggled with, the science of it all.
One thing they mentioned that I never really thought about before is that there’s a misconception that Evolutionistic scientists have one set of evidence, and Creation scientists have another set of evidences and each just pulls the evidence that they want to believe. When in fact, the truth is, the same evidence is used and acknowledged by both and it’s the interpretations that vary.
I think this is a really lovely way to marry your beliefs with the world we live in and expose your children to all of it.. who by the way are TOTALLY precious!
Thanks! You should see how many pictures I have of them standing in front of the dinosaur before I finally got one that was halfway decent. (The one you see at the top of the post) At least 15. hehehehe