Posted in Field Trip Fun

Today David and I took the kids to the Gray Fossil Site/Museum in Johnson City, which is a part of the Natural History Museum there, actually I guess it is Gray, TN.

HERE is the main site for the fossil site, which is in part funded by ETSU. Some of the story behind this place is pretty interesting!

HERE is the specific site for the Gray Fossil Museum.

HERE is a neat interactive part of their site for children! Kids can use an online magnifying glass and move it over animals to see their bones. There is also online coloring and word puzzles to do.

Ok, so on to my review...we had hoped to take a small-ish group of us to this museum as we are learning about dinosaurs this week. However, I didn't realize they are backed up until SPRING with school groups! UG! So, we opted to just go on our own whenever the opportunity arose. Today seemed like a good day...so we went!

Several points about our trip, for anyone else interested in possibly going.

*The museum is very nice and new! The exhibits are kid friendly, however, I think my children are a little young to get the most out of it. I would think in a few years I could take Hannah back and she would probably have a little more interest. The animals they had put back together, the bones, were neat to look at.

*The only "hands-on" thing that my kids got into was a small-ish dig site. We had heard there was a lot for smaller kids at this place, but a lot of it just did not grab my kids attention, so that was a little disappointing! They did dig for a few minutes and find some rhino bones in the pit!

*There were a few places where they had bones laying in a box kind of like a puzzle, they showed you a picture of what it should look like and then you could move the bones around yourself to see how scientists do their work! I, myself, thought this was pretty neat! But, I think I was the only one.

*There are many, MANY references to "millions of years ago" and "4.3 million years ago" and lots of phrases like that. I had been prepared for maybe 1-2 as you walk in or on a sign here or there...but you saw it, read it and heard it spoken on these little monitor things. I have already discussed this with the girls - how many people do believe that dinosaurs come from millions of years ago, but we believe the Bible to be accurate! So, I'm thankful we had been over that.

*It was a pretty quick "run through" and even that was slowing down the kids to get them to see certain things. We did NOT take the guided tour, so it was FREE! That was a big bonus! For the guided tour, I had wanted to originally take that to see the actual diggers up on the site digging for fossils and bones, but she said their digging season is over for the year. So, we opted to go for free through the museum part alone.

*I am glad we went...I think it gave the girls a real picture of what the bones of animals look like, how the paleontologists do their job! However, I would not give it a huge thumbs up for fun and preschooler friendly, as far as lots of things for them to do.  Overall, I am glad we went as a family. I am also glad we didn't go as a homeschooling group together! I think we would have been done in about 5 minutes and then I would have felt bad for taking everyone out there! I'm glad we got the chance to see it...and I hope to go back maybe in a few years when the girls will be old enough to appreciate it a little more!

*One more bummer - I forgot my camera! It ended up being ok, cause there really weren't a lot of photo op's, but I couldn't believe I forgot my camera on a field trip!

(surprisingly, the alligator teeth we saw were much smaller than I would have imagined!)