Museums are great places for seeing and experiencing new things. Your young scientist will love taking a trip to visit an air and space museum, astronomy museum, or planetarium. 

Your child may be excited to see airplanes, rockets, astronaut gear, or learn about our solar system. There are lots of opportunities to talk and have fun together. This collection provides strategies and activities for adult caregivers visiting the museum with a child.

Talk with Me!

Having conversations with young children contributes to their thinking and language development. All conversations are good, but research shows that the quality of words children hear matters more than the quantity. Further, what’s best is an exchange; in other words, talk with children, not at them.

The Talk with Me Toolkits give parents and caregivers thematically organized high-quality, authentic materials to make children their conversational partners in discussions that matter. Each online toolkit features captivating videos and real-world photographs, as well as intriguing paintings and other artworks to observe and discuss through conversation prompts.  Hands-on activities and books complete each toolkit. Simple instructions appear right in the toolkits, so you can jump right in. See what interests your child and get started. There’s a lot to talk about!

To read more, see, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Usable Knowledge site, The Brain-Changing Power of Conversation.