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This summer, you may have seen us asking a random (but representative) sampling visitors to fill out a survey - part of our constant effort to continually improve.

We had great responses (and if you didn't fill out a survey, feel free to email me with your thoughts!) - with one puzzling response:

Visitors reported bringing almost 50% more boys (343) than girls (240) to the Museum.

We looked back at the past few years of surveys, and realized this is a consistent result. You may know the fact that there are actually slightly more girls than boys overall, so this isn't some weird population quirk. No, it seems that parents are more likely to bring sons than daughters to the Museum.

We have some theories about this - but we want to know what you think. Are you more likely to bring boys to play here? What can we do to attract an equal number of girls and boys - after all, the creative, unstructured discovery play that happens here is equally important for girls and boys.

Share your thoughts in the comments - or email me directly at jcaleshu(at)badm.org - as mom to a boy (3.5) and a girl (7 months), this is a really important issue to me!

A fabulous article on children and food hit the "most emailed" list of the New York Times (free login required) this morning - even though I have a fairly food-adventurous 3-year-old son, I see some mistakes I'm making!

• Pressuring them to take a bite: I know that it takes 10 or more tries for children to like a new flavor (adults too - I taught myself to like olives by trying it more than 2 or 3 times!). But I didn't realize that research shows children who are rewarded for trying new foods actually develop a dislike of the food! Far better to offer it and not make a big deal.
• Keeping treats out of sight: We're trying not to make dessert a reward, but we do keep the cookies up on top of the fridge - and again, research shows that cookies in a jar are much more enticing than cookies on a plate!

Check out the whole article for the other mistakes - including dieting, serving boring vegetables (a little butter actually makes the fat-soluable vitamins accessible to your body!) and keeping your kids out of the kitchen (easier said than done with some preschoolers!).

Summer camps are over, and what a fabulous time was had by all! Here are a few comments by some of our campers' parents:

• "This is best, most organized, well thought out and fun camp I've ever seen for children in this age range. Congratulations on the good work. My daughter came home happy and excited about camp every day!
• "Everyone is always so friendly and upbeat. It is a pleasure. My son always has such a wonderful time!"
• "The creativity of the program, the friendliness of the staff, and the organization of the camp coordinator, Heather, are exceptional! We look forward to returning to Discovery Camp next summer."
• "My son loved this camp! He said he wanted to do it for "100 days"!"
• "She was in love with the camp and also fell more in love with the museum. She can't wait to go to the museum and show me all of the places where she played etc. Thanks for brightening her day.

We invite you to check out some of the pictures from camps on our Flickr pages.

Fort building has a rich tradition here at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Some of it lives on in our Kids' Building summer camps (like the photo here).

Cover an old card table with a blanket, use an old box from a refrigerator, or find a natural spot. Children relish the opportunity to create a space of their own where they are in charge. Let them set the standards for admission and participation in their fort. Sometimes children crave a private space where they can be alone and still within eyesight of an adult.

The job of the adult in this case is to facilitate the experience and participate as an observer. Only join the game if you are invited. You can learn a great deal about your child by stepping aside to watch the choices they make without your input.

Children can use this experience to test their own ideas and learn to recognize the consequences that result from their decisions. As we've mentioned before in our posts about the risk-taking study and 5 Dangerous Things Your Kids Should Do, we think it's important for children to test their own limits - they can't grow without some trial and error!

What do you think? Do you have fort-building memories from your childhood? Let us know in the comments.

It's no secret that kids love to play in the water - even on the foggiest days we're bound to see at least one kid splashing in the stream in Tot Spot or the Rocky Shore in Lookout Cove.

Most adults also have vivid memories of early experiences playing in and with water. Whether you co-design a water play area with your children at home using a hose, some buckets and tubs or you visit a local stream or beach, water is fascinating and has a strong educational properties. Water can be splashed or poured, used to sink or float objects; it can be routed into fast-moving streams or dammed to form ponds.

Playing with water helps children develop respect for nature as well as for basic safety rules and procedures. It also teaches social skills and cooperation, experimentation and problem solving.

We're all concerned with saving resources - especially water, here in the West. Here are a couple of tips for saving water when you play with your kids:

• Invest in a spray nozzle for your hose - and look for one with a 'mist' setting. Not only will you save water from running when you don't need it, but it uses very little water to 'mist' your kids - or have them mist you!
• Playing in the bathtub is one of the easiest, year-round ways to enjoy water with your children. But you only need an inch or two, not a full tub which can hold 30+ gallons. Fill the tub a bit, pull the curtain closed (most of the way!), and let your child splash to their hearts content!

A major study by Play England, part of the National Children's Bureau in the United Kingdom, and reported in an article in Sunday's The Observer (U.K.), explains that "risky" play is a childhood necessity. At the Museum, we know that child-directed, open-ended Discovery Play sometimes leads to bonked heads and skinned knees - but that might not be a terrible thing:

1. The absolute level of risk of much outdoor play is probably over-emphasized in our culture. Last year in England, "almost three times as many children were admitted to hospital after falling out of bed as those who had fallen from a tree." 
2. Physical activity is critically important in a world where children spend increasing numbers of hours in front of a screen. In the U.K., this study said, "half of all children have been stopped from climbing trees, 21 per cent have been banned from playing conkers and 17 per cent have been told they cannot take part in games of tag or chase." If they can't play these typical childhood games, what are their alternatives?
3. The ability to fall down and get up again applies to more experiences than just climbing a tree. "Risk-taking increases the resilience of children," says one expert quoted in the study.
   
4. "It helps them make judgments," said another expert. It is impossible to protect your children from all risk - but when they aren't allowed the opportunity to explore their own abilities, they won't learn to judge their own limits.
5. If we want our children to be stewards for the environment, they need to get out and get dirty in nature. According to the research, "70 per cent of adults had their biggest childhood adventures in outdoor spaces among trees, rivers and woods, compared with only 29 per cent of children today. The majority of young people ...

This Wednesday, meet in Studio 10 at 2:15 p.m. to explore how the form and function of animals and objects affects their motion in the wind. How does the shape and weight of a bird help it fly? What helps seeds disperse in the wind? Design your own creatures to test in our wind tunnel in this free hands-on workshop for children ages 4 to 8 lead by Lead Science Guide Tami Lau.

After spending almost a year as a Discovery Guide, Tami Lau has recently accepted the new role of Lead Science Guide. Previously, Tami worked for the National Park Service at Pinnacles National Park where she led the Junior Ranger program. She plans to start a similar program at the Museum.

Have you ever played a didgeridoo? This Saturday's interactive performance by Timothy will have your whole family vibrating their lips and practicing their circular breathing!

Check out this YouTube video of famed Aboriginal didgeridoo player Larry 'Winiwini' Gurruwiwi.

Remember - use the code groovy when you purchase your tickets online in advance to save $1 on each ticket!

At the Museum, we believe unstructured Discovery Play encourages development of creativity. Creativity is more than the ability to paint or make music, of course - it's the ability to create novel connections, develop new themes, and see patterns.

Last week's New Yorker Magazine has a fascinating article examining the science behind those "eureka" moments - unfortunately only an abstract is available online - but if you can find a copy (it has a dinner party with lobsters escaping on the cover) do check it out.

Researchers John Kounios, a cognitive neuroscientist at Drexel University, and Mark Jun-Beeman, a cognitive neuroscientist at Northwestern University, explain that "the insight process is an act of cognitive deliberation--the brain must be focussed on the task at hand--transformed by accidental, serendipitous connections."

So, when your kids come to play here, we encourage them to use our exhibitions in novel ways - to get into the "flow" of playing and develop their own insights into the way the world works. Not only are they having fun, but they're exercising the part of their brain that will lead to creative success in the future.