Welcome to the Bay Area Discovery Museum’s Parents Page, where you can find find information about at-home science projects, articles featuring the Museum’s own child development and education specialists, and links to other parent resource sites.

Parent Resource Links

• Look at the Stars: It gets dark early enough that even younger children can go outside after dark and look up into the sky. Try to choose a location where your view is not blocked by trees or diminished by streetlights. Look for shapes in the sky and make up a story about what you see. If you can identify a constellation, point it out. Tell a story about the constellation or go back inside and look up the story. You will find different peoples have different names and different stories for the most prominent constellations.
• Visit a Waterfall: Once the rains come, our local creeks and waterfalls start to flow again after slowing to a trickle or drying up completely during the dry months. Look at all the life supported by the rains. You can find water bugs, crawfish, newts, and even fish in many local, seasonal waterways. Notice that all of the water in flowing down hill to the Bay. You can even listen at a storm drain in your own neighborhood to hear the water rushing down to the Bay just under the streets.
• Make a Mudpie. Put on some old clothes and head outside for some old-fashioned, mucking around! Break out those beach toys and gardening tools. Get down alongside your child and join them in exploring their world and making up a pretend narrative to extend the experience. Be sure to give them time and space to have an uninterrupted play time.

For more winter play ideas, click here (PDF)

For autumn play ideas, click here (PDF)

For summer play ideas, click here (PDF)