Music classes, gymnastics and soccer have stretched him out and broadened his horizons, but that the same time we have made sure that we have not over-scheduled him (or ourselves) to the extent that raising him becomes a matter of scheduling and logistics rather than on going spontaneous interaction where he can let us know what his interests and talents are.
The trucks regularly capture his attention and his talent for spotting them is preternatural. We have regularly exposed him to all kinds of music and I'm not sure if he has taken any interest in the jazz that I've tried to slip past him but he has a sharp knack for singing along and identifying what he's listening to. He has been to plays on a regular basis and there have been other efforts made to get him out and exposed to new things.
When we have been on holidays, we've seized the opportunities to take him to aquariums and have struggled to find the right time or age to engage him in the exhibits there. When he was two he just wanted to splash around in the contact pools and when we took him again at age three he did not take as much interest the second time around. (I did, however, enjoy him calling the shark "Bruce" while all the other kids were calling the clownfish "Nemo.") We took him to an outhouse museum in July when we were in Nova Scotia and that kept his attention for a while.
I'm not sure how the outhouse museum ranks amongst other institutions that we could have taken him to, but his first visit to a "real" museum was earlier this week when we headed to Drumheller to visit the Tyrell Museum which is replete with the dinosaur fossils that would hold the attention of many a boy.
Upon arrival at the museum, Gabriel was immediately captivated with the dinosaur sculptures that were between the parking lot and the building. Once we got in, there were the landmark exhibits with the models of T-Rex's and other dinosaurs that were found in the area, along with the "lesser" dinosaurs from the badlands of Alberta. He managed to keep his attention on the exhibits that were around. There were a few interactive pieces int he museum that he did not have a knack for figuring out the proper use of but he found his way with the other exhibits that more closely resembled the dinosaurs he had expected to see - alive and active at the museum. To that extend the animatronic dinosaurs at the Calgary Zoo may have been more appealing to him. He enjoyed the exhibits, I think. He scampered around the museum, following the intended path as well as he could though he ran much more than he wanted to walk.
He seemed intrigued by the exhibits throughout the museum, but for a near-4 year old the quick progression through the museum was likely enough for him. We got out and we even managed to get him out of the gift shop without incident. It may have been more of a rite of passage for my wife and I than it was for him, but it will likely be something that we check in on as we revisit the topics of dinosaurs and museums in the time ahead. We will likely be back at the Tyrell in a few years and we will try to gauge his memories of the place when the subject of dinosaurs comes up again in the future. There will be other museums as time goes along and they will be age appropriate for the next few years as well.
