Eric Carle Museum

I took the boys and their cousin to the Eric Carle museum back on February 21 for a fun outing to culminate our week of learning about Eric Carle and his books.  It was a drive; not going to lie.  It took us about an hour and twenty minutes to arrive there.

When we arrived, we walked into a huge hallway with bright paintings on the walls.  To our right was the gift shop and artist studio, while ahead was a hungry caterpillar with benches on the inside and book shelves on the outside.  This was easily Carter's favorite place to hang out.

We first visited the library.  We were amazed at the sheer number of books, the toys to play with, color blocks to experiment with, and the story time they were just finishing.  I learned there is a lot more Eric Carle books than I thought of, and now have a quest to expand my library.  Pierce thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the window bench looking out on the cloudy, rainy, day through various different blocks of color.  Carter loved having his big cousin read him book after book.

The gallery itself was alright.  I was looking more for something that explained a little more about his life, and I did not really find it.  They had a few examples of how his books came to be, and what type of mediums he used for his amazing illustrations.  They also had the same type of display about Mo Willems as well.  Maybe it was our oversight due to chasing Carter around, but it was not quite what we expected.  They also had an auditorium that played various films, but there was no way that I was going to convince the kids to sit through a film.

The artist room was worth it's weight in gold.  Both boys and their cousin, spent about an hour in here just creating.  I even had a fun time creating...you know...the gal that has no artistic talent.  They had everything in the room set up for paper sculptures, and the boys loved to see us make things pop off the paper.  They also had various paper punch shapes, which captivated Pierce's attention for a long time.

One of the coolest things about the artist studio, was the special toddler area they had set up in a corner.  Inside this amazing corner was books, a toddler height table with shaped crayons, puzzles, and these cool cone shaped things to build with.  To be honest, this was where Carter spent most of his time.

Another enjoyable activity in the room was a massive light table.  They had various colored circles that they could mix and place on top of each other so that they could see new colors transform.  They also had different prisms that bent the light and created new patterns.  It was certainly neat to play with...and gave me ideas for our light table.  :)

Would I plan another trip to Amherst just for a visit to the museum?  Probably not.  However, I would combine it with maybe the Dr. Seuss gardens or some other outdoor activity to explore.  Do any of you have any ideas for things to see in that area?