· Positive relationships
· Thriving, contagious enthusiasm
· Imagination
· Promoting individuality and creativity
· Fun, exciting, interactive, experiential
· Community partnering, teamwork
· Industrious, responsible, respectful
· Positive potential in everyone
· Learning, knowledge, innovation, challenging
· Affordable
· Building self-esteem
· Children learn more effectively when they are involved in meaningful, interactive, hands-on play with an adult that is significant in their lives.
· Children play to learn and adults learn to play.
· Families and parents are a child’s first and most important teacher.
· Children deserve a safe place to explore, learn, imagine, create, and wonder
Why is a Children's Museum so important?
An ancient Chinese proverb rings true in the Valley as community volunteers start the area's first ever Children's Museum.
I hear
and I forget,
I see and I remember,
I do and I
understand.
"The statement is so true with our imperative endeavor", says Lindell McWhorter, President of The Children's Museum of Walla Walla (CMWW).
"Each year in our Machine Element Design lab at Walla Walla College, we ask our mechanical engineering students to share what motivated them to take engineering. I have found that the vast majority of the students have had a common interest and experience growing up. They mostly all were engaged with hands-on designing, learning, building and exploring activities like the type of learning we promote at CMWW." said Don Riley, Associate Professor of Engineering, Walla Walla College. Walla Walla College students and staff are working to develop engineering exhibits and special workshops to offer these enriched, beneficial experiences to CMWW members.
Concerns of parents:
- "I know that a child's first five years sets the foundation for how a child learns for life but, what more can I do to make sure my child is living up to his full potential?" "Where can my child gain exposure to classes such as sign language, Spanish, French and phonics?"
- "We want a place to take our children where they can learn new things, broaden their imagination and spark their creativity?"
- "We want a wonderfully exciting place for our children to have a Birthday Party ~without having 20 kids in our living room and fresh Kool-aid stains on our new couch?"
Why a focus on ages 1-12?
- Focusing on the largest population in Walla Walla
- According to developmental psychologist Dr. Lilian Katz, children exposed to an active and interactive curriculum fare better in school. It is also widely acknowledged that brain development becomes fine-tuned through experience in the first months and years of a child's life. Neural pathways in the brain are created at an amazing rate during the first three years; the old adage "use it or lose it" is an accurate description of how that growth is impacted by a child's learning environment. The learning a child does in the first five years of adolescence sets the foundation for how that child learns for life. The CMWW wants to ensure all children receive the opportunity to excel and live up to their full potential.
