http://www.playtacoma.org/blog/new-museum/ en-us Fri, 18 May 2012 19:57:26 PDT Fri, 18 May 2012 19:57:26 PDT SiteCrafting.com GearBox 1.0.10 http://playtacoma.org/blog/new-place-to-play/ Children's Museum of Tacoma finds a NEW HOME We found a new home for the Children's Museum of Tacoma!  Wow, this has been years in the making.  Just last week, I celebrated 11 years working at the Children's Museum of Tacoma. The majority of that time, we have been looking for a larger place to play.  What an exciting opportunity to move forward with museum dreams a decade in the making.   The new space will be the whole first floor of the United Way building on 1501 Pacific Avenue.  The building has lots of great features to incorporate into playful explorations, creative journeys, and lots of hands-on fun!   Itâ??s 50% larger than our current site.  It has lots of windows for natural light and space for outdoor activity.  Plus, it's close to other museums, parking, and the light rail.    Thanks to all of you who have visited and worked with our museum over the last decade (and more the museum is almost 25 years old!). You have helped shape our vision of what our community needs for young children.    Now the fun begins.  Help us get ready to throw open the doors in late 2011 by sharing your vision and needs for the new museum on our survey www.surveymonkey.com/s/TL2B3JT.  Or you can read more on our website www.childrensmuseumoftacoma.org/capital-campaign and you can share a comments here. Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:54:00 PDT http://playtacoma.org/blog/opening-date-set-admission-funded/ What a day! We get to announce that weâ??re opening the doors of our new building at 1501 Pacific Avenue on January 14, 2012 (less than one year from today!) AND that admission will be free. Thanks to a gift from the KeyBank Foundation, â??Pay As You Willâ?ť admission has been underwritten for the first five years of operation in the new building. One year from now admission will no longer be a barrier to enjoying the power of play in the museum. Early childhood development research suggests that the greatest return on investment comes from providing services to children in their first five years of life. With 34 percent of Pierce Countyâ??s families in the low- to moderate incomes ranges, museum visits and programs might not be affordable for all. Thank you KeyBank for investing early! Looking forward to playing together in the new museum next January. (Oh, and if you canâ??t afford to come play today check out a Key to Play Pass at your local library and get free admission for four.) Thu, 20 Jan 2011 08:21:00 PST http://playtacoma.org/blog/innovation-inspiration/ We are all back from Houston and excited by the information we received in the conference.  From educational content, to business strategies, to technology and staff training, the conference was packed full of interesting sessions.  Our keynote speaker for Thursday, Steven Berlin Johnson, author of the book Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, was truly inspirational.  His presentation focused on the idea that all innovation is in response to several factors, including: incubation of a hunch; reorganizing known components; the collision of multiple hunches; multi-disciplinary approach; and surrounding ourselves with those that are different from us.  All of these components cultivate innovative thinking.  Iâ??ve been reflecting on Johnsonâ??s talk, as well as our experience in Houston, and am energized by our immersion in an environment that truly nurtured innovation.  We are planning to share our insights with our staff later this week, and I look forward to what may come of it.  We will be sharing ours and otherâ??s â??hunches,â?ť and with the varied approaches, knowledge, and talent of our staff, perhaps they will grow into true innovation.  After all, we do have only seven or so months until we will be opening our new Museum. Now is the perfect time to try something new! Best, Brenda   Mon, 23 May 2011 10:27:00 PDT http://playtacoma.org/blog/calling-playful-artists/ We're looking for artists and art educators to help create art projects and installations for the new museum's grand opening January 14, 2012. Learn more about our plans for a playful tree, creative inventions, innovative donor wall, and interactive studio projects.  Deadline: June 22, 2011 Fri, 27 May 2011 15:47:00 PDT http://playtacoma.org/blog/do-to-support-youngest-children-1/ I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the article "Washington’s children paying the biggest price" by Joel Ryan. He clearly shows that the status of many young children and their families in our community is fragile and that we should all be concerned. I agree with Ryan; we must all act now and do what we can - not just our legislators, but also individually. At the Children's Museum we've already asked: what can we do? The answer: let families with young children play for free. When the Museum opens the doors of its new home on January 14, admission will be by donation. We are taking a risk with the loss of admission income. But, as Ryan says, investments in developmentally appropriate learning opportunities for young children will pay off for all of us. When basic needs are hard to meet, play sometimes gets left behind, which means children are less effectively and less joyfully meeting their milestones. Providing access to play is the Museum's social obligation. We can't do it alone. Others are joining us to ensure play for all children. KeyBank pledged $250,000, young children are joining our Piggy Bank Brigade, and the Board is committed to securing $1 million to sustain this Pay As You Will program for Pierce County. What can you do to support our youngest children?  It will pay off! Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:57:00 PST http://playtacoma.org/blog/poverty-early-learning-rainbows/ I have my Google alerts set to send me interesting tidbits each day about topics I want to stay current on: young children, Pierce County, early learning, poverty, and rainbows (because after reading about the affects of poverty on learning, you need a little sunshine in your day!). @font-face { font-family: "Times"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Recently, I came across an article in the Washington Post by Valerie Strauss about school reform in Memphis. “What does this has to do with young children in Pierce County?” you ask. Well, near the middle of the article was just the reason the Children’s Museum is launching a Pay As You Will admission program.   “Poverty increases family stress, leads to poor nutrition and medical care, and, importantly, means children are talked to less and end up with vocabularies that are about half that of middle-class children. Research suggests that the first years shape a child’s capacity to learn. Science tells us that it is essential to brain development that babies are spoken to, read to, cuddled, and allowed to engage in physical play. National Institute of Health studies have indicated the foundations necessary for higher learning ďż˝" working memory, vocabulary, spatial recognition, reasoning, and calculation skills ďż˝" are set by the time a child reaches puberty.”   So, the time to act is early in life. And who better to address those pre-school years than your Children’s Museum? And how? Let families of young children play for free. It's sure to add a little sunshine, and maybe a rainbow, to their day! Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:10:00 PST http://playtacoma.org/blog/blessings/ It's the time of year when the calendar points out that we should take a few minutes out of our busy schedules to appreciate our blessings.So, this morning I shut down my computer, set aside project schedules, tucked away budget updates, and headed out for a long walk. Long walks are my time - time to think and sort out ideas. Today, I took the opportunity to really appreciate all that is happening in my work- even in the rain! I am thankful for a supportive Board of Directors who are dedicated to creating a model place to play, supporting early learning, and eliminating financial barriers to play. Their steadfast leadership and sound guidance is making the opening of a all-new, Pay As You Will based Museum a reality.I appreciate the dedicated staff who are spending countless hours planning and building a new Museum for our community. Thank you for bringing the power of play to our community every day!I am indebted to the many community supporters. From the lead gift by the Sequoia Foundation and the Cheney Foundation, to the many individual donors and the enthusiastic efforts of our Piggy Bank Brigade kiddos, each of you plays a key part in enriching children’s lives and ensuring that more of our region's families learn through play. I am so proud that together, we are helping build strong children - today, and for the future.  We'll see you at the new Museum in 5 weeks! Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:54:00 PST http://playtacoma.org/blog/donations-tooth-fairy/ One of the best things about the new Museum is our pay as you will admission. The Museum itself is great, and pay as you will admissions lets everyone in our community come in and enjoy it. We've been open at our new location for just over two months now, and, throughout the past two months, I've had the privilege to share pay as you will with visitors, and collect donations from them. Every single donation we get is an amazing and special thing that helps keep us open so everyone in our community can come and play with us, but today, while I was working at the admissions desk, I was on the receiving end of an extra special donation. It was a donation covered in glitter.   That's right, glitter. After my initial moment of what can only be described as glee, I just had to know the story behind it. After all, it was a bill covered in glitter. Something like that, especially in a place like a children's museum, always comes with a story. The mom who gave me the donation then went on to explain that it had originally been money that the tooth fairy had brought for her son, but he'd traded it to her. Unfortunately, I can't remember exactly what he'd traded it for, but it must have been something good! So, thank you, to the tooth fairy (and the boy who lost his tooth) for making my day a little more magical. And a big thank you to all of our visitors who have donated, too! We couldn't be making this happen without you.    Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:03:00 PDT http://playtacoma.org/blog/art-attack/  An art bomb went off in Becka's Studio this week. Or, at least, that's what it looked like whenever I walked into our lovely art studio. There was art covering every available surface of the studio- art on top of art- and it just kept on coming with no end in sight.  In other words, Spring Break came to Tacoma this week, and it was occasionally wild, mostly messy, and absolutely amazing. Some of my favorite pieces of the week were some awesome clay creations that kids were happy to share with me. There was a particularly fantastic  turtle that a girl spent a good chunk of time on, so that she could get it just right. Another visitor made Spongebob Squarepants, and sent his mom on a search to find a staff member to take a picture (luckily I was the staff member she found, so I can share it with all of you!). And then there was another visitor who I spent some time with while we tried to build the perfect clay cave. He was so proud of his final product that I couldn't not take a picture, because both the end result, and his pride in it, were awesome. There were lots of other amazing creations, too! I firmly believe that something magical happens when you give kids art supplies and let them go wild. The print making, paint, and clay art that happened this week is proof of that. Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:49:00 PDT