Eureka! The National Children's Museum, Halifax

One weekend on the advice of the parents of J's best friend at school, we drove down to Halifax to visit Eureka!, the National Children's Museum in Halifax (the same trip where we visited the Minster). The drive wasn't too long and a parking lot is conveniently placed right next door. We could see the museum as we walked under the railroad tracks.

Eureka! Children's Museum, Halifax

Outside we discovered an obstacle course and a xylophone-type musical instrument, which were a lot of fun for the children.

Tubular tunes!

Peekaboo!

Building across the lawn billed as a nursery (that's pre-school in American English)

We went inside and looked around the sound exhibit, which had several more musical instruments and other noise making devices that J loved.

Looks like a sci-fi set if you ask me

L enjoyed making colored bubbles in a long tube. The sciencey bit of it was how the lights at the bottom changed color and that made all the bubbles change color.

Okay, maybe she just looked at them

The museum has a lot of areas that are like shops in town--there's a grocer's, a bank, etc. J's favorite was the post office where he played quite a while as the desk worker. He took packages and letters, telling us how much it cost to send them all across the world. For example, a package back to America was five pounds (that's £s), but a letter to a nearby town was twenty-four pounds. Something about the pricing is pretty wonky, if you ask me!

J the Postman

Further on was a garage with many different vehicles, mostly tot-sized, and many different work stations, including a fueling station, wheel-changing station, and safety inspection station (called a MOT in British English).

L the Lorry Driver (that's truck driver in American English)

Front view of the lorry (L is in there!)

Kid-sized wheels for L; I think this was an electric car

J makes an inspection

L loosens left lugs lazily!

Water exhibits were also fun. I was gratified to see this rain barrel display on how good it is to collect rain water and use it for the garden. The house we are renting has just such a rain barrel collecting water from the roof of the rabbit hutch (which is currently unoccupied). The children, especially L, use the water to water plants in the back garden.

Water collection from a roof!

The name of the museum, Eureka!, is from the old story of Archimedes. He shouted "heureka" or "I have found it" when he stepped into his bath and noticed how the water level had risen. He realized he could measure the volume of any object, including odd shapes, by measuring how much water was displaced when the object was submerged. He was so excited by this discovery that he jumped out of the bath and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked telling people about his discovery. This was back in the 200s B.C., so it probably wasn't as scandalous as it would be today. The incident is memorialized at the front of the museum.

Archimedes' screw, delivering water to...

Archimedes's bath and statue

Children can turn the screw at the bottom and fill the tub with water. Archimedes' statue then falls in splashing out the water in a childishly delightful way.

Outside, around back they have a railway passenger car that we explored. L pretended to be a passenger while I was the conductor.

One happy customer

Also outside a large dragon adorns one of the back walls. I guess since he's mythological he doesn't get to be inside the science museum.

Waiting for unsuspecting visitors snacks to come by!

The museum has rotating exhibits and admission includes a year-long pass, so we may go back again to see new things and other exhibits that we didn't make it to this time around.