Five is a wonderful age, outgoing but not out-of-bounds, well-balanced but never boring or bored. The Kohl Children`s Museum reached this plateau this year and will celebrate its fifth birthday with FIVEFEST on Saturday and Sunday.
The museum grew out of a Teacher`s Center started in 1974 that, five years ago, began its gradual transformation into a place where children can blow giant bubbles, shop in a miniature Jewel store, watch themselves perform on a videoscreen, build castles and make their fantasies come true.
”Since the beginning we have had a hands-on philosophy of learning that involves children in the discovery of the world about them in a sensory way,” says founder Dolores Kohl Solovy.
In the museum, parents are usually close on the heels of their children, who are picking out dress-up clothes they like, trying to fit together plumbing fixtures in the Build It exhibit or stooping down to find their way through the labyrinth of the miniature-size ancient city of Jerusalem.
”We tried to develop a learning environment where parents and children learn together because we want to teach our children to be lifelong learners,” Solovy says.
”It`s very important to have parents who are curious and who love to explore the world along with their children. It`s very important never to lose the `child` in you and I think it`s wonderful for little children to discover the sense of play that is in all of us, especially in their parents and grandparents.”
So often today, however, child`s play is reduced to one game in town.
”More and more we`re becoming a very passive society watching television,” Solovy says.
”Sometimes we don`t give children enough opportunity to become active learners and to experience real things rather than something on the screen.” For FIVEFEST, though, children will find everything they need to get into the act themselves. The fancy party clothes stored away for special occasions will be brought out.
The girls will get dressed up in satin and velvet and chiffon and clump around in high heels. The boys will be decked out in tuxedos with top hat and cane and they will play games based on the number five.
Clues for a scavenger hunt will be based on the five senses. For sight the children will be sent to the Recollections room. Their silhouette will be projected onto a large screen where a computer will reproduce their movements with bright lights and changing patterns.
The clue for sound takes children to the music room with its tom-toms and bongo drums, xylophones and triangles. For touch they`ll find their way to the recycle room where bins are full of factory rejects and leftovers to make creative sculptures and playthings.
For smell they must sniff out the spices in the child-size replica of Jerusalem and, finally, the clue for taste will lead them to an ice cream treat.
Partygoers will discover the new BIG exhibit recently donated to the museum by the Chicago design firm of Niedermaier Inc. They`ll see gigantic versions of toys and candy, write with a big pencil on a notebook that`s 4 feet tall and look at the world through enormous sunglasses.
In fact, ”big” is the way the Kohl Children`s Museum and other children`s museums around the country see the world. They are not about to make any little plan for little children.
Author, author!
Children who have enjoyed hearing how Mirandy manages to latch onto Brother Wind as a dancing partner will have a chance to meet the author of
”Mirandy and Brother Wind,” which was selected as a Caldecott Honor Book.
Patricia McKissack, who also wrote ”Flossie and the Fox,” will autograph her books from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday in the Magic Tree Bookstore, 141 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park. For reservations call 708-848-0770.
What: FIVEFEST
Where: Kohl Children`s Museum, 165 Green Bay Rd., Wilmette; 708-256-6056
When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, noon-4 p.m. Sunday
How much: $2.50 (children under 1, free)
