Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

The boys and I headed to the National Aquarium for a quiet day looking at fish; or so we thought. The first clue I had that things were not to be quiet was the sudden appearance of so many families. Seeing a few families would have been normal but this was different. There were families everywhere outside the aquarium. Usually noise appears in the aquarium when a herd of children first spot the stingrays, but the shear number of family groups indicated to me that things were not going to be quiet and peaceful in the aquarium today.

Oh my, were they not that way. As we checked in the clerk confirmed that Baltimore schools have this week as their spring break. Every family must have decided to hit the aquarium since we humans outnumbered the fish by at least 50 to one. Wall to wall people. We first hit the Australian exhibit, slowed to allow the mob in front of us time to run past the exhibits while we took time to spot the beautiful birds and fruit-bats in the exhibit. The birds were busy searching for nest building materials just like the wild birds outside the aquarium. We left the exhibit and ventured over to the main hall. Feeding time was going on so we skipped the stingray exhibit and quickly moved up a few floors. People were everywhere. Wall-to-wall people.

ScienceKid decided he was hungry so we went for an early lunch in the cafe, and then entered the new frog exhibit. The mobs had not discovered this remote corner and we enjoyed looking at the various frogs, and even found a new frog nest egg. The nest egg’s appearance was like a plastic foam, and looked very fake but we knew it was real. The dolphin show was a restful half-hour and we scooted from there to the Tropical Rain Forest exhibit. The crowds, the pushing and noisy folks moved us to dive for the shark exhibit. As we three were admiring the stingrays a young fella came to our window section and shouted at the sting-rays. ScienceKid quietly said to him:

“Do you know that their hearing is excellent, so you should whisper to them.”

The young fellow started talking very softly to the sting rays.

It was the highlight of the day, and reminded me of the times when I too had said something like that to ScienceKid. When he was little and doing something I didn’t want him to do, I had told him what to do.

‘Feet on the floor’ for those times when he was up on the counter or on the table or climbing up the refrigerator.

‘Hands to yourself’ for those times when he was pushing or shoving or reaching out to touch his friends and get their attention…….

‘mouths should be closed while eating’

‘indoor voices’

oh, the list could go on. Always trying to direct and discipline by letting him know what I wanted to be done, rather than telling him what not to do.

And now to hear him tell another just what we all wanted—whisper—–he didn’t tell the young fella what not to do, just what we would have liked everyone to do today. Whisper.

On the way home we stopped off at the Aberdeen Ordinance Museum for MilitaryKid. Need I say more than he enjoyed the visit but wants me to find a gun museum that has more ordinances for him to look at. Geez, so the display of every kind of rifle and handgun from the mid-1850’s to now is just not enough for him. At least there weren’t crowds of people there, just a few families enjoying their spring break.

Not us, we’re in school this week.