Where To Go: Children's Museum- XOXO, An Exhibit About Love & Forgiveness
One of the greatest lessons we parents teach our children is how to deal with their emotions. We teach them through our own actions, we show them through television shows, and how to deal when they are among their peers. That is why I was so excited when The Children's Museum of Atlanta invited us out to check out their new exhibit, XOXO, An Exhibit About Love & Forgivness. This exhibit runs from June 11, 2016- September 4, 2016. This exciting exhibit has kids explore their emotions through fun activities and by playing together to make things work. The XOXO Love & Forgiveness Exhibit is composed of six main activity stations and several other smaller ones. I'll walk you through the six main ones here and you can check out the others on your visit!
Emotional Faces
The Emotional Faces station is set up like a cute photo booth. An emotion will pop across the screen and the countdown begins for your little one to express that emotion! Then the image is displayed by a projector on a wall in front of them. I loved this exhibit because of the word visuals. It helps your child, especially if they are at the reading level or learning, to connect a feeling with the word in front of them. It brings everything full circle for the child plus gives them the gratification of seeing their face on the big screen.
Release The Negative
This station was a writing station where children could sit down and write out their negative emotions. Once they were finished, they could insert the slip of paper through a slot, turn a wheel, and the machine will shred the paper. It is a great metaphoric activity station which helps them see that not only should they release negative emotions, they should properly discard of them. I discussed this with my daughter by explaining to her that when she feels sad or mad, she can release that emotion by talking to mommy, relaxing and breathing, or by having quiet time. As an adult, this was even a pivotal station for me. It would be great to set up a "Release The Negative" activity spot in our own home.
Silhouettes
This cute exhibit displayed team work. One child would stand in front of the monitor, which is a projector and their shadowed image would appear on a light table that another child would be sitting at to draw. The point of this exhibit is for the children to show their similarities through their images.
Tokens Of Love
The Tokens Of Love station is the opposite of the Release The Negative. Children sit at the station and write down a happy emotion. Then place the emotion through a machine that creates a small token that they can carry with them. I love this idea because we all need reminders of the good emotions.
Holding Hands
Holding Hands is an optical illusion station. The hands are admittedly high and spaced out so it seems as if this station is made either for older children or adults. Kamryn could not participate on her own. Holding Hands is what appears to be a blank mirror but when you place your hands on the hands connected to the exhibit, an inspiring message appears!
Response Wall
The Response Wall was also on my list of one of my favorite stations. The response wall is composed of tags with questions. The children can answer the questions on the tags, place them back and tie them so that others can stop by and read their answers or add their own.
Overall, I would give the XOXO: Love & Forgiveness Exhibit a 4 out of 5 stars. I do believe that the exhibit was displayed as simply as possible for the level of deepness it covered. It may be a little too advanced for younger children but works well with parent interaction and help. My suggested age group for visiting this exhibit is 3-8 years of age. So if you are looking for something to do today, head on out to the Children's Museum at 275 Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30313. To find out more information on the XOXO: Love & Forgiveness Exhibit, you can visit the Children's Museum Website here.
With love,
-Shanicia
This is a sponsored blog post. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
