Monday, July 20, 2015

National Geographic Museum: Indiana Jones + the Adventure of Archaeology


With two archaeologically-obsessed children in our home, I knew that we had to make our way to the National Geographic Museum to catch the Indiana Jones exhibit this summer. I hemmed and hawed beforehand whether to let them watch the first Indiana Jones movie, but decided I'd better err on the side of avoiding sleepless nights and wait. And since our kids are also totally obsessed with history and ancient cultures, they were perfectly fine not knowing the first thing about the actual movies -- they were able to pick up on things right away. The exhibit is enormous (which is unusual for that museum), largely due to the fact that so, so much of it is done via "personal video companion." But there are also a ton of historical and cultural artifacts to view. So, be prepared to spend a lot of time in there!!


I thought the exhibit was incredibly well done and my kids (and their buddy) absolutely loved it. It was a great balance between exciting tidbits from the movies and actual archaeological information. The kids had no problems using the tablets and were able to move around at their own pace, replaying information they wanted to hear again. I didn't love that the tablets sort of isolated us from each other -- normally we read things together at museums and discuss it (plus, screen time is not something I'm really looking to add in the summer). But I still made the kids take breaks and pointed things out to them. And laughed hysterically every time they tried to yell information at each other.

Whether your kids are Indy fans or not, I highly recommend visiting the exhibit before it leaves next January!











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