Yesterday my sister and I took our kids to the Sea Life Aquarium in Grapevine, Texas. If you’re ever in this area and have little kids, I would recommend going.
When we got there, the kids were intrigued with the large tank that housed many fish, including some that looked like Nemo.
The aquarium is smaller in size, (We are used to the Vancouver Aquarium) which makes it perfect for kids aged 2-5 years who don’t have long attention spans (although I’m sure kids older than this would enjoy it as well). One thing that I liked about the aquarium is that you could go at your own pace which always helps when you’re taking three toddlers with you. I brought a stroller with me to push Emme in. It was a smaller stroller but it was great for walking around with a baby.
The kids were given a booklet that contained information about the sea creatures that they would see during their visit. The booklet was divided into sections corresponded to the different exhibits that they would see. At each exhibit, the kids could include a stamp in their booklet (which they loved). At the end, when they had collected all of the stamps, they could redeem them for a prize. Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but when the kids went to hand in their booklets, the aquarium guide asked them what their favorite creature to see was. (At first Spencer said goat which was great but he did say that he liked seeing the sea horses.)
A highlight was walking through a tunnel that is made of glass. You can see fish and other sea creatures swimming around you. It was such a neat experience (as an adult) but Spencer was terrified of it. I’m sure if he went again, he would be less afraid. My niece, who is almost four and who has been before, absolutely loved it.
One exhibit that I would have liked to explore more was the hands on exhibit where kids could touch sea anemones and star fish. My niece loved this exhibit but Spencer didn’t want to touch anything. This is so great to engage the sense of touch as many of the exhibits you could only look at. There was a small area where the kids could be archaeologists and look for bones. Spencer loved this hands on experience and he thought it was about dinosaurs.
Spencer is all about play areas and slides and found one at the aquarium. I didn’t see it as it is quite small and off to one side closer to the end of the exhibits. To be honest, by the time we had walked through the exhibits the kids were hungry and getting tired so we didn’t spend much time at the play centre at all.
This was a great experience for our little ones and left me in awe of creation and all of the beautiful sea creatures that we saw.
