The Night at the Museum

As a parent, I am so grateful that there is at least one family film this year that I am excited to take my children to see. The new Night at the Museum movie has brought to life some of my favorite historical characters. And in such a fun way!

My 10 year old son, who has never shown any interest in anything other than his Nintendo Wii, is suddenly reading a biography about General Custer!  I never thought I’d see the day when he would ask if I would take him to the museum to look at the Egyptian exhibits.  When I was a child I loved the dusty lonely feel in the museum, surrounded by all that history. But it’s a different generation now. Full of action and video games. How can an old mummy or a Wild West diorama hope to compete with Alien destruction and evil wizards?

But my little girl now wants to learn more about Sacajawea and Napoleon ( at 6 years old I think she identifies with his lust for world domination). She’s even thinking about being Amelia Earhart for Halloween.  I think it’s fantastic that she’s found 2 real female role models to look up to and I can feel good about her learning more about them, unlike some popstars of late.

This movie has helped me to open doors to my children that I never expected.  They both want to know more about monkeys going to space! The thought of a monkey in a little astronaut suit just makes them giggle senselessly. My son has even been talking about becoming an archaeologist so that he can have adventures and bring new discoveries to the world.

They have both taken much more interest in their schoolwork since we took them to see the movie. They are seeing the draw now of how much fun knowing about our history can be. This great big world has so much to teach us about life. A lot of that can be learned by taking a look at our past.

When our past and our present can learn to live together productively, we are taking great steps to live a very fruitful future.