What's something a kid has never tried before?

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Here's a fun example of what we mean by 'kid-focused programming'.

This is our ambassador Taylon. I love working with Taylon because he is super creative and always excited to experiment in ways I would not expect. I had the joy of working with him a couple of weeks ago.

I asked him if he would be interested in building a mini habitat for a bear. We have been playing with creating fairy houses with faux nature items and he is so creative I wanted to see what he might do with those materials.

He was interested in the potential project and quickly began brainstorming how to best create a habitat for a black bear and fox. He thought a lot about it. He ended up making a waterfall out of paper and a tree with a den (pictured). But that wasn't all...

Along the way, Taylon discovered that one of the fake trees I brought in could spin like a top if you turned it over.

He also wanted to try creating balls out of model magic.

Then he wondered if he could juggle them. They are really lightweight and kind of hard to juggle but we squeezed in a mini lesson and he started to get the hang of it!

He decided to make a tunnel out of two cups. It's really hard to cut the bottom out of paper cups using hospital scissors... :)

He also conducted experiments to test whether those safety goggles could be used as swimming goggles. No one else has ever done that while I was working with them. It's one of the many reasons I enjoy working with Taylon! :)

In some other jobs or in other settings, the goal for this day might have been some kind of end product with a habitat that had all of correct elements. But for Wonder Connection scientists (and staff and volunteers), our work is all about enjoying the process.

We're hoping to raise $10,000 by the end of the day tomorrow, Tuesday, to help sustain our programming. All donations are tax deductible.