Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With the Total Solar Eclipse set to take place this Monday in Buffalo and Western New York, a massive influx of people from across the nation is expected to make its way to the region this weekend, days ahead of the once in a lifetime celestial event.
For those that may have families looking for something fun and educational for their kids over the weekend pertaining to the eclipse, the Explore & More Children's Museum down at Canalside is welcoming one and all to join in on the celebration.
"At Explore & More, we are very excited that this week is finally here," said Mariah Prentiss, advancement manager at the Explore & More Children's Museum in an interview with WBEN. "We have been preparing for this since last year, as many organizations in Western New York have. We have a lot of activities that have happened throughout the week that we'll continue into the weekend, and into the day of the eclipse."
It has already been a busy week at the museum in Downtown Buffalo with kids off from school throughout the region for spring break. A majority of schools in the region will also have Monday off from school in light of the eclipse set to take place starting just after 2 p.m. ET.
During break week, in general, Prentiss was expecting several thousand people to come through the museum. During eclipse weekend and the day of on Monday, staff at Explore & More are in the same boat as many in the region, in terms of the unknown of what to expect.
"We wanted to be open day of. We're at Canalside, and we wanted to be able to provide an opportunity for families that maybe are [in from] out-of-town, or staying at the hotels, might be coming to Canalside for them to come in and play for a bit before seeing this once in a generation event," Prentiss said.
Explore & More is a play space museum, featuring a number of different exhibits that were made for-and-about Western New York. It's all hands-on and all immersive, and meant to be fully educational for children of all ages.
When families head down to the children's museum this weekend and into Monday, there are a number of eclipse-related activities to take part in.
"Our studio spaces have the Eclipse Readiness Model, so they'll actually be able to create an eclipse model on paper, of course. They'll be able to color it, get creative however they would like, and then fully make the model in which the eclipse will happen. So it's educational for a child of school age that comes to the museum," Prentiss explained. "We also have eclipse crowns, they're fun. They're not necessarily something that is a full project, but it's fun for them to be able to create their own headband and get fully excited about that. And then we also have our space food taste testing in our cooking galley too. They can taste a variation of what astronauts would actually in space, maybe they're not taking freeze-dried Starbursts up there, but it's a variation of what they would actually in space."
Prentiss believes the activities for kids at the museum will provide a little bit of everything to help educate kids about the eclipse and space.
"It is a once in a generation event, once in a lifetime event, unless, of course, you travel to another area that maybe has a Total Solar Eclipse in their lifetime. But I think just educating the kids through a developmentally appropriate way, like the Eclipse Readiness Models, like the headbands, getting them to taste the space food, I think all of it is pretty exciting," she said.
For anyone interested in checking out the Explore & More Children's Museum over the weekend, Prentiss recommends to get your tickets ahead of time online at ExploreAndMore.org to see what time slots are still available.
"Our studio spaces will be available. The headbands that we talked about in the art studio, the tinkering tank will be open through the weekend. And then on Monday, we have special hours. We're opening at 9:30 a.m., closing at 1 p.m. We have members only from 9-to-9:30 a.m., and we will have all of those activities day of, as well," Prentiss said.
And for those who were lucky enough to get their tickets before they sold out earlier this week, Explore & More will be hosting an Eclipse Viewing Party starting at 2 p.m. ET. This event will feature a variation of the same activities already on-hand throughout the week, and then some.
"The most important thing is they'll be able to view the eclipse from our terrace," Prentiss noted. "They'll be able to use a solar eclipse ready telescope, safely from the telescope which might not be available otherwise for them to be able to see it. We'll have eclipse branded glasses for them to have, which we will also start handing out this Saturday, April 6 at the museum too. And they just get exclusive access to the fourth floor of the museum, which not a lot of people can say."
