Have Twins, Will Travel

Keva Planks

Boston, Mass – This year, we are missing our annual trip to Florida. We have a whole week off and it’s cold out. We hardly know what to do with ourselves. So we ventured to the Boston Children’s Museum. Along with the rest of the 8-and-under population of Massachusetts.

We are big fans of the Boston Children’s Museum. After one step inside we realized why we have not been here in nearly two years (despite our fantastic experience on our last visit). We could barely find a place to discover the many things the museum has to discover. There were no extra golf balls at the Raceways and no room to play in the Construction Zone. And there was no way the twins were going to get trapped in that New Balance Climb with hundreds of their closest friends.

Eventually, we found our way to the farthest corner of the top floor, to a room we had never seen before, and apparently nobody else had either, as it was nearly empty. Here we discovered the KEVA Planks. And here we stayed for the next hour or more.

“Just as it is hard to explain why something is funny, it is hard to explain why most people become captivated by KEVA Planks.” That’s what the museum website has to say about this exhibit. It was remarkable how these nondescript rectangular blocks kept us busy, whether building a tower taller than oneself (V), or constructing an entire walled city (S).

This is totally something the twins might do at home, if we had KEVA Planks at home. But we don’t. And if we did, we wouldn’t have thousands of them, as they do at the museum. And we certainly wouldn’t have room to build as big as we wanted.

KEVA Planks supposedly encourage problem solving, abstract thinking and “foundational concepts of mathematics, physics, and design.” Not to mention fine motor skills development. All well and good, but we were just happy we had room for Keva-plank sprawl. Chalk up another win for the Boston Children’s Museum.