ROMP!
Children Discover Balboa Park
There is something new for children in Balboa Park, and SOHO member Linda A. Canada was its guest curator. The San Diego Historical Society Museum in the Casa de Balboa is home to an interactive and hands-on exhibition where children may learn about the history of Balboa Park.
Filled with historically based activities and colorful graphics, the exhibition is scaled for, and designed to address, the interests and curriculum standards for third grade students. Children will crawl through, sit upon, press buttons, and lift levers to learn about the Park from before its designation until the present day. Vintage film and photographs illustrate buildings and activities that took place there. Key interactive elements illustrate the two Expositions, which gave the Park its beautiful buildings.
Once children complete the exhibition and earn their junior historian sticker, they may want to use one of two "scavenger hunt" handouts to locate architectural details from either the 1915-16 or 1935-36 Expositions.
ROMP! is open daily from 10-5 at the San Diego Historical Society Museum on the Prado in Balboa Park. For more information, call the Society at (619) 232-6203.
Editor's Note: Linda Canada is a SOHO volunteer who has given her time generously in many ways. She is a part of our volunteer editorial staff for the quarterly and is also mentoring our summer intern with the Historic Preservation Curriculum program.
