Just as the temperatures are heating up this summer, the Bullock Museum has some cool, indoor fun planned for your kids. Their latest drop-in family programming includes weekly storytimes, workshops, and interesting explorations. On any Monday, Wednesday, or Friday from June 20 – August 12 you can check out one of these programs from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. that are free with regular museum admission.

• Storytime Mondays: Listen to an old favorite or discover a new story. Dive into stories with accompanying activities designed especially for ages 2-6.
• Wednesday Workshops: Create your own artifact or work of art to remember your museum visit. This more in-depth drop-in program is great for families with kids ages 6 & up.
• Discovery Fridays: Engage your senses by exploring artifacts and objects connected to our history. Drop-in with the whole family and experience something new.

Check out the whole line-up of programs:

–> Week of June 20 – 24:

• June 20, Storytime Mondays: Listen to a story about a creepy-crawly bug that transforms into a Monarch butterfly and makes her way to Mexico with millions of other butterflies. Learn about the butterfly’s life cycle and create a butterfly of your own.
• June 22, Wednesday Workshops: Join the Sustainable Food Center for a Grow Local gardening workshop. Interested in growing your own healthy food at home or at a school? Come and learn about the top Five Tips for a successful food garden in Central Texas. Children will plant a seed in a pot to take home. This 45 minute workshop will be offered at 11 a.m. and noon. Space is limited.
• June 24, Discovery Friday: Join the Sustainable Food Center for The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre® cooking demonstration. Health experts agree that eating more fruits and veggies keeps us healthy. This cooking demo features nutrition tips and a Thai Cucumber Salad recipe. This refreshing salad is a great snack or side dish to help you eat more veggies this summer. This 45 minute workshop will be offered at 11 a.m. and noon in the Whole Foods Market Tasting Kitchen in Our Global Kitchen exhibition.

–> Week of June 27 – July 1

• June 27, Storytime Mondays: It’s all about you at storytime! Hear a story about a special friend and then share what makes you special. Kids will practice telling stories all about themselves.
• June 29, Wednesday Workshops: Odes to Objects from the Past: Tour the galleries with Badgerdog writer and teaching artist Amanda North. We’ll explore and discuss artifacts from different time periods in Texas history. We’ll then explore the ode—a poetic form of celebration—and write our own odes to objects from Texas’s past. Space is limited.
• July 1, Discovery Friday: Common Threads will demonstrate how to cook and have fun with the whole family in the Whole Foods Market Tasting Kitchen.

–> Week of July 4 – 8

• July 4, Storytime Mondays: HOLIDAY, no program
• July 6, Wednesday Workshops: Take part in the Bullock Museum’s Butterfly Project, a large scale installation comprised of thousands of uniquely beautiful butterflies. The project, Inspired by the poem “The Butterfly” written in 1942 by a child in a concentration camp, calls upon children to take a stand against intolerance by creating a butterfly to represent endurance, change, hope and life.
• July 8, Discovery Friday: Test your skills as a paleontologist and excavate fossils with the Junior Ranger from Waco Mammoth National Monument.

–> Week of July 11 – 15

• July 11, Storytime Mondays: Join us for a musical storytime and make an instrument to take home and play.
• July 13, Wednesday Workshops: In this workshop Common Threads will engage the whole family as you create works of art with food.
• July 15, Discovery Friday: Join us in the Whole Foods Market Tasting Kitchen to sculpt and taste foods from around the world.

–> Week of July 18 – 22

• July 18, Storytime Mondays: Listen to a yummy story about eating good food then try some tasty treats in the Whole Foods Market Tasting Kitchen.
• July 20, Wednesday Workshops: Learn how to animate your drawings. Take inspiration from Texas history and artifacts to create a totally Texas flip book.
• July 22, Discovery Friday: Join us in the Whole Foods Market Tasting Kitchen for a cooking demonstration and tasting suited for the whole family.

–> Week of July 25 – 29

• July 25, Storytime Mondays: Listen to an old favorite or discover a new story. Dive into stories with accompanying activities designed especially for ages two through six.
• July 27, Wednesday Workshops: Learn how to screen print and make something for the Bullock and something to keep.
• July 29, Discovery Friday: Experience the museum’s artifacts in a whole new way with new interactive activities and games that are sure to excite kids of all ages.

–> Week of August 1 – 5

• August 1, Storytime Mondays: Enjoy a story all about Texas animals then play a game to match animal footprints with the Texas animal who made them.
• August 3, Wednesday Workshops: Make your own fossil and learn all about animals that lived in Texas long ago from the Junior Ranger at Waco Mammoth National Monument.
• August 5, Discovery Friday: Test your knowledge of Texas native mammals by matching footprints to the animals that made them.

–> Week of August 8 – 12

• August 8, Storytime Mondays: What’s your favorite thing about summer? Come and share with friends and make something to help you remember favorite things about summer.
• August 10, Wednesday Workshops: Nature Writing: Tour the Bullock Museum’s special exhibit “Journey into Big Bend” with Badgerdog writer and teaching artist Amanda North. We’ll view and discuss photographs of the state’s most expansive park and use these as inspiration for our own nature writing. Space is limited.
• August 12, Discovery Friday: Experience the museum’s artifacts in a whole new way with new interactive activities and games that are sure to excite kids of all ages.

–> Museum Hours & Admission: The Bullock Museum is open Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. These programs are free with regular museum admission. Adults are $12; seniors, military & college students are $10; kids ages 4-17 are $8.

You can learn more about all that the Bullock Museum has to offer by visiting TheStoryofTexas.com. You can also click here to read about our visit to their current exhibit, Our Global Kitchen.