Wednesday Block 1 USE THIS ONE

Wednesday Block 1

Now.

Children at play, children at work.

The children's museum at the low country, and we're so happy to welcome nicole miles, the executive director at the children's museum.

And i was able to check it out this weekend.

And you have a fun place going on over there, nicole.

>> we sure do.

Thank you for coming to get a sneak peek and it has been quiet.

>> yes, and you could tell everybody was taking every safety precaution.

The moment you walk in, they take your temperature, and everyone is required to wear a mask.

>> in the museum, but i socially distanced myself and now that we're talking, i can slip it off for a minute.

You come to the museum and you see us all in masks.

>> yes, and you had hand sanitizers everywhere, and there is a tight ship inside of the museum.

And you do run a tight ship for the museum for the health of the educators and the children.

And when did you start allowing people to come back.

>> it was of closed to the general public until july july 19th.

We did start camp programs in june, and we did that with all of the safety precautions back, and everybody is getting their temperatures checked.

You may have walked over to special mats, and those sanitized your shoes, and you walked into the facility and as you noted, there are hand sanitizer stations everywhere.

And we're using uv light is wands for places that are harder to clean.

And that pirate ship has never been so clean.

We're washing it many times a day.

All of those handles and all of those things that kids come in contact with, and we want them to touch need to be safe.

>> that's wonderful.

And it puts a parent's mind at ease when they take the children there.

And the children love to touch everything.

That's the whole point of going to the museum, it's such an interactive experience.

So can you tell us a little bit about what you've got going on there now?

You mentioned the pirate ship and there are a couple other rooms as you progress to the east of the building and then to the west.

And maybe can you tell us more about what you have going there.

>> so we have been hard at work and we closed march 16th.

And we had construction based on the dollars that we raised.

The non-profit, it's hard not to have this revenue, but we have been able to use the capitol money for the lab, which is at the end of the building where the toddler space used to be.

And we took that toddler space and moved up front, and so as you come in, you're looking at the toddler space, and the conversion of the castle.

To the other side.

And we added a whole new room about air, air, air, everywhere.

And adding pieces to that.

So there are it exciting new things to do, as well as the favorites for that part of the asel, the art room and the pirate ship and can the grocery store.

>> it's my favorite.

>> where we have fun there, and we're having kids use sock gloves, putting socks over their hands before they shop.

So the greatest thing about this, kids will be kids.

And by following the safety protocols, we can allow the kids to relax and have fun and be resilient.

And having a great time.

>> and the last one that you're mentioning, that's turn food your stem central, where kids can connect the circuits and watch a light bulb go off and build things that run and work.

It's really neat.

I want to go into the school zm that you started this week, and what's this program?

>> absolutely.

Part of being a community organization is making sure that you pivot to the needs of your community and we all know that schools have been under incredible pressure.

What are we going to do and how are we going to educate our children?

We had such a successful summer camp.

439 children through our program.

And everyone was safe with zero infections and we felt good about what we did.

And we pivoted to school zm during the week, so we have ten children in a class throughout the museum.

And they had the run of the house, and we're helping to facilitate that online virtual learning that the charleston schools are working w so a lot of kids don't have places in school, but their parents need to go to work, and we felt this was a gap where we could stand.

And many of us have been in the classroom before.

So we understand those kinds of programs, and we could welcome elementary school children, and to get a safe and engaging experience, which is augmented of course by a museum.

So it's a really wonderful program.

>> that's great.

And no more than 10 students per educator.

So you try to eliminate it.

So you have the covid-19 support there in terms of making sure that people are staying safe.

So the school zm, it started this week and it's running for how long?

>> the first program is running through the first quarter, so that's about november 10th, assuming no implement weather issues, or no other issues, just getting kicked off and we still have spaces in the school zm.

So if the families thought they could take virtual at home.

And it's not going as well as they thought.

And if they're not sure they want to be back in the classroom but they want to work, we have a few openings for k-5 students, and they can reach out to us to see how that's going to work.

But we're having a wonderful time.

That means that the museum is only open to the public on the weekends, and during the week, we're specifically for school.

>> you're a god send to those parents who need to have their children safe where they know they're getting a good education, and nicole, thank you so much for joining us and sharing this information.

>> it was a pleasure, leila, and thank you for having me o.

>> you do a great job.

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