Inspired by The Doctor
Last year, I began watching the revived Doctor Who series, and by the 10th Doctor, David Tennant, I was hooked. For a while I was the lone fan in our family. But then one day, then 5-year old G begged to know more about this doctor that I kept mentioning. So I chose an episode that I thought wouldn’t be too scary, one with Cybermen because I knew he’d love them. And love them he did. He’s six now, and he’s seen a few more episodes. He loves the series enough to choose the 10th Doctor as his Halloween costume this year. A week inspired by The Doctor seemed appropriate, and here are the 7 activities we did this week.
Build A TARDIS
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Naturally, a week inspired by Doctor Who requires a TARDIS. How else would we travel through space and time? We opted to build one instead of of stealing… err… borrowing one.
Our TARDIS is made of cardboard, with a clear bottle cap on top. I was responsible for most of the cutting and gluing (G’s not allowed to use my trusted X-Acto knife and hot glue gun just yet). G did the painting and cutting of paper windows and signs. We added a finger LED with the switch exposed to allow us to light it up.
Space & Time Travel [… via museums]
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Did I mention G’s going to be the 10th Doctor for Halloween this year? Well, we’re so excited that by the end of September we already had most of his costume. It just made sense, then, for us to visit the planetarium and natural history museum as The Doctor and his companion.
Chicago’s Adler Planetarium was the perfect venue for our space and time travel. We witnessed the beginnings and expansion of our Universe, explored Planet X, and traveled to other galaxies billions of light years away.
At The Field Museum, we traveled through time in our own planet. We saw how life evolved, stepped inside Ancient Egypt, and, of course, marveled at the wonder that is T-REX SUE.
Space & Time Travel [… via stories]
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Any book lover knows that books are incredible space and time travel machines. This week, it felt appropriate to read G an illustrated and adapted version of THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells.
A Good Kid Goes to War
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In the series, we witness many wars: the Last Great Time War, Daleks vs Cybermen, the quests of the war-obsessed Sontarans, to name a few. Our own planet has had its own share of wars, and this week we learned about one of history’s defining ones: the Peloponnesian War.
We created paper Spartans and Athenians and re-enacted the 30-year war using our catapults and mini bow and arrow.
Regenerate!
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Time Lords aren’t the only ones who can regenerate; life on earth can, too, in various degrees. Using the format the card game “Go Fish”, we made a Regenerate! game that introduced us to various animals–both vertebrates and invertebrates–that could regrow parts of their bodies that have been damaged.
River Song’s [Visual] Journal
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G has been maintaining a visual journal since he was four years old. In it he draws his favorite part of the day. However, it’s been a while since he last wrote on it. This week served as a great reminder to revisit journaling, and in this particular entry, G noted our Peloponnesian War reenactment as his favorite activity.
Inspired Doodles: Draw an Alien
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And now, our featured inspired doodles. One of the things we love to do is to Draw Together. We referenced Bryan Baugh’s Zap! How to Draw Fantastic Sci-Fi Comics for these.
