By Casey Kelly Barton

As a native Texan mama, I want my kids to have a sense of place and a decent knowledge of regional plants and wildlife. One way to approach that is to start, if not at the beginning, then as close as we can get. With that in mind, I took the hub and both sons to UT's Texas Memorial Museum today, over nine-year old Rocketboy's grumblings that he couldn't possibly learn anything new because he's already been there twice. Upon arrival I handed him my iPod with the museum's audio tour on it, escorted him downstairs to a roomful of Texan fossils, and watched him start eating his words with gusto.