Favorite Children's Museums and Science Museums
Lately, we've visited a lot of Children's Museums and Science Museums on our travels. The kids always seem to have a good time, but I'm finding that some are great while others are run down or filled with advertising instead of well-thought-out engaging exhibits.
I would love to know what you think... what are your favorite Children's Museums & Science Museums? Which ones don't meet the bar?
I'll start... my favorite Science Museum is OMSI in Portland (which feels disloyal since I grew up with the also fabulous Exploratorium in San Francisco). It's a fabulous space, the exhibits are fun for everyone from very young kids to adults, and there is even a decent cafeteria on site.
My least favorite Science Museum so far is the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. The building was high budget, but the many of the exhibits have paid sponsors and aren't that thrilling. The sand and water play area (which could be a lot of fun) is too high for my kids to reach. Worse yet, there are little ping-pong balls all over the place, and I'm always worried that little D will pick one up and swallow it
9 comments |
Posted on August 6, 2008 |
Save to del.icio.us
Subscribe to our feed
Comments
minnemom on August 6, 2008 at 5:17 a.m.
Ah, so many to choose from! Favorites: Kirby Discovery Science Center in Sioux Falls, SD--good from toddler-adult, lots of different areas, great all-around-- and Headwaters Science Center in Bemidji, MN--small, low-budget but lots of great hands-on activities. Least favorites: LaCrosse (WI) Children's Museum--it was a mess, no staff in sight, and kids were running around everywhere; and Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul--it's good for older kids but there's not much there for the under-6 set. (All of these have more detailed reviews on my site.)
I'm looking forward to hearing what others have to say!
Beth Blair on August 6, 2008 at 3:34 p.m.
We were just in San Luis Obispo in June and visited their new Children's Museum. It's still in the works, but already awesome! I can't wait to go back and see the end results.
Christy on August 6, 2008 at 4 p.m.
The Museum of Science and Nature in Dallas is good.(www.natureandscience.org) It used to be two museums, The Science Place and The Natural History Museum and now they have merged (they are next door). There is an IMAX theater and a Planetarium (extra charges for both). There are both permanent exhibits and traveling exhibits. There is a great play area for kids ages 0-7 as well.
Last year I visited the kids science museum in Pittsburgh. I don't remember the exact name. I really liked it but we went on the first day of summer when admission was free if you brought a snowball saved from the winter. It was really crowded and not as easy to enjoy.
Last year we lived in Norway and the Teknik museum in Oslo was also great. Most of the info was in Norwegian and English both. My daughter was only 20 months at the time but really enjoyed it.
christy on August 6, 2008 at 4:02 p.m.
I forgot to mention the children's museum in New Braunfels, Texas. It is great for kids that are younger, maybe under the age of 8. It would be boring for kids older than that. With a 2 year old we loved it.
Scotti Weintraub on August 8, 2008 at 3:01 p.m.
Thanks for mentioning the ever-wonderful OMSI in Portland. We LOVE the Science Playground area designed specifically for kids 0-6. Lots of great play stations (water, sand, puppets, nature exploration) and great crafty activities too (my son loves the flubber).
The Children's Museum in Portland is also top-notch. The water area is geared towards taller kids - and sometimes the exhibits can be over-run with big kids (esp. when there are groups!). But there are so many areas to explore: a dig pit, story area, tree house, art studio, construction area that it's a great place to visit.
We've also visited the Imagine Children's Museum in Everett, WA - great place! The water area is designed to look like you're on a ferry boat and there's a cool plane that kids can sit in and pretend to drive.
We haven't been, but everyone also raves about the AC Gilbert Discovery Village in Salem, OR (one hour south of Portland).
Wendy Perrin on August 10, 2008 at 7:16 a.m.
Our favorite is Port Discovery in Baltimore. Awesome for very active boys (and their dads) and for breaking up long East-Coast car trips.
Nancy on August 11, 2008 at 10:47 a.m.
I was just going to suggest Port Discovery as well. My kids had a great time there one rainy afternoon, and it wasn't too crowded. We had hoped to go to the Baltimore Science Center but found out too late it closes on Mondays (like many other museums, I've found).
The Manhattan Children's Museum is fantastic and has amazing temporary exhibits. We were there during a Dora exhibit when my son was huge into Dora and he loved it.
As a kid I loved the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia but haven't made it their with my own kids yet. It's on the list, along with the newly revamped Liberty Science Center and the NY Hall of Science in Queens (both of these are closed on Mondays too).
Katrina on August 11, 2008 at 9:32 p.m.
In the last year we have been to many museums with our now 2 1/2 year old, including the Canadian Children's museum, Boston Children's museum, Chicago Children's museum, Tucson Children's, museum, La Habra (CA) Children's museum, Discovery Science Center (Santa Ana, CA), DuPage County Children's museum and the Cape Cod Children's museum. All entertained our son for at least a few hours.
The two best of that list are the Boston Children's museum and the Discovery Science Center. The Boston one is great for a place to play and is entertaining for young children. My husband and I enjoyed the Discovery Science Center the most. It was interesting for us as well as our son. He liked it so much he refused to stop for a snack, and had to be carried out after 3 hours when it was way past his lunch/nap time. He asked to go back the next day! After all our travels, it is the museum he keeps talking about. We will definitely go back!
Marie @ kidtripclips.blogspot.com on August 14, 2008 at 5:27 p.m.
Our family's favorites are the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, Port Discovery in Baltimore, and the Children's Museum of Richmond (Virginia).
Our least favorite museum is Discovery Creek Children's Museum in our hometown, Washington, D.C. It's very small and underwhelming. The upside is that it's located in Glen Echo Park, which has a carousel, playground and puppet theater in the park. Also, since we have the upgraded membership from another museum that gets us into most children's museums in the U.S. and Canada for free, we do visit Discovery Creek for special events.
Check the Association of Children's Museum Reciprocal Program membership list for children's museums in your area that participate. For about $30-40 more than the cost of a basic membership at your local children's museum, you can get the ACM reciprocal program membership and visit 150+ museums for free. http://www.childrensmuseums.org/visit...