Children's Museum Learning Adventures

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Children's museums can be great places for kids to explore. Why not consider taking your kids to a few this summer? Writer Amanda Formaro has created an awesome comprehensive list of children's museums around the United States and Canada.

Opportunities around every corner
Picking an apple from a Velcro tree. Once you've plucked an apple from its tree, there's no putting it back on. Or is there? Like hundreds of other youngsters who will pass through children's museums daily, 2-year-old Dominic discovered that almost anything is possible. From Velcro trees, to makeshift recycling centers, complete with magnetic cranes for separating aluminum from tin, there are learning opportunities around every corner.

If you haven't visited a children's museum in the past, you may want to mark it on your calendar as a "don't miss" event. Open year round in most cases, these child-friendly environments are entertaining as well as educational.

At the Betty Brinn Children's Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, children can walk through the human digestive system, listen to the sounds of each process, climb through the ventricles of the heart, and experience the vacuum effect produced in the human lung. When finished there, children can call 911 and act out emergencies by following the kid-friendly guides posted near each phone, then climb aboard the ambulance, steer the wheel and flash the lights, to be sure to get their patient there in one piece!

Other exhibits include fun with learning, such as the arts and crafts area where kids can design their own puppet, or the funhouse mirrors that stretch your head and other body parts out of proportion. And who could resist playing with brightly colored clear Legos on a lighted table? Discover giant bubble makers, operate trains and blow the whistle and drive the bus full of passengers to their destination. Dress up as a nurse, a police officer or perhaps even a baker. Sorting colors, fruits and objects

Learn your colors by matching the fruits and flowers to their color coordinated bins. Discover the sounds that different instruments make by beating a drum or ringing a bell. Hands-on computers will also captivate children with topics ranging from musical sounds from every instrument imaginable, to the Magic School Bus adaptation of a volcanic eruption.

Plenty for kids of all ages
Children's museums are not geared only to the preschool and toddler set, there is plenty for the elementary- and middle school-aged child as well. Learn about velocity, friction, gravity and sound decibels. Operate video cameras, be the star of the show, or play with the different sound effects heard in your favorite television programs. Other locations, such as the Chicago Children's Museum in Chicago, Illinois, have an interactive waterway where children can learn about currents and water travel. This exhibit comes complete with raincoats!

Wherever you live, there is more than likely a children's museum within reasonable traveling distance. If you are interested in finding a children's museum near you, consult your local yellow pages or try one of the locations listed below (U.S. and Canada).

United States

The Children's Museum of Denver
2121 Children's Museum Drive
Denver, CO 80211
General info: (303) 433-7444
Group Reservations: (303) 561-3370

Learn through play. Their museum highlight is the "playscape" which encompasses physical activity and science exploration. Age-appropriate programs are offered in house as well as by field visits.

"The Children's Museum of Denver promotes the value of childhood by using the arts and sciences to educate, support and nurture children. The Museum focuses on children newborn through age eight and the adults who care for them. As a leader in child development, the Museum uses interactive exhibits and engaging programming to create hands-on learning opportunities."

Betty Brinn Children's Museum
929 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53202
General info: 414-390-KIDS Playing with Legos on a lighted table

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Children's Museum Learning Adventures

LisaGW1 says:

March 22, 2007

We love our local McKenna Children's Museum in New Braunfels, TX, which got a face-lift last year. Inside, various local businesses have sponsored exhibits: the hospital has set up an ER, mini-ambulance, lab, waiting room, and baby nursery; the grocery store has set up an adorable grocery with all the various elements (produce, dairy, dry goods, meat, etc.) as well as check-out lanes; the newspaper has set up a news office in which kids can actually print a newspaper with their picture in it. There's also a ranch house (sometimes with live baby chicks), a space rocket, a bat cave, a camp, and a huge aquarium, among other things.
Outside, there's a zoo full of climbable animal statues, a river with various water-play elements, a sandpile, and a real VW Beetle that the kids can actually paint (after putting on a protective smock!).
I love the fact that the kids always find something new to do, no matter how often we go!

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MandaJuice says:

March 08, 2007

There are also some great museums in Northern California. We have a membership and frequent the San Jose Discovery Museum at least a couple times a month. Every time we go, my three-year-old discovers something new.

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