When you’re a parent, you might long for opening exhibits with wine at the local museum. Perhaps you’d like to leisurely explore the galleries instead of moving through the museum with a scavenger hunt on hand only to be battling over the expensive toys at the shop for presents.
However, since 1899, in the year that the Brooklyn Children’s Museum opened as the first of its kind in the world, there’s been a cultural experience that’s not just ok with visitors but is explicitly designed to cater to children. The rise of the kids’ museum (which can be found in most major cities today) recognizes the importance of childhood as a stage of life. It is deserving of an experience that allows little youngsters can develop by playing and exploring.
While you might belong to the local museum for children, the U.S. indeed has some of the most enduring, unique spaces for children around the globe. Check out the top 10 children’s museums located in the United States that you have to visit. We promise that you and your kids will be awed by these unique and distinct spots!
1.Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
As you would expect, the most famous museum for children anywhere globally is inside the City of Indianapolis. The vast museum is not an inflatable play structure or crafting tables that you think of. Go to The International Space Station, dig for dinosaur bones in the Dinosphere, and rock climb at ScienceWorks. Since 2018, you can break a sweat in seven acres of sports-themed outdoor adventure in the Riley Kids’ Health Sports Legend Experience. It has a football-sized track, an 18-hole golf course, street hockey, and a baseball arena where you can picture yourself competing against professional athletes! Did we mention that the museum will house the very first Paw Patrol exhibition? Keep an eye on all the details coming in 2021.
2.Boston Children’s Museum
The children’s museum located on the water is among the most prestigious in the United States, which means they’ve had the chance to refine every exhibit to ensure maximum enjoyment and education. A multi-story climbing structure welcomes the visitor upon entry; however, that’s only the beginning. Let your kids « work » on the machinery on a construction website that’s interactive. Or experience the new world of culture at the restored and fully renovated traditional Japanese House delivered straight from Kyoto (Boston’s neighbor city). Don’t forget to see familiar faces like Arthur, Buster, and D.W. in their exhibit. Here, you can play alongside Arthur and Buster or camp in the backyard and take a trip across the country with them. The interactive experience in this exhibit is different from every other museum for kids.
3. Children’s Museum of Houston
The museum is regularly rated as the top children’s museum in America. The Houston museum for kids is full of engaging educational and creative play options and a calendar of daily activities. In the Texas heat, it’s not a reason why the sprawling outdoors Flow Works water play exhibit is a huge hit (yes, you may want to bring some change to wear a different outfit). Kids of all ages won’t want to avoid the Cyberchase challenge or the chance to test their abilities in the Challenge Course. Are you worried about bringing your children to the event? You can visit the Tot Spot can be a massive and relaxing space just for the little ones.
4.Children’s Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus
In 2015, with an expansion, the Children’s Museum of Denver located at Marsico Campus doubled their exhibit space and added six new shows that focus on hands-on learning, such as the famous Joy Park and the Teaching Kitchen. The Altitude exhibit will take children on an adventure of a different kind, from an incline gondola to a camping spot and then on for 360-degree panoramic views of Denver. Outdoors, Joy Park is a place that brings the most exciting aspects of Colorado in one family-friendly place. Explore the rock formations and look on for the wild rivers during the summer seasons at the canyon’s bottom. Build the giant Sandcastle, fly through over the sky by zip lines or climb the slope. At the end of the year, there will be a brand-new Adventure Forest: an aerial adventure course that is 500 feet long filled with bridges, webs, nests, and webs, as well as lookouts, slides, and swings.
5.Please Touch Museum
A Beaux Arts-style Memorial Hall is arguably the most beautiful setting ever created for a place whose goal is to help children take on precisely what their parents have been warning them against doing for generations. Touch everything. Room after room, children play with boats, splash around in the vast pool, throw foam blocks on a play construction site, or pick up whatever groceries they’d like in the supermarkets specifically designed for kids. The fun of this place is in the ability to shoot rockets at the ceiling and play with a doctor (with dolls) and lose themselves in the Alice in Wonderland maze and lots more. Parents of helicopters need not apply.
6.Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
Within the 80,000-square-foot Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, There are areas where children can have fun with water (bring an extra set of clothes because they’ll get wet!) and play in the dirt, and build massive sculptures. Daniel Tiger fans will want to visit the ongoing Fred Rogers and Us exhibit to see the iconic puppets such as Henrietta Pussycat and Lady Elaine Fairchilde. They also have Mr. Rogers’ sweater and sneakers. Its Backyard outdoor play area has an interactive swing set, an interactive clubhouse, and plenty of chances to let off the excess energy of the workday.
7.Madison Children’s Museum
According to the museum’s website, « nobody does play better than the Madison Children’s Museum. »Visit to find out the truth! Visit Wisconsin’s past by visiting the original 1838 Log Cabin where children can also make butter or write using quill pens, pick vegetables and cook in an open fireplace. You can also go to the top of the building to see rooftop chickens, climb up an acorn-shaped climbing device and enjoy stunning perspectives of Madison. The Urb Garden is a fun and kid-friendly approach to composting and aquaponics. And when it’s time to go to the inside, children’s imaginations will be sparked by the stunningly vibrant art studio.
8.Minnesota Children’s Museum
Many of the exhibits that you’ve likely seen at the local museum for children have their origins within MCM (think Thomas & Friends or the Adventures with Clifford as well as Curious George).MCM is home to Minnesota Children’s Museum and the most extensive collection of exhibits that travel and wildly imaginative permanent ones that are open to visitors at any time. Forces at Play is a crowd-pleasing exhibit featuring a show dubbed the « Wackiest Car Wash Ever. »The kids can put on rain gear to stay dry while they spray scrub, create bubble engines, and water-based graffiti over the exhibition’s « car, » composed of 13 different cars. Don’t miss the rooftop deck for fresh air and Creativity Jam in which the kids can paint their faces.
9.The Strong Museum
Also called The National Museum of Play, the Rochester facility lets children (or the inner child) loose. It is possible to play giant Tetris and four-player Pac-Man at the game revolution gallery or go to the more classic games within America at Play, home to over 300 years of board games, toys, and other play equipment. In the Toy Halls of Fame, it is possible to marvel at the most amazing toys ever invented. The kids can become more active in the Field of Play, which features a kaleidoscope that can traverse and the rock wall. Within Imagination Destination, little ones can fly a helicopter build a home, navigate the play area of a rocket ship and even shrink into the shape of bugs to walk through the honeycomb maze. It’s not a bad idea to mention famous characters such as Sesame Street and Berenstain Bears and the possibility of experiencing bigger than life in this game too.
10.Port Discovery Children’s Museum
The Port Discovery Children’s Museum, located in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, is three levels of exciting rooms and exhibits that your children can play with and climb on all kinds of things! Begin at the impressive three-story treehouse in the urban forest, which offers an excellent opportunity for kids to let their wiggles on. The soccer arena, which is a pint-size, Kick It Up! is another popular. If they’ve not had enough to do, they can take a trip across the Nile river and discover the tomb of the mummy in Adventure Expeditions. Port Discovery plans to open an extensive expansion in 2019 with The Port, a three-story vessel where children can become sailors, captains, engineers, and navigators. We’re eager to climb on board