Museums aren’t what they used to be. Gone are the staunchy adult only places of the past. Enter the places where Mom and Dad don’t have to say keep you hands to yourself because the whole place is designed for their little ones to explore. They are playing, they are learning and everybody is having fun.
Hornimans & Gardens (London, UK)
A Garden Paradise.
It’s a paradise for children. They have everything for families including changing rooms, picnic areas and a Saturday morning farmers’ market. Located in South London’s Forest Hill among 16 acres of gardens you will find multiple museum galleries and an Aquarium.
Visit the “Hands On Base Gallery” where everything is intended to be touched. These aren’t reproductions either, you get to put your hands on and investigate the artifacts up close and personal. Other galleries include African Worlds, Centenary Gallery, Music Gallery, Natural History and Nature Base.
Dinosaurs: Monster Families is the temporary interactive exhibition currently showing till October 30, 2016. Take a peek into dinosaur family life and learn how they cared for their young. Full scale replicas as well as a chance to dig in a discovery pit to touch a real dinosaur leg. Exploration stations fill the room with visual effects displaying these fantastic creatures igniting the imaginations of your young ones as they revel in the mysteries of the past.
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Balboa Park (San Diego, USA)
Sunshine & Selection
An expansive city park in the beautiful warm weather of Southern California surrounded by almost two dozen museums, performing arts, gardens, restaurants, and attractions. Multiple play areas cater to children of different ages. Much more to do than you can put in a single day. Do some research first and you can tailor your visit to suit your family’s taste and interest. Choose from annual passes, multi-day passes or a single day pass.
The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, San Diego Natural History Museum, Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre and of course the San Diego Zoo are popular with the younger set. Young one’s with an interest in cars and other transportation will find more than enough at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, San Diego Automotive Museum and San Diego Model Railroad Museum. For the sports enthusiast the San Diego Hall of Champions is the largest multi-sport museum in the U.S.
Take a ride on the 1910 Balboa Park Carousel next to the entrance to the zoo or take a 3 minute trip on the Balboa Park Miniature Railroad. Balboa Park is full of places to hike and explore.
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Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
All About People
Overlooking Amsterdam’s Oosterpark is the Tropenmuseum Junior, the very first children’s museum in Europe. Focusing on children aged 6 to 13 the museum creates a new exhibition every two and a half years. Immersive experiences comprised of visiting artists and performers, art, music, books, concerts, theatre and loads of interaction.
The museum’s focus is people, all kinds of people. Standing exhibits explore humanity in its various expressions and experiences from mourning to celebration. The current exhibition, ZieZo Marokko, takes the children on an immersive trip to Morocco. Children take a “flight” and learn about food, art, fashion, sights to see and things to do.
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SciTech, Perth (Australia)
Science & Math Made Fun.
SciTech Museum in Perth Australia is a government supported organization designed to increase awareness, education and interest in the sciences. Both adult and children’s programs are curated to capture hearts and minds and involve the individual in the wonders of earth and space.
SciTech’s Planetarium gives live sky tours. Walk through the night sky of Western Australia. Explore space and learn what it takes to be an astronaut. Featured exhibitions blend art and technology through the experience of interactive art. Step into the matrix and play with robots, 3D printers and a humanoid RoboThespian.
Science meets storytelling in SciTech’s Puppet Theater where science is simplified into storylines and designed for shared with young minds. Explosions make math fun. Nothing gets the kids attention like a big boom. Take part in estimating the strength of each explosion as math and science collide.
Your mind will leave brimming with new ideas and a new appreciation for the vastness of space and the possibilities of the future.
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Children’s Museum (Indianapolis, USA)
Large & Extraordinary.
World’s largest children’s museum and the grownups are just as welcomed as the children. Too good to leave just for the kids there’s even an “after dark” adult time complete with adult beverages.
Multiple exhibits in this museum include the Dinosphere where the young and the young at heart can dress up as a paleontologist and crawl through the displays. Fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can team up and problem solve, crack codes, traverse a rope maze and rise to the video game challenge. Willy Wonka’s got nothing on this museum with its 47 foot chocolate-themed slide and 50 pound chocolate sculpture.
Explore a shipwreck, visit an ancient Egyptian pyramid, stand face to face with a Terra Cotta warrior. Learn all about China, the science of flight, and sacred places all over the world. Dynamic and filled with discoveries to suit all interests and tastes. To avoid lines purchase your tickets online.
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Junibacken (Stockhom, Sweden)
Literary Magic
On the island of Djurgarden in the center of Stockholm stands the children’s museum where literature literally comes to life. Containing the largest children’s bookstore in Sweden this museum also has a theatre, restaurant and temporary exhibition space dedicated to an author or character.
A must for fans of Pippi Longstocking and anything Astrid Lindgrenn. Almost everything in this fairytale town can be touched and boisterous behavior is not frowned upon, after all Pippi would want it that way. Ride the storybook train through a literary journey and meet even more storybook characters.
Narrations are delivered in Swedish, Arabic, English, Finnish, French, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Estonian, German, Norwegian, Danish, and Polish. The train ends its journey at Villa Villekulla where you can visit Pippi’s house, ride her horse, play in her kitchen and other fun things.
Take in a show at the theater, 4-5 different shows play each day. The restaurant gets raved reviews with plenty of organic and eco-labeled food. Just try to stay away from the bakery.
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Frida & Fred (Graz, Austria)
Fun and Friendly.
A place to take off your shoes and stay awhile. Seriously. it’s called a “sock” museum, meaning the children take off their shoes and explore the fun and friendly museum in their socks, barefeet or slippers if they have them. Gardens, exhibitions, games, stories, theater and craft workshops can all be found at Frida & Fred’s museum.
This year’s interactive exhibition is about air. Where does air come from? What makes the weather? How does the air influence people? Levitate balls, blow out candles on a cake or even build a castle, entertaining and captivating interactive exhibits stretch the mind and tickle the fancies of both small children and grown ups. You may even find some new answers to that ever present questions, why?
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Eureka (Halifax, UK)
Experts in Play.
Sitting on 13 acres right In the heart of Halifax with direct access to the Halifax train station sits the 1855 Station Building which houses the Eureka National Children’s Museum. Designed for 0-11 year olds and easily fills a day. Everything is build to the scale of a child. You are always learning in this museum but you don’t notice it because you’re having too much fun.
The staff and designers of Eureka are described as “experts in play.” They take play very seriously as “Children learn as they play. Most importantly in play children learn how to learn.” Exhibits are designed to encourage hands-on exploration and engage all five senses, natural curiosity and imagination.
Galleries include “All About Me” focused on the care and wonders of the human body. “Living and Working Together” creates a space to role play in the grownup world of work. The “SoundSpace” gallery explores the science of music and sound and the “SoundGarden”, especially for those under 5 years of age, immerses you in the sounds of nature within a giant-sized garden. Inside the “Desert Discovery” is a space just for the non-mobile babies, safe and padded so the littlest of the littles can explore too. The “GlobalGarden” recreates gardens from all over the world, their special climates, critters and teaches us how to care for the environmental to ensure their health and preservation.
Eureka isn’t limited to just inside the museum buildings. The surrounding property included a sensory trail walk designed at child’s eye level and an outdoor play area.
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Childrens Museum (Brussels, Belgium)
Explore, Express & Question.
Geared for children between the ages of 6 and 12 and inspired by the Chinese saying “I listen and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” The staff at Le Musee des Enfants Het Kindermuseum designs each exhibit with the purpose of opening up a dialogue of trust between child and adult. Children are encouraged to explore, express and question the nature of their exploration.
The goal and guiding vision has been for “a better knowledge of yourself, the others and the world that surrounds you.” Designed to feed the imagination and fuel appreciation for the wonders found in our daily life. Lessons every world traveler should have.
Included in admission are 5 workshops available for children to participate in. Sign up when you arrive and you can choose from a kitchen workshop where you will take part in making recipes from around the world or create your own masterpiece to take home in the art workshop. The fairy tale workshop attendees creates their own book and at Emile’s place children are all hands-on as they get their turn to use saws, hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers and nails. For the aspiring actor there is a theater workshop complete with audience.
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Computerspielemuseum (Berlin, Germany)
History of Video Gaming.
Located in Berlin we have the first museum of computer and video games, the Computer Spiele Museum. Come explore more than 300 exhibits celebrating the history of digital gaming and play a few favorites while you are here.
Nimrod, once displayed as the future, takes its seat as part of our computing past as the first digital computer specifically designed to play a game. Built for the Festival of Britain in 1951 to demonstrate the designer’s programing skills. Nimrod was so popular and so widely received that people ignored the free beer and instead stared at the “electronic brain” as players took on this piece of artificial intelligence playing the ancient game “Nim.” And so begins our love of computer gaming.
Pay homage to the “Wall of hardware” displaying more than 50 machines from past to present. Learn about the evolution of the iconic game Pong. Take a quarter free escape to the 1980s with a trip to the video arcade and play games such as Donkey Kong, asteroid or Space Invaders.
3 D simulations, polyPlay and the world famous Painstation all wait for your exploration. A fun couple hours to spend in Berlin for the hard core gamer or just the nostalgia buff in you.
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Have you been to any of these? Do you know any other family-friendly museum? Tell us on the comments!