Minnesota Children's Museum

Just about any time we go downtown, James mentions that we are close to the Children's Museum.  It is easily one of his favorite places in town, and rightly so.  They do a wonderful job of stimulating imagination, exploring the natural world as well as mechanics and basic engineering.  James could spend all day there and not get bored, I'm sure.  It was great to read recently that the museum is going to be expanding too!  Any time we can expand places of learning, exploration, and culture (for any aged person) is a good time.

Tuesday is a good time to go to the Children's Museum too because it is "No-Group Tuesday", in which no pre-schools, summer camps, summer schools, or other organized groups visit the museum.  This generally cuts down on the crowds and makes things a little less crazy.  James has more than enough crazy in him already.  My thought was to go today since it was going to be raining on and off... well I guess plenty of other families were thinking the same thing.  It was pretty busy.

The museum is one of James's favorite places, and the exhibits are only a part of the fun.  Here is a representation of what he thinks as we arrive at the museum.

The museum is broken into different large rooms that focus on different things, including some traveling exhibits that rotate in and out periodically.  The first room we generally head for is the "Our World" room, where children explore places they might see in town.  There is a grocery store, a restaurant, a city bus, a stop light and street crossing, etc.

You get the idea and you can just see the nose of the bus poking around the corner ahead on the right.  James thinks driving the bus is his favorite thing about the museum.  It goes to the mall, you know.  It's a good thing we have a driver who knows his way around town so well.

He also told me that the first thing he wanted to do at the museum was to go to the little James kitchen, because it is his favorite thing.  He was very thoughtful to wash his hands before bringing me a nice breakfast of cabbage and a cucumber.

Yum.  I guess I will nom this to please the chef.

He also makes a point to wait for the green light before he crosses the "street".  Clearly this boy is advanced for his age.  He knows how to make a cabbage salad and how to not get run over by cars inside of a museum.

After he spends enough time in "Our World", he always wants to go over to the "World Works" room that is full of mechanical things, water features, and exploring play with light.  Thomas was overwhelmed with excitement for the marble run sculpture thing in the entry area.

James's favorite thing about the museum is using a series of conveyor belts to move big black blocks around.  It is pretty funny, actually, seeing a dozen and a half two to eight-year-olds taking this so seriously.  Up and down the stairs.  Stack the blocks.  Move the blocks.  Mostly work together.  James occupies himself for quite a while here.  I occupy myself sitting on a bench, watching the kids with amusement.

After the World Works room, we went up to the Habitot room that is designed for children aged four and younger.  This room is a pretty good break for parents since we don't have to watch out for our little kids accidentally getting bowled over by bigger kids.  It has a small padded area for very little ones, and some relatively tame things for big little ones to climb around and through.  This is Thomas's favorite place in the museum.  He got all excited and just about leaped out of his stroller to go climbing and exploring... or he was just happy to have a bottle.

Before we left, we had the Earth World room to explore for a few minutes.  James's favorite thing about the Children's Museum is crawling through the extensive ant tunnels... but I didn't particularly have to face the possibility of crawling in after him for some reason while leaving Thomas outside, so James decided to pretend to be "the kind of turtle that sticks its tongue out."

I think that turtle has some growing to do before he really fits into that shell.  Clearly, the shell fits dad's much better (from a previous visit).

James then pretended to be a beaver in a beaver lodge, and Thomas pretended to eat a beaver from a beaver lodge.

That was about all the time we had for the museum today.  It was a good visit, as it always seems to be and there was plenty we did not do.  I guess what I really like about the museum is that it is pretty child-directed. Children find things that interest them and then figure out what to do.  Maybe they don't necessarily do it "right", but they are doing.  It is a very active place with something for everybody.  It seems to support a lot of the Montessori philosophy, and for the age I think that is pretty healthy.  There is also enough here to keep parents interested too.  You see parents exploring and playing right along with the kids all the time here.  I can't speak highly enough about this museum.  We've got our family membership, and I expect we'll be renewing that for years to come.