Taking the Kids: Exploring an art museum in a new way

-- The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (www.metmuseum.org) not only offers Sunday art-making workshops near particular exhibits, but there are also special programs for teens and kids with learning challenges and for those who are visually impaired.

-- The Museum of Fine Arts Boston (https://www.mfa.org) offers Art Connections activities you can download to make exploring a particular exhibit a fun scavenger hunt guaranteed to help you answer the kids' questions about what they are seeing. Stop at the Family Art Cart that offers activities like uncovering ancient Egyptian mysteries. On weekdays after 3 p.m., weekends and on Boston public school holidays, kids up to age 17 are free.

Heather Nielsen, the Denver Art Museum's assistant director, who helps oversees the museum's education and family programs, says the biggest barrier to parents' bringing kids to art museums is their own insecurity about their lack of knowledge. "We want to show them that you don't need to know anything about art to enjoy it," she explains.

Whenever you visit an art museum, Nielsen suggests:

-- Ask the kids questions. What is the first thing you see in that painting?

-- Stand in front of the art and pose -- like the people, animals and shapes in the art.

-- Make up a story about what you see.

-- Imagine what you would hear, or smell, if you were in the art.

There's plenty here for even the littlest museum goers, like 16-month-old Tristan Cox, who was busy adding wings, arms, legs and eyeballs to make a puppet based on the fanciful creatures in the Hieronymus Bosch painting hanging in the gallery. Kids a little older can put on puppet shows at the puppet theater. "What's nice is he plays and we can look at paintings," said Tristan's mom, Spice Cox. "I became a member because of all the family activities here."

I loved the "Just for Fun" area, complete with a dollhouse that is a model of the museum -- and small plush objects that depict the museum's collections -- a mummy cover, the famous red painted horse, a pre-Columbian ceramic or a horse mask.

Roisin Mooney is hard at work at the studio where other children and parents are sketching whimsical items on tables with paints, chalk and crayons -- a wire dog, a tiny chair, a wooden hand.

"We are huge fans of this museum," says Theresa Mooney, Roisin's mom, who adds that the museum is ideal for a home-schooling family like hers. "It's the best thing about living in Denver."

That, of course, is what museum officials want to hear. Parents these days are seeking an alternative to children's museums -- as terrific as they are, Nielsen believes. "They want a place where everyone can all play, imagine and create ... parents want to feel a sense of satisfaction, too!"

When was the last time you put yourself inside a painting?

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Eileen Ogintz's new Kid's City guides give a kids-eye view of museums in Boston, L.A., New York, Washington, D.C., Orlando and Chicago. You can purchase them online or from major booksellers. Connect with Eileen @TakingtheKids on Twitter and Facebook.