Taking the Kids: Visiting a children’s museum

Let’s talk about what kids can do about climate change, even if they aren’t in kindergarten yet.

The National Children's Museum in Washington, D.C., celebrating its 50th anniversary, has just launched its Climate Action Heroes exhibit distribution project in partnership with Nickelodeon Our World. Through this project, children's museums and science centers across the globe will be able to receive complimentary access to a re-imagined version of the museum's exhibit that integrates beloved Nickelodeon characters, including Spongebob Squarepants and Dora the Explorer. By answering a maze of playful questions, children are matched with one of five hero personas with unique superpowers. Through a suite of digital extension tools, including a digital exhibit headquarters with monthly missions, virtual field trip, at-home activity videos, and podcast episodes, children are encouraged to practice their superpowers in their community.

There are nearly 500 children’s museums in the country and many now offer families a path to talk to young children about complex issues in a way they will understand, as well as provide a safe place to play and learn for kids of all abilities.

The You, Me, We! exhibit at the Boston Children’s Museum encourages families to connect around questions of fairness, stereotyping and discrimination. Explore soil, leaves, veggies, worms and more at the Fenway Farms at Boston Children’s Museum, a replica of Fenway Park’s rooftop garden at the museum. Kids can learn about local plants and share their own gardening and food stories.

The museum just opened Hundred Acre Wood: A Winnie-the-Pooh Experience complete with a chance to pretend to play in Rabbit’s Garden and Piglet’s Patch of Grass.

Check out a children’s museum where you are traveling this summer, and you likely will find hands-on exhibits that appeal to older grade-schoolers too. Look for the many hands-on STEM activities now offered.

Check the association of children’s museums to find one near where you plan to visit. Your membership at your local children’s museum may get you in for free.

The Chicago Children’s Museum’s Play for All initiative (from June 1 to Aug. 3) creates a community where play and learning connect for visitors of all abilities. The Circusville exhibit (through Sept. 7) invites different experiences, whether you enter the center ring, backstage and more as kids play dress-up, try juggling or balancing on a tightrope. Don’t miss the exhibit that explores the science behind Chicago’s skyscrapers.

In Kansas City, the new Rabbit Hole celebrates and brings to life a century of American children's literature for visitors of all ages. Spanning three floors, the Rabbit Hole brings countless works of children’s literature to life. Visitors become explorers in an immersive, multi-sensory, narrative landscape, including Curious George, Babar the King, Strega Nona, Caps for Sale and many more. There are also book-making workshops, writing labs, professional opportunities for educators, exhibit-related performances, national and local author events, residencies, and a multitude of hands-on, literature-based art-making activities.

And in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Children of Gettysburg 1863 explains the Civil War’s famous battle with activities and lessons focused on the children who were there. The museum is housed in the historic Rupp House where in 1863 John and Caroline Rupp lived with their six children. Find a place to hide during the battle, see what a soldier carried and more.

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