Providence Children's Museum

Another Wednesday, another field trip. Today we headed down to the Providence Children's Museum, a place that I had never heard of until someone (I forget who...apologies!) told me about it late last week. The museum's website looked reputable and it was only about an hour's drive away, so I decided to give it a shot. I figured, "it's Rhode Island...how bad can it be?" (Insert your own joke here.)

Hands down it was the best kids' museum I have been to in a long time, perhaps ever. It was better than the Acton Discovery Museum, better than the Boston Children's Museum (though, granted, that museum shoots for a slightly older audience than I currently have at my disposal), and certainly better (and cheaper!) than the NE Aquarium.

Where to begin. Well, I felt like it was less of a museum and more of an educational, scientific playground. The exhibits were all hands-on and targeted those subjects that toddlers find fascinating--water, wind, light, noise, climbing on things, building and tearing down. There was no pretense that kids were supposed to come away with any hard and fast "knowledge"--in fact, there were quotes all around the museum that spoke of the importance of play and discovery for the sake of play and discovery. I loved it. It set a great tone.

For those parent/teachers who were inclined to make this more of a concrete learning experience for their kids, museum staff had hung some open-ended questions and activities that kids could be encouraged to think about as they played with the different materials. They were of the "How could you _____?" and "What would happen if you did _____?" variety; nothing more and nothing less. Beautiful.

Oh yes--I brought my kids too, I did not go on my own. I should probably talk about them.

We stayed 2.5 hours, and Andres had a ball the entire time. It seemed that he loved each room more than the last, and the wind room in particular really appealed to him. Here he is experiencing the joy of putting a cloth napkin into a wind tube and watching it get sucked through a series of pipes:



We stayed in this room for about 20 minutes. It never got old.

Apparently the museum is a bit famous/popular on account of its water room, where kids can splash and play and explore all while being covered in a smock. Andres had a good time in there as well, but I think he might enjoy it more next year when he is a little bit older. Here he is having fun with a sieve and some balls:



He also enjoyed playing with colored shapes on a light table, learning about bones, and being a worker man. Celia slept on the ride to the museum so she was awake the whole time we were there. She seemed to have a good time too, though she was a bit apprehensive here:



The best thing about the museum? No Thomas trains anywhere. Hooray.