The museum itself is easy to find. It has a huge hood milk statute that doubles as an ice cream shop outside of the museum. Parking is…well it’s Boston. So you’re going to pay for parking. We paid $22 just for parking and we had about a 5 minute walk. Kids under one are free and everyone else pays $22. If you’ve read my previous museum reviews, I don’t think adults should have to pay for this kind of entertainment but for the kids $22 is a good deal because there is SO SO SO SSSOOOOOO much to do. There are two separate lines for check-in. One for those who have already reserved tickets and those that need to still buy them.
To your immediate right is a big room separated into three. The left room is a series of ramps for golf balls to ride along. One, you may have been able to move and manipulate pieces but the other two were as is. My kids got bored here quick and were ready to move on almost immediately. The middle room was an exploration/discovery room. Along the back wall behind glass were stuffed animals, a beaver, some fish, things like that. There was a aquarium type thing where kids could go underneath and look up into the water, although there was nothing IN it to see. In the front of the room were blocks in all sorts of shapes and a peice of laminated paper for kids to match the shapes too. The last room, inside this giant room, was a bubble room, to my 18m this was arguably the best room.
Leave this room and there is a giant climbing sturcture. When I say giant I mean it goes from the first floor to the third and there’s exits on both floors. If your kid gets stuck or scared I have no idea how you’d get them out because no adult is fitting in this clam/oyster looking thing. To the left of this is a dancing, light up, water thing. Step on a series of color markers and rhe bubbles in the water in front of you change. The next exhibit, pull a rope as hard as you can and let go. This hits something inside a see through post, then you see how high a tennis ball goes into the air with the force you constructed.
Around the corner is a get fit kind of area but with science behind it. For example, cycle as fast as you want to see how that forces a sign on a pulley or sit in a chair while your parent uses a rope to pull up. This area was packed at all timed with mostly older kids 6+. Now down here on the first floor they’re is a cafe and gift shop but we didn’t go to either so that’s the end of the first floor.
The second floor starts also with a get fit area but instead of machines and what not this is more sports focused. Again this was packed and we didn’t bother to stay here because the majority of kids were older and actively playing games. There was basketball, rock climbing, balancing, etc. Follow your way out of this area and find a variety of play rooms. In the Peep Room, you’ll get wet, your kids rather. There is a big waterfall river type thing that takes up half of the room. You can manipulate the way the plastic boats move my moving the clear plastic squares. It is very slippery, my son slipped immediately but it didn’t stop him from playing. The other half of the peep room is a shadow and light room. Make shadows bigger or small by moving objects closer and further away from the light.
The next exhibit is “Countdown to kindergarten. The front half is a bus that kids can go on, there’s two seats and a driver seat. The windows are either a TV or realistic pictures to make it more realistic looking as if they’re really taking a bus. The back half is the classroom. The room is sectioned into subjects. I thought this room was pretty cool but my 4y did not. Aside from your typical school subject, science, arts, math, reading there was a sensory bin for toddler hands. Like I mentioned my daughter didn’t want to stay here as long as I would’ve if I were her but I did notice that each subject section was very hands on type learning. The next room or exhibit its sounds, lights and blocks. Take a seat on a chair and quite literally play musical chairs. When you sit, the seat makes a sound, there’s about a dozen and it was full every time we passed it. Build with big blue foam blocks in front of a black board with circles you spin to change their color.
My favorite exhibit is next: The Arthur area. This are was so cool, I think my kids thought so despite not know who Arthur is. Everything is 3-D looking in this area. There’s Arthur’s classroom, furnished with a teachers desk and student desks. A bookcase of books and the alphabet with letters missing that kids fill in. There’s a doctor area here where you can see bones and learn how lungs work. You can go camping in Arthur’s tent, the walls painted to match the scene. A giant kitchen just like in Arthur, kids can use pans, spatulas and other kitchen utensils to make a meal or two for their parent. My 18m could’ve stayed just in this area all day, he loves anything kitchen. A plane is also in the Arthur area. Kids can hope on a take a ride or drive the plane as seen on Arthur. Kids can also go in front a green screen to make it seem like they are actually a character in the show!
The next room is a fort building room. It has a ton of cut out shapes with notches on all the sides to be able to build your own fort. There weren’t many kids here and if there were they were older kids 7ish or so. Next to this room were some magnet blocks and a wood building area with some sort of machine in the middle. Across from this is a STEAM lab. I assume this changes but I don’t know how often. When we were here kids were building with PVC pipes. In the back is a craft area, I’m not sure but it seems like this changes too. We did some crafting with wet chalk on black sheets of paper. You can hang your art or take it home with you! On this floor is a rooftop garden which visitors can walk through. It was full when we walked by so we skipped it but they were doing a scavenger hunt in the garden at our visit to the museum.
Lastly on the second floor, before all these exhibits is a toddler and baby only space. We reserved tickets for this area as well but sometime walk-ins are open. This space costs nothing additional. It is reserved for 3 and under but I did notice a few four year olds. My 18m had a blast in here! There’s tons of crawl through tubes and logs that my son just absolutely loved. An area with a cave has buttons to press to light up a box to show different animals who live in caves. A bird nest in some trees makes cool little hangout for toddlers. There’s a big kitchen area complete with outfits, foods, utensils, etc. Towards the back is a big train table with plenty of trains to go around. There were always kids here and never did I hear toddlers fighting over trains. There’s Teo space next to this, one with cardboard boxes for your toddlers to climb in or build whatever they want. The other space is a fishing table that uses a pole and blocks with magnets in them. Another table is air, put balls or scarfs in to see how they move. There is a climbing playground top thing that the toddlers, including mine, loved. It has a ramp to climb up, stairs and a net. All challenging littles just enough to keep them wanting to keep trying. Once there up the come down the same way or by the slide. Inside of this toddler area is a baby area, completely gated from the toddlers. Although we did have my 3m with us we didn’t go in because my husband was with our daughter in other parts of the museum and the baby area was strictly no toddlers and I didn’t want to leave my older son alone. Anyway, I did catch a look at it. There’s lots of soft play and easy climbing foam blocks. There are some texture touching things in here for those looking to give there babies so sensory.
Moving up to the third floor now, you’ll find just as many, just as detailed exhibits. One of the first ones you’ll see is the construction area. It’s also broken up into different things you can do. We focused on the climbing area, the push along trucks and ramps and the ride in construction cars. I saw a building block area but the kids were so focused in the things I mentioned we didn’t even step foot inside the other little rooms the construction are had. Next was the dinos in space exhibit and both of my kids LOVE dinos. There is a huge “life-sized” dinosaur right as you walk into this area. We had trouble getting my 18m away from this, when we did, he’d go right back to this dino that you can’t touch, it doesn’t move, it does nothing but for some reason my son was captivated by it. There is a space dome in the center. I could not fit in because it was so packed but from the outside I could see it was darkened and had pillows throughout the dome. There was an area where you could dress up dinos that stood against a wall. This was my daughters (4) favorite. A giant globe is in this room, lots of kids were here so we didn’t stop at it but it must do something besides spin to have that many kids focused on it. To the back is a darkened room with some sort of neon lights exhibit where you create your own constellations. Again it was so full we didn’t get to fully check it out.
Across from the dinos is You, Me, We exhibit. This area is huge and there was so much to see and do. We spent a couple minutes at each thing. Immediately to your right is some wooden doll houses and doll people. This is where my 4y stayed the longest. Further in is a pretend ice cream truck. You can either be the driver and serve ice cream or be the customer and order your favorite! Around the corner is a sound area. Kids can yell through a megaphone type thing or make some sounds by banging on the nearby shelf filled with different objects. In the back is an area with an air table to throw scarves onto and see them float in the air. Also in this area separated by a wall is a big dome of different colors this was filled with pillows and soft things to look up through the dome. Around the corner is a kitchen with an interactive fridge that shows how to make the food your child wants. There’s a big table nearby with plates and utensils secured down. There’s a baby care center and an ASL area neither we got to experience. Another area in the third floor we just didn’t go to was a Japanese home. Husband and I were bummed we missed this because we really want to visit Japan and this may have been our only chance 😉.
Overall all this museum is worth the money. Not a single space is wasted. Even the hallways have things to do, build, compare your height to characters and more! There’s things for all ages including non-crawlers. Even if you don’t go to the Playspace for 3 and under there is still plenty to do for toddlers. My 18m did or atleast tried everything my 4y did. There were times my husband took my daughter to a certain area and I took my son or vice versa. Each area has small things and details to look at and do, such as quizzes, did you knows, putting together sentences, tips for parents, etc. I mean it when I say literally no space is wasted or empty. There are bathrooms and changing tables on every floor. There’s plenty places to nurse if you have a baby and there’s a private nursing area in the playspace. There are timed visits of three hours and I don’t think that is enough time to really see and explore everything. Our time started at 130 but we didn’t get there until 2ish and we felt we needed rush through to see everything. Parking sucks because again it’s Boston so you’re either gunna drive around for a bit to find a spot or go to a garage and pay $20+. The garage we parked at does offer discounted parking if validated by the museum but we forgot to that in all the chaos of leaving right at closing (430). I recommend Boston Children’s Museum for all ages. If you’re not someone who likes a lot of people, this may not be the best place for you, it was packed up until closing, even the elevators and stairs were elbow to elbow. If you have only one child under the age of 1 (free) you could take them because they have the dedicated room for them however, in my opinion you probably want to wait until they are over 1 to experience the whole museum. If you don’t mind spending $22 for yourself to get in and only go to that room then have at it. There is plenty for them to do in the playspace!
little Movers Maine 