Minnesota Children’s Museum

• This is a hosted post. We were able to attend the AWESOME newly remodeled Minnesota Children’s Museum in exchange for a post and social media coverage of our visit.

 

Confession: I REALLY wanted to make it part of our family vacation/ adventure in the twin cities. The kids and I are no stranger to Children’s Museums and different opportunities that encourage play, learning, imagination etc… but my husband hasn’t been able to go on any of our  local adventures unfortunately. After much some convincing we were able to get my husband to go with us.

 

Several years ago, (3 years??)  we attended the Minnesota Children’s Museum when my oldest was 2 and my middle was a few months old… it was neat and fun… and my then two year old loved it.. but when I started hearing all of the positive things about their remodel, I knew I wanted to check it out again, to see all of the changes and improvements.

I can’t stress how much it has changed, for the better.

Here is what we love about the museum 

They kept the gems-

My daughter was just over two when we made our first visit. She remembers very little, just the stores she can play in. But she was SO EXCITED to see that they still have the “stores” or as it is formally called “Our World” exhibit still available.

For those who are unfamiliar with the children’s museum, the our world exhibit is comprised of real life replica (but kid sized) stores that allow children of all ages to participate in open ended play pretending that they are driving a bus, eating at a restaurant, a firefighter, a storekeeper and so much more.

The really cool thing about all of these stores is that they are actually modeled after real stores all around Minnesota.  To be quite honesty, I would have never probably noticed these planques but I sat down to nurse my baby, and I sat next to one of the plaques and discovered this really cool detail 🙂 .

 

It is 150% kid orientated-

We arrived in what would be absolute chaos in most situations (during a fire alarm).  But the situation was handled with grace and ease. The bathrooms are about as mom/baby/toddler friendly as they come.

• More than 430,000 visitors per year
• 16,000 member families, including 3,500 free memberships for low-income families
• Minnesota Children’s Museum is a non-profit organization

Imaginative play is available everywhere, offering kids (of all ages) a chance to be a kid.

They make great use of the space they have-  

How they use the space available, is one of the big things that changed during the remodel. One of the things that I remembered during our last visit, was how everything was so spread out that it made the transition from exhibit to exhibit difficult for someone that wasn’t familiar with the museum. In the remodel they were able to move more exhibits to the open space making transition easier, and also adding more space for visitors to have fun at the museum.

Bottom Line:

WE HAD so much fun!! I HIGHLY recommend making a trip to it!!

I am so glad that we were able to get my husband to go with us because there is so much to see & do there. Make sure you alot several hours of time (or just come back a few times 😉 ), we were at the museum for just under 4 hours and we were not able to even cover all 74,000 square feet. But we will definitely be back 🙂

If you are going with kids under the age of 6, I would highly recommend packing an extra outfit if you plan on visiting the water features. They are SO MUCH FUN, but in this case fun=wet mess.

Also, some of the interactive exhibits also require socks, so bring socks with if you don’t plan on wearing them to the museum 😉

 

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Fast facts:

Where it is located: 

10 West Seventh Street
St. Paul, MN 55102

What the hours are:

Summer Hours

Sunday – Thursday: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Friday – Saturday: 9 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Open Mondays through Labor Day: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

• For more information on visiting please check out their website.

Where you can get more information:

their website- Here 

their facebook page-

https://www.facebook.com/MinnesotaChildrensMuseum/