Children's Museum fun but packed

Head over to the Children’s Museum in St. Paul to play.

While your kiddo might learn some from the exhibits, the focus at the Children’s Museum is imaginative play.

As the web site says: For more than 30 years, Minnesota Children's Museum has embedded the research on play, creativity and child development into its interactive learning environments and programs. Open-ended experiences are designed for children to explore, discover, immerse, imagine and connect.

My 5-year-old most loved the town complete with a grocery store, kitchen, doctor’s office, post office, bus, front porch and dance studio. Mostly what she loved was donning a mail carrier’s uniform and delivering letters around town. I think she could have played that game all day!

There’s a space for water and bubble play. For building with large blocks. For making paper.

Upstairs is a natural habitat (made entirely of plastic!) with an ant home - tunnels and ramps. Make it thunderstorm. Slide like an otter. Observe fish. Dress like an ant or another outdoor animal. (We loved the costumes scattered throughout the museum!)

The special exhibit through ?? features dinosaurs. I worried that it would be too scary for my 2-year-old and 5-year-old, but I just didn’t read them the information on the violent dinosaurs. They loved climbing around.

IF YOU GO
- Plan your trip for the First Tuesday of any given month in order to avoid school groups.
- Use a Chinook Book coupon to get $2 off.
- There's a parking lot kitty corner from the museum. Then use the skyway at level 3 to walk over and avoid traffic or bad weather. Parking for 3 hours is $4.

ADDRESS & PHONE & WEBSITE
10 7th St W, St Paul, MN 55102
(651) 225-6000
http://www.mcm.org/

ADMISSION
- $9.95 for ages 1-101
- Free for kids under 1

HOURS
Monday: Closed
Tuesday - Thursday: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Friday & Saturday: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.