AAA Traveler Magazine - Children's Museums

Child’s Play

Published: May/Jun 2000

As days become warmer and daylight stretches further into the evening, the call of summer freedom begins ringing in childrens’ ears, louder and louder with each turned page of the school calendar.

But suddenly when vacation finally arrives and their yearning for liberation is realized, they begin filling their parents ears with a different, yet equally loud, sound: “I’m bored.”

That sound can end, as well. Scattered in the Midwest are a host of children’s museums, science centers and interactive exhibits certain to satiate their cravings for fun. And their antidote for boredom can be equally enjoyable for parents.

While dozens of such sites can be found throughout the region, what follows are a few of the highlights.

Missouri

One of the tricks to finding plenty of fun and interesting activities in St. Louis is to explore The Magic House. Around every corner is a hands-on learning experience. Visitors can climb a treehouse, shop in a pretend grocery store, hoist a load of foam bricks with pulleys, shoot water jets, erect the walls of a firehouse and more.

And from June–August, visitors can follow the yellow brick road to a temporary exhibit, “The Science of Oz.” Visitors travel with the scarecrow, cowardly lion and the tin man as they learn about the human body, tornadoes, rainbows and more. For example, you can balance on a beam just as Dorothy did on a barnyard fence and learn about the centers of gravity and the inner ear.

For admission or details, call (314) 822-8900. Or visit the Web site www.magichouse.org.

Another array of hands-on experiences can be found at the St. Louis Science Center, which appropriately calls itself the “playground for your head.” Explore such diverse topics as ecology, space science, medical technology and aviation. Check the speed of traffic from a walkway over Interstate 64 with a radar gun, construct an arch with foam blocks, explore a lead mine and be awed by the four-story OMNIMAX Theater.

Through Sept. 4, the center is offering a special exhibition, “Dig Dinosaurs.” Located in the Exploradome next to the Science Center, the exhibit puts visitors in the role of paleontologists. A replica of an excavation site from the Badlands features a series of pits where visitors can dig out a “fossil.” Then they can work on it in the lab and assemble a skeleton.

For admission and more information, call (314) 289-4400 or 1-800-456-7572. Or visit the Web site www.slsc.org.

If the mention of a museum elicits a yawn among your children, then City Museum is sure to awaken their enthusiasm. Three floors of surprising experiences await in this St. Louis attraction, built by wildly imaginative artists and designers.

Children can explore a multi-level enchanted forest, explore 4,000 feet of caves and tunnels, wiggle into a bird’s nest, watch glass blowers creating glass and go ringside for a special performance by the “everydaycircus.” For admission or details, call (314) 231-2489, or visit the Web site www.citymuseum.org.

The last train departed from Kansas City’s historic Union Station in 1985, but recently the beautifully restored building began transporting visitors on a different sort of adventure. Within the station is Science City, an immersive collection of 50 hands-on experiences ranging from a prehistoric fossil dig site to a futuristic space station.

You can broadcast from a radio station or television news set, become an investigator in the Crime Lab, travel through the human body and explore the subterranean world of the city. For admission or details, call 1-877-SCI-CITY. Or visit the Web site www.sciencecity.com.

There’s plenty to discover at the new Discovery Center in Springfield, where lightening strikes indoors. Dig for dinosaur bones, play with your own captured shadow and learn how a Tesla Coil emits lightening, under the watchful gaze of a life-size Ben Franklin in the two-story-tall Energy Works exhibit.

Visitors can create a front page at the Daily Discovery newspaper or broadcast the weather for the make-believe town’s station KDCS. And shop for groceries at the market with money from World Town Bank’s ATM. For admission or more information, call (417) 862-9910.

Southern Illinois

Superman could leap tall buildings in a single bound, but if he happened upon the Super Museum in Metropolis, he likely would jump inside instead of over it. As comic book heroes go, there’s no one more powerful or popular than the man of steel, and the interesting museum proves it.

The museum contains items and memorabilia from the original Superman comic through the present-day television show. Visitors are greeted outside by a 15-foot Superman statue. Exhibits include outfits worn by Christopher Reeves, original drawings from Superman creators and many of the props used in Superman movies.

For admission and more information, call (618) 524-5518.

Southern Indiana

Before there were compact discs and synthesizers, hand-cranked musical instruments forced air through holes that moved pulleys and bellows to produce sounds. Few such instruments can be found today, but physician Ted Waflart has tried to keep them off the endangered list with his museum, Dr. Ted’s Musical Marvels.

In a society glutted with technology, the collection instills wonder in visitors when they see how the historic instruments work. In addition to relatively common instruments–such as music boxes, calliopes and player pianos–there are some truly unique items. An orchestrion makes the music of a piano, along with drums, cymbals and a xylophone. And the Belgian Decap dance organ, made in 1930, is 24 feet long, 12 feet high and has 535 pipes.

The musem, located just north of Dale, is open daily Memorial Day–Labor Day and on weekends in May and September. For admission or details, call (812) 937-4250.

Before you know it, summer will be over and the children will be back in school with a list of fun activities to include in their “What I did on my summer vacation” essay. You may even want to write down your memories to treasure as they grow older.