Each year in January take a long weekend trip to Boston Massachusetts with our three children. After asking others where we should visit this year, one place kept popping up: The Boston Children’s Museum. The BCM was opened over 100 years ago by Boston Public School Teachers and is geared toward children 11 and under. I haven’t been since I was a young child, but after looking at their website we knew it was a must-visit for our family and we are so happy we did! We spent 3 hours on a blustery Saturday exploring the large museum.
With 88,000 square feet of exhibit space, there are plenty of activities to keep children entertained. As soon as we walked through the front door the kids were itching to climb and explore the New Balance Climb. The New Balance Climb is a 3-story climbing structure with multiple paths made up of curving platforms and netting. This was the first and last activity all three of my children enjoyed at the museum.
Right next to the New Balance Climb was a bubble room, which is definitely a popular activity for the kids! The room was full of children and we spent about a half-hour there ourselves. The room has bins full of bubble solution and fun wands and rings and cups to create different bubbles. The two favorites for us were the hose that blew out air, allowing the child to explore and play with bubbles in a new way, and also the large bubble maker that was a rope and pulley system. My son got so excited when he was able to make a large wavy bubble as tall as himself.
Another area that they really enjoyed was Peep’s World. They really loved the TV Series, Peep, and the Big Wide World, when they were younger, so were pretty excited to see there was a space dedicated to Peep and his friends. We traveled through, rather quickly, the shadow portion of the room, but spent ages at the water tables!
Unfortunately, we were unable to participate in the Art Studio, as it seems there was a bit of confusion in scheduling and although the sign stated it would be open until 11:40, it was closed down early. We also did not watch the KidStage performance, as my kids were having too much fun with the activities and chose not to go watch it!
The rock climbing wall was a fun challenge for all three of them and we all loved the dance floor, both of which are part of the Kid Power Exhibit. I loved this exhibit myself as it shows children how an active body is a powerful thing. I believe we tried out every single activity in this exhibit, including the bodyweight chair where the kids have to try to pull themselves up with their arms and a pulley mechanism.
We did notice that the majority of the children at the museum were younger, preschool and toddler age. My children are 4 and 6, plus my 15-year-old, so they were definitely some of the older ones there. And though many of the exhibits and programs were better suited to the younger age bracket, my children still really enjoyed the time spent at the museum. They were excited to explore each room, and while some we just breeze through, many captured their attention and imaginations and we spent a lot of time enjoying those.
There were also a few exhibits that did not hold our attention and/or are looking a little worn and could use an update, but overall we had a great experience, we enjoyed the interactive exhibits and activities and the atmosphere was great fun! If you find yourself in the Boston area with younger children and have a few hours to spend, I definitely would recommend this museum.
Disclosure: We received complimentary admission to the museum for the purposes of review. However, all opinions, experiences, and photographs are entirely our own.
