When they first run into Eddie, a boy who stands 40 feet tall and weighs 37,000 pounds, most kids are excited, not afraid. Eddie is the welcoming exhibit at the three-month-old Edventure Children's Museum in Columbia, South Carolina. Kids climb around inside Eddie to learn about the human body. They can even stomp through his brain!
During the first 75 days that Edventure was open, more than 65,000 people from nearly all 50 states visited. It is one of more than 100 children's museums that have opened since 1990.
The Brooklyn Children's Museum in New York started something big when it opened in 1899. By 1975, there were nearly 40 museums for kids throughout the U.S. Now there are more than 200. About 80 more are preparing to open.
Not only are kids' museums popping up all over, but also they're gaining in popularity. In 2001, more than 31 million visitors came to explore children's museums nationwide. That's nearly four times the total in 1991.
WHERE LEARNING IS NO WORK AND ALL PLAY
Museums are attracting kids and their parents with lively exhibits and new ways to make learning fun. At the Children's Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, kids study the history of music by trying out instruments and even conducting a video orchestra. And at the Children's Museum of Houston, in Texas, kids can see what it's like to fly an airplane or try on clothes from Vietnam. "Many of the new exhibits guide kids toward an understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures," says Janet Rice Elman, the director of the Association of Children's Museums.
In some traditional exhibits, kids stand in front of a glass case and push buttons. But in many new ones, they can jump right in! The world's biggest kids' museum, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, in Indiana, will soon open a new exhibit where kids will be able to explore real baby dinosaur fossils. Visitors will hear the sounds, smell the smells and see the plants and rocks that surrounded the dinosaurs long ago. Then kids can dig for model fossils and sculpt their own dinosaurs in an art studio.
CALLING ALL FAMILIES!
Children's museums encourage families to learn together and meet their neighbors. "We're a new kind of town square," says Lou Casagrande, the president of the Children's Museum of Boston. "We're a gathering place where kids and parents from different cultures come together."
Many museums design activities for parents to do alongside their children, so that kids aren't the only ones having fun. "Families have a shrinking amount of time together, and museums are the rare places where they can learn and have fun together," says Jeffrey Patchen, CEO of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
For kids who cannot play safely in their neighborhoods, museums offer a fun, safe learning environment. "Children's museums bridge the formal world of school and the informal world of learning outside of school," says Casagrande.
Catherine Horne, the director of South Carolina's Edventure, agrees: "We're where kids come and learn to love the word museum."
THINK!
Have you ever been to a museum that's just for grown-ups?
Do we need special museums for kids? Why or why not?
GO
Read a Kid Reporter's museum story: timeforkids.com/visit.