Before I ever had kids, I loved loved loved going to art museums. So much inspiration and color and depth. So much to get me thinking, to make my hands itch to draw. When the older kids were very young I tried to haul them along to the art museum, and earned a lot of frustration for the effort. Young kids, as it turns out, aren't all that interested in paintings that don't move. They are also rarely quiet. Art museums soon became a thing of my past.
At the time we lived near a relatively decent Children's Museum. It was geared to younger kids, but younger kids were what I had. So for a few years I was set. But at some point the older kids aged out of that museum, and I was once again scouting for a place I could enjoyably drag all age groups.
Enter Chicago. When we moved within a few hours of the city, I decided to give the museums a try. Name your brand, Chicago's got at least one: aquarium, natural history museum, art museum, zoo. Big and broadly-aimed, each of them had something (and generally a whole lot of something) for everyone to love. Moving from the midwest was sad for us on many levels, and leaving the museums was definitely one of them.
So imagine my joy that we ended up here, within striking distance of Denver and all its superb attractions.
First visit: The Museum of Nature and Science.
And I have to say, we're hooked.Have you taken young kids to museums? And more specifically, to art museums? I'm thinking of giving them another try and would love suggestions to make it more successful. Maybe divide up the kids? Or start with smaller museums and phase them in slowly?
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i feel your pain regarding paragraph one!
ReplyDeletewhen we go back home to dc, land of gazillions of FREE museums, our trick is to make our visits short and sweet. this is harder when you have traveled for some time to get there (like when we go into san francisco now - much more of a commitment in terms of time and money, so hard to make a thirty minute visit). Another thing that's been fun is to split into groups and go on museum scavenger hunts. Especially fun when you can hunt for pictures of naked people, because what is more funny than nudity to a 6 year old :)