Children's Museum of Providence, Providence RI
100 South St.
Providence RI
Admission: $9.00
*If you are a member of an ACM participating museum, you have up to 6 1/2 off admissions. If you are a member of an ASTC museum, you have up to 4 free admissions.
Hours:
April-Labor Day:9-6 every day
Labor Day - April: Closed Mondays, 9-6
So, this past February vacation we ventured south of the Pike! We have a great friend that lives abot 30 minutes from Providence. They'd never been to this museum, and we were going a little stir crazy. So we made the trip and ..... WOW! What a great museum! There were so many exhibits that involved climbing, hands on, etc. My personal favorite was the boat room. Really it looked like a real old fashioned boat, with 2 floors of run. Given that it was school vacation week there were tons of kids there. To be expected I suppose.
So the first floor wasn't over impressive to me. They had large water room with lots of water tables. If you go here, I'd suggest a change of clothes even for your older kids. One of the funnier things that happened involved my friend's son. He was working on changing the direction of water on some pumping system and then started doing something else. Another boy came over and started using the pump. Unfortunately for A the top of system was directly at him and he got hit right in the face with water. They did provide smocks, but that didn't help much in this case.
There were a few rooms we didn't get to check out but the last room was a great way to bring the energy level down with some projects! I got the sense that they frequently change what's happening here. This day they were building paper airplanes and paper helicopters. A few tables around the room had instructions
for paper airplanes. I couldn't quite figure them out, and the only complaint I had was the staff in the room didn't know how to build them either! But they did have a great time and the staff helped them fly planes through hula hoop obstacles, and helped them climb up to drop their helicopters.
100 South St.
Providence RI
Admission: $9.00
*If you are a member of an ACM participating museum, you have up to 6 1/2 off admissions. If you are a member of an ASTC museum, you have up to 4 free admissions.
Hours:
April-Labor Day:9-6 every day
Labor Day - April: Closed Mondays, 9-6
So, this past February vacation we ventured south of the Pike! We have a great friend that lives abot 30 minutes from Providence. They'd never been to this museum, and we were going a little stir crazy. So we made the trip and ..... WOW! What a great museum! There were so many exhibits that involved climbing, hands on, etc. My personal favorite was the boat room. Really it looked like a real old fashioned boat, with 2 floors of run. Given that it was school vacation week there were tons of kids there. To be expected I suppose.
So the first floor wasn't over impressive to me. They had large water room with lots of water tables. If you go here, I'd suggest a change of clothes even for your older kids. One of the funnier things that happened involved my friend's son. He was working on changing the direction of water on some pumping system and then started doing something else. Another boy came over and started using the pump. Unfortunately for A the top of system was directly at him and he got hit right in the face with water. They did provide smocks, but that didn't help much in this case.
There were also some other exhibits. A cool light box, that I just wasn't small enough to climb inside of, some fun mirrors. My middle one adored looking at herself!
This was the other really awesome thing on the first floor. The kids got to climb in and construct with pool noodles. Patrick was quite disappointed he spent so much time at the water tables because this could have occupied him for hours!
There were a few other things on the first floor but we didn't spend much time on those. Then we headed upstairs. Unfortunately my pictures became pretty scarce since watching the 4 kids become much harder! The construction site was great, and Patrick was in heaven!
Off this area was a hallway dedicated to different eras in Rhode Island. Long hallway with little exhibit rooms off them. Honestly I don't remember all of them because this was the hardest spot to keep an eye on everyone. i think there was a early settlers cabin. There was definitely a mill and colonial area.
In this hallway we found the ship! And what fun would it be without a general store??
There were a few rooms we didn't get to check out but the last room was a great way to bring the energy level down with some projects! I got the sense that they frequently change what's happening here. This day they were building paper airplanes and paper helicopters. A few tables around the room had instructions
for paper airplanes. I couldn't quite figure them out, and the only complaint I had was the staff in the room didn't know how to build them either! But they did have a great time and the staff helped them fly planes through hula hoop obstacles, and helped them climb up to drop their helicopters.
This was lots of fun. Especially given the fact that with our ASTC membership we get free admission, this is a place well worth the drive!! We will be heading back this summer.
Note to the North Shore Moms: While I hate driving 128, it's definitely better than driving through the city.It took HOURS to get home! At the time the one of the Sumner/Callahan tunnels were closed, but this summer the Tobin is still down to 1 lane! Do yourself a favor. Take the long way around, perhaps stop at Rainforest Cafe for dinner!
