Comments on: The Exploratorium: 5 Family Favorites

By: Peace (Australia)

Peace (Australia) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:05:03 +0000

Loved this post Jamie! Looks like a fantastic place to take kids even for the scientifically-challenged.

By: Jamie Pearson

Jamie Pearson — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:30:48 +0000

@Amy I nominate you for Mom of the Year. What you just described goes so far above and beyond the job description. Kind of gives me hives too ;)

By: Amy Canby

Amy Canby — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:05:56 +0000

We recently took guests to the science museum here in Denver. After losing Mac in the mineral display (our first stop) I felt obligated to carry on to the new exhibit on weather. After a long line we finally wove our way through, trying to keep track of the 5 kids aged 3-12, trying to decide what to read, what hands-on displays to wait our turn for, whether to sit in the tornado display with the big fan blaring overhead. Stress! Science baffles me. Stupidly, when we decided Ben wasn’t getting enough at school, I decided I’d engage him in weekly science experiment at home. After hours of online research yesterday we tackled our first salt water experiments only to find out that he already knew how the experiments would turn out and more about “why” than I did. Now I’m looking for an after school science club!

By: Jennifer Margulis

Jennifer Margulis — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:51:40 +0000

My favorite science museum ever is the one in Boston. My least favorite — too many exhibits, too many strobe lights (so, I paid more than $20 to be at … the mall?) — is the one in Montreal. The OMNI here in Oregon (in Portland) is pretty awesome and for a more science-y, less sensory explosion museum there’s ScienceWorks in Ashland, where we live.

I so want to take the kids to the Exploratorium. We’ve tried to go twice recently. Guess what? It was Monday and they were closed…

By: wandermom

wandermom — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:04:12 +0000

Jamie you crack me up. I swear I’ve cumulatively spent years of my life in Science Museums – for hours at a time. I seriously don’t remember ever being bored. Maybe I’m just weird.

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:35:03 +0000

Great timing! We were just thinking about going up there, so this is a good motivator to do so! I’ll print out your post as a reference.

By: Sharlene

Sharlene — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:41:49 +0000

I love the Exploratorium! What about the green screen that captures your shadow in whatever idiotic pose you choose? Brilliance!

By: Seana

Seana — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:46:59 +0000

That last one explains why I am dumbfounded everytime I try to talk to my husband using his hands free device in the car and there is a slight delay before I hear my voice repeated. It takes supreme concentration to ignore it! I learn something new every time I take my kids to this museum, and although the sheer humanity is overwhelming and the prices in the cafe are absurd, my kids love it and thus I will return, again and again.

By: Steven Roll

Steven Roll — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:53:37 +0000

Another challenge is if you have kids of different ages. My daughter is five years older than my son. It’s hard to find things they will both be interested in.

One science museum where this wasn’t such a problem was The Franklin in Philadelphia. Besides a planetarium, Imax movies, and live baby alligator petting, you could bicycle across the atrium on a tightwire that was about 50 feet up.

By: Carolina

Carolina — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:58:01 +0000

How you got out of the Exploratorium in under an hour is baffling, you are the child whisperer apparently.
So being a science museum groupie, I love this museum. Good picks.