12 Best Children Museums In The World
Are your kids accompanying you during your next sojourn abroad? I can completely understand how difficult it would be for you to plan for them to remain busy and engaged. After all, they might just not find your quiet literary corners or historic monuments to be interesting enough to call it a day. So, here comes a list of some of the best and most interesting children’s museums in the world whose inclusion in your itinerary will not just keep your children happy but make them learn too, through a range of interactive activities and simulated environs. And don’t worry! They will be equally interesting for you to explore and learn from them.
1. International Spy Museum in Washington DC
image source: mrgarethm/flickr
Kids love to pretend to be spies! This act, not only offers them a share of thrill but also makes their intellectual capabilities smarter and sharper. Here comes a unique museum that offers your children an advantage to learn more about international espionage through the range of collection of artifacts related to this business on public display. Listen to the stories of the spies, range of deceptions and intelligent operations that changed the course of crime and its revelation in history. Get to know how umbrellas can be pistols and dead rats can be microphones with this one of the best children’s museums in the world to make your child delve into the nature of crime.
Timings: Mon to Sun: 10:00am to 6:00pm
Tickets: Youths (ages 7-11): $14.95, Children age 6 & under: Free
2. Computerspiele Museum in Berlin
image source: commons.wikimedia
Recently reopened in 2011, the Computerspiele museum in Berlin is one of the cool museums for kids that offer a range of computer games for kids to learn and to interact. Environments are simulated and video games from the past such as from 1980s are kept on display so as to increase the understanding of the kids. Here, your children can re-experience the historical development that marked more than six decades in the world of digital revolution. Get to see multi-media art like the Giant Joystick (Flanagan, 2006), Balldroppings (Nimoy, 2001) and PainStation (2001) so as to know how digital world has evolved and taken its hold.
Timings: Mon to Sun: 10:00am to 8:00pm
Tickets: Children aged 5 and under: Free, Regular: €8.00
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3. Toy Museum in Prague
image source: commons.wikimedia
Wow! Here comes a museum that transports you into the world of imagination as the toys surround and create a miniature world for you and your children. Boasting to be the second largest museum of this kind in the world, this museum in Prague displays toys that are collected from all over the world and from different periods, spanning from Greek ancient times and ending with most modern Barbie exemplars. For children, this museum offers fun and an escape into an imaginative world and for adults, this museum will render an understanding how culture and geographical locations shape up toys for kids.
Timings: Mon to Sun: 9:30am to 5:30pm
Tickets: Family: 120 CZK, Basic: 70 CZK
4. The Children’s Museum in Brussels
One of the best interactive museums for kids, the Children’s museum of Brussels is dedicated to entertain children through psychological means. With the help of creative spaces, this museum enables the understanding of children with fun and play, thereby rendering an increased knowledge of themselves and the world. Participation and fun go together in this museum so as to make them wonder, imagine, experiment and learn.
Timings: Mon to Sun: 2:30pm to 5:00pm
Tickets: € 6.00
5. The Toy Factory and Big Rocking Horse in Adelaide Hills, Australia
image source: thetoyfactory
Time for a ride on a horse! While vehicles may always capture the attention of children, horses are still their best friends and they love to ride on those galloping creatures. The Big Rocking Horse is actually a structure that weighs 25 tonnes and stands at over 18 metres tall, and is one of the popular attractions in Australia designed to attract the attention of passing motorists. While the Big Horse might just overwhelm your attention thoroughly, don’t forget that it is a part of the wooden toy factory, Wildlife Park and a café that introduce your children to the world of wooden toy manufacturing and their difference from the plastic ones.
Timings: Mon to Sun: 9:00am to 5:00pm
Tickets: Primary School Level: $5.00
6. National Science and Technology Museum in Taichung, Taiwan
Studying science and technology through school books can be a boring exercise for your kids. However, if the same are offered on a platter of fun, interaction ad entertainment, then the scene can be completely different. The National Science and Technology Museum in Taichung, Taiwan is a huge six-venue campus that consists of the Space IMAX Theatre, Science Center, Life Science Hall, Human Cultures Hall, Global Environment Hall, and Botanical Garden so as to make your children learn with interactive activities and simulated environs. One of the best children’s museums across the world, this one delights as well as educates children at the same time.
Timings: Tue to Sun: 9:00am to 5:00pm, Closed on Mondays
Tickets: Children under 6 years of age: Free, General visitors: NT$100
7. Exploratorium, San Francisco
image source: exploratorium
Founded by the famous physicist and educator Frank Oppenheimer, the Exploratorium in San Francisco has become one of the best children’s museums in the world to educate the kids about science, art and human perception. There are a range of activities here that the children would love to try on such as: experiencing the tactile dome, walking a pitch-black maze that you have to navigate by touch, blow the world's biggest soap bubble, as big around as a beach ball; or for that matter, even dissect a cow's eye.
Timings: Sat to Thu: 10:00am to 5:00pm, Friday: 10:00am to 10:00pm
Tickets: Youth (4-12) yrs: $19.95, Children (3 & under): Free
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8. The Strong in Rochester, NY
image source: youtube
This interactive collections-based educational institution in New York disseminates the ideas and understanding of study of play and its effects upon the kids with the help of artifacts, documents and other material. With the help of interactive activities, this museum offers knowledge of history which is important for the mental growth of children and makes them understand present in a better and relative way.
Timings: Mon to Thu: 10:00am to 5:00pm, Fri and Sat: 10:00am to 8:00pm
Tickets: Children (Age 2 and older): $14.00, under age 2: Free
9. Miami Children’s Museum in Miami
image source: youtube
Perhaps one of the most famous and best children’s museums in the world wide, the Miami Children’s Museum creates an everlasting understanding amidst kids with 14 permanent galleries, pre-school classrooms, parent/teacher resource centre, Kid Smart educational gift shop, 200-seat auditorium and a Subway restaurant to keep their appetite satiated.
Timings: Mon to Sun: 10:00am to 6:00pm
Tickets: Children under 1 year: Free, General Admission: $20.00
10. Science Centre NEMO in Amsterdam
The largest Science centre in Netherlands, NEMO makes science and technology interesting through exhibitions, theatre performances, films, workshops and demonstrations. Spread across four floors, this museum engages children with fun activities such as giant soap bubbles, experimenting in the chemistry lab or producing videos and music in the Media Lab.
Timings: Tue to Sun: 10:00am to 5:30pm
Tickets: Admission for visitors aged 4 and over: € 15.00
11. Discover Children’s Story Centre in London
image source: londontown
Discovery, imagination and exploration are the key areas where children learn to bloom and to grow their faculties. The Discovery Story Children’s museum in London has been conceptualized to inspire children’s curiosity and imagination. Here, children don’t just listen to the stories, they create their own, for Hootah, the imaginary resident baby space alien, to send back to his planet Squiggly Diggly, which has run out of imagination.
Timings: Mon to Sun: 10:00am to 5:00pm
Tickets: (Adults/Children): £5.00
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12. Toy’s Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania
image source: zaislumuziejus
The Toy’s museum in Lithuania is the most popular, the rarest and one of the best children’s museums in the world to keep children happy and imaginative. Here, children can actually try the toys out and see how they have been made and are played. Even the adults will learn a lot in this museum that covers history through toys.
Timings: Wed to Fri: 3:00pm to 8:00pm
Tickets: Children (8-10) yrs: €2.90, under 2 yrs: Free
With some of these best children’s museums in the world, your children are bound to be happy and engaged!
