Minnesota Children's Museum

This place is great! My niece had a great time and burned off a ton of energy running around. I loved all the signage encouraging ages 1 to 100+ to enjoy different parts of the museum. I appreciated that in almost every area, there was an older kid version and a younger kid version which made the museum really diverse. Highly recommend the ball launcher area!

Have been there at the weekend to enjoy the time with our three years old niece. You can easily spend 3-4 hours since there are ao many stations and activities from science to car wash, from muddy garden to climbing or many physical activity opportunities. It was fun and she enjoyed a lot. I didn’t take picture since there was kids everywhere and hard to take a picture w/o capturing them.

Pros: lots of choices for play including spaces for pretend & gross motor play (play structures / tinker ladders / balance boards etc.) A favorite of my 4yo was the car wash station where kids can use scrub brushes and manually powered water hoses on pretend car sections. Particularly fond of the 3 and under space (older siblings allowed if respecting littles space). This section has water play, smaller slides, and plenty of things for littles to explore. There is a microwave and small table if needed. Other information that may be useful - outside food is allowed though on busy days the Cafe area with tables is reserved for paying customers, eating space otherwise is limited - either way is fine with bringing wagon or stroller. If you have older kids (like my older four year old) it may slow you down as they may want to go to various places pretty often. That being said we brought ours and it did help getting to the museum from the parking garage but the two year old didn't use it much after that. If we only had the younger one there is space to park by the little people section! - there is an educator discount at the box office. $2 per ticket or $15 for the membership. We opted for year membership as that would pay for itself in about three visits. This also gave us a slight discount on parking Cons: Though I cannot speak from personal experience I would probably not even try this on a weekend or particularly rainy day during the summer as It could be quite chaotic when busy.

I absolutely love the children's museum, I'm aware that they have different exhibits geared towards certain ages as well as the Sprouts area for younger kids. But as someone who pays for a somewhat expensive annual membership, I don't like that there are school field trips almost every time I go, I don't like having to navigate very large groups of older kids. If only there was a way to have the museum open on certain days for members and the public and then other days for schools. This is just too much for families. I'm sure I am not the only one who feels this!

Great spot to go with the kids, we got the $150 yearly pass which is a STEAL considering it would cost us $90 to go every time. My wife and I go with the kids 1-2x a week and they all absolutely love it! 1 year old and a 2 year old and a 3 year old have a blast here at the Minnesota children’s museum. Will keep coming back for years to come. The staff are great at keeping issues to a minimum and cleaning the areas. 10/10.