Marbles Kid Museum

Website: http://www.marbleskidsmuseum.org

Our 6-year-old girl was invited to a birthday party at this 2-story kids museum. Guests of the party were invited to enjoy the museum at no extra cost to us when the party ended. The party was in the Emerald Isle room which is in close proximity to a large indoor pirate ship. The first-graders (girls and boys!) enjoyed climbing on board, hoisting the flag, swabbing the deck and dropping the huge anchor overboard, all while dressed in pirate clothes that were in the treasure chests there. Across from the pirate ship was a little area for experimenting with colors. Children were encouraged to make secondary colors by mixing 3 primary colors in various combinations. My daughter spent waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long doing this, but she loved every minute of it. A few other highlights from the 1st floor included a giant Connect Four game (the height of my first grader) and a giant chess board (chess pieces the height of my 2 year old!) that children (and parents) could play. There was also a HUGE area for pretend play which allowed one to pretend to garden, work in a post office, perform on stage, be an E.R.T or another medically trained professional, and/or be a firefighter, etc. etc.

Upstairs was a whole other collection of fun and exciting things that required children to dust off those imaginations and get to work. There were little centers where real (kid-sized) tools and work benches were accessible to the children along with wood blocks, screws, nails and a whole host of donated items and various materials. My daughter used an assortment of things to create an alien doll. After rounding the corner we found a whole collection of bins filled with scrap fabrics that she used to dress her doll and create a blanket for her doll. Children are not required to make one specific thing, they can make anything that their imaginations and materials will allow. So much fun! There was also a nice size area in which children were able to build with giant connecting blocks. Children were building houses around themselves and laughing out loud (except for the frequent cries of those whose buildings met with an untimely demolition!)

There's another area which explores various aspects of the Olympics and allows one to practice his long jump and measure the distance jumped. My daughter couldn't resist donning the hockey jersey and socks, grabbing a hockey stick and heading into the rink (?) where she (and many others) knocked pucks into the goal whenever the (also a child) goalie was not able to block them. My daughter LOVED this activity!

There's so so much more to explore. We spent about 2 hours at the museum after the party, but wish we could have spent more time as there was so much to see and do!

What a great museum!

My rating: 5 stars