“We love the museum, but even though Maeve is still having fun, Katie is starting to grow out of it.” This is a sentiment I am hearing more and more during my time in the Museum’s exhibits. Grownups will bring their child here for years and have the time of their life. Then their kid gets younger siblings, and they continue to come to the Museum with the new additions, and have the time of their life. But then their oldest child turns 7 or 8. He or she starts worrying that the Museum is too “babyish” and doesn’t feel like coming just to play with the younger sibling and parents.
Our visitors are always going to be growing up. That’s a given. We could choose to simply let them go, or we can try to capture the attention of these creative, thoughtful kids until the very last second!
My role at the Boston Children’s Museum is to keep up with these cool, curious, growing minds who just want to have fun. Unlike many of our younger visitors, these “older kids” (our in-house term for ages 6 & up) have a much longer attention span, more complex ways of thinking, and more highly-developed hand-eye coordination – all of which are just begging to be used.
At least once a weekend (when these cool kids are out of school) the Museum offers instructor-led hands-on workshops. These workshops range from making your own camera to hosting your own hour long science fair. We’ve made lava lamps, designed monsters, recorded our own music, launched rockets – we’ve even concocted our own brand of shampoo!
So if you are nervous about having a bored “older kid” at the museum, fear not! Just check our calendar to see what’s up. We hand out flyers of our upcoming workshops at the information desk and we’ve always got an updated list on our website: http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/exhibits-programs/programs/workshops-kids-6-and-older.
The Power of Play 