Great Kids’ Museum near Boston

We’ve been there many times before, but today we had another great time at the Peabody Essex Museum.  Though not officially a “children’s museum”, they try really hard to make kids welcome.  And now they’ve added a fun scavenger hunt in the form of this brochure, with two tear-off cards that kids can easily hold on to.

It’s their way (it seems) of getting kids to explore more than just the first floor of the museum, where the child-oriented “Idea Studio” is located.  The four year olds had fun doing the search, but the six year old with us, Lily, was really the one who could find the objects.

The shows in the kids’ room last for a year — the origami show is now over and a new one, Polar Attractions, is up. To see a cool slide show of some art (which you really won’t get to look at if you’re chasing small children), click here.

Here are more photos of what they had fun doing -

Caressing the Deborah Butterfield horse sculpture in the atrium

Looking into a periscope installation called Polar Peek-A-View

Inside one of the Peek-A-Views

Making up stories with the story tiles (always a favorite)Playing a game

Designing a fish

Story with finger puppets from the activity boxes

Contemplating modern Native-American art (not pictured: doing the limbo underneath it)

Fun at the Exploratorium

I loved it as a kid and I love it as an adult.  Cousin Audrey showed Leo around on his first visit here.

Standing in the Angel Columns (do you see the figures?) /Audrey playing with black sand

Watching the discs roll down the slope (something to do with inertia)

Inside a kaleidoscope

Some REALLY good jumpers inside the shadow making machine

Leo, Audrey & Ted show off their arch-making skills

Rainy Saturday

We met up with Finn & Steph at the A&J King Bakery in Salem, MA where they make the world’s best sticky buns. Finn does a good job here of trying to fit it into his mouth

Leo does his best Tom Brady impression

Leo and Finn show off their unique sense of style on Front Street.

Checking out the Maori Tattoo exhibit

Finn getting up close & personal with the folk art Noah’s Ark at the Peabody Essex

Leo admiring his favorite museum object, the model of the Cunard Line RMS Queen Elizabeth, built in 1949 by Bassett-Lowke Ltd. More detail can be seen in these photos here.

Finn, with his man purse, takes a break from all the art.

“Finny, let’s watch TV!”

Yes, that’s what Leo said when he saw the TV at the Wenham Museum exhibit on old toys. They didn’t sit there long, but they enjoyed it while it lasted.

While Finn ironed (this will make Uncle Stevie in London proud!!), Leo dressed up went in the playhouse. Then Finn and Leo set up shop, but eventually they had a fight over who got to run the cash register.

Steph found a great article about why imaginative play, like they are doing here (in 3 out of 4 photos), is so important and why kids are doing less and less of it (blame the other photo).

Here’s the story (you can listen or read):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514&sc=nl&cc=es-20080224

Ben at the PEM

SF MOMA — Six Truths and a Lie

All of these are things we heard from museum guards at the SF MOMA today — except for one. Can you spot the lie?

“Don’t lean”

“Don’t get too close”

“Don’t yell”

“Don’t kick”

“Don’t lick”

“Don’t blow on it”

“Don’t jump”

(Clockwise from top) Audrey in “Notion Motion”, Leo and Audrey in “360 degree room for all colours”, in the mist of “Beauty”, and wearing blankets before entering the room with the frozen BMW.

And the only one we didn’t hear was “Don’t yell”. Yes, the over-protective guards of the installations by Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson told the kids not to blow (on water that was in a pool), not to jump (on creaky floorboards whose purpose was to make the not-to-be-blown water move), and don’t lick (???) or kick(???) the frozen car.

The exhibit was called “Take Your Time “.

Best part of the Eliasson show - “Ventilator” (1997)

The thing I think I liked best was the fan, hanging on a cable, buzzing around the atrium. The kids loved it and it was a great way to enter the museum and start having fun. The brochure says that it used to be at shoulder height, but was “adjusted upward for SF MOMA”. It’s like the dangerous crack in the floor at the Tate, only it’s America and someone would sue.

The New DeYoung Museum

A few highlights of our day at the DeYoung with Paul.

Lounging Leo

The DeYoung has lots of nice surfaces to lie on. Or maybe Leo just needed some lunch (he’s not lying down in any of the post-lunch photos).

Kids at the Peabody Essex

It’s a great museum — we go there about once a month. But here are a few things they could do better.

Kids are welcome in the Idea Studios and the Art & Nature Center, but elsewhere, guards often look afraid when you enter a gallery with children. You should see some of the looks we’ve gotten while walking around the museum. One guard was hesitant to open the door to us for the 3rd floor special exhibition. I’m not making this up — something like this happens nearly every time we go.

Maybe this is because there’s not much for kids to do in most of the museum. There aren’t any special signs for kids to read or things to touch (other than in the children’s area).

We have been shushed at the museum, but never thrown out, not like this woman. Dea Birkett went on to found Kids in Museums, a non-profit in the UK devoted to making museums more family-friendly. They have a manifesto with ideas like more art carts (I didn’t know this term, but found a picture of one here at the Tate Modern in London – what a cool idea! I’d love to see kids running around with scissors at the PEM!). To be honest, the PEM has done a lot of the things on the list, but they could definitely improve the kid-friendliness of the majority of the galleries.

Anyone care to add anything?

PS — Here is the ship Vera refers to in her comment (see that she is holding Finn, clearly due to the apoplectic guard!)

Leo is old enough to not try to climb on this ship, but it is hard for younger kids to walk through here without getting into trouble.  Why not have some hands on ships near by to divert their attention in a positive way?