Long Island Children’s Museum

Over the winter break from school, we took our kids to the Long Island Children's Museum.  From a parent's perspective, the place seems a bit chaotic, but through the eyes of a child, it is a great place to be, which is why I decided to interview my son about his day for this post.  I'll share with you our day, and my son's thoughts on what he liked and didn't like.

We entered the museum and went directly to the BUBBLES station and then to a make-shift beach area.  Neither one of these was very interesting to my five-year old son, but my one-year old daughter loved playing in the sand.  My son and his friend looked at the climbing area, but neither one wanted to venture into the 2-story maze, so we moved on to the TOOL BOX station, where we finally found something of interest to the boys.

At the TOOL BOX station, there were a number of displays, and some interactive tools that were fun for the kids to play with.  They hand-cranked an elevator up and down, and checked out some of the other tools, but the highlight was the building area.  My son and I built a battleship with scraps of wood and nails.  There is an area to decorate your creation once you're done, and if you use glue or anything that needs to dry, you can leave your project and pick it up on your way out.

There was an interesting exhibit for both adults and children where you can see what homes look like around the world.  It makes you appreciate what you have, even if you don't feel that you are living in your dream home.  My son enjoyed it.  His personal favorite was a home in South Africa because of its unique design.  When asked what he thought of the houses in general, he said that he likes our house much better, and that he would give our house to the poor people.  While I'm not prepared to give our home away, it was a thoughtful gesture nonetheless. 

This exhibit was the last one that we looked at on the lower level, and we decided to have lunch before heading to the upper level of exhibits.  There is a cafeteria where you can bring your own food and eat, but there is no food sold at the museum with the exception of vending machines that left a lot to be desired, so you should plan accordingly.  It's also a pretty tight squeeze in the cafeteria, so you may want to plan on eating lunch before entering the museum. 

After lunch we went to see the exhibits upstairs, which offered a lot more entertainment for the kids.  As soon as we got off of the elevator, my little one headed right for a life sized statue of a seeing-eye dog, and began to pet it.  I thought that this museum wouldn't be much fun for her, but I was wrong.  She loved running around the exhibits.  The seeing-eye dog was in front of the exhibit about homes that are equipped to help people with handicaps.  My son and his friend were particularly intrigued by the vibrating bed that acted as an alarm clock for deaf people.

There was a large area with building blocks and magnetics that was virtually ignored by both boys.  They were both more interested in playing super heroes as they ran around that area, so we spent very little time there, which was fine anyway, because they can always play with blocks on their own.  So it was off to more interesting things to see and do.

We proceeded to the MUSIC station, which was fun for everyone, including the adults.  It's hard to be around bongos and other percussion instruments without trying each one out.  Even the little one got in on the action, and she happily banged on the big drums, and even tried to use one as a place to lay her head.  The boys had a great time with all of the instruments, but the highlight was the room that allowed them to control a light show.  My son loved this, as he often pretends to be controlling music videos as he sits in my lap and watches YouTube videos.  He's been interested in this ever since seeing the movie School Of Rock. 

After coaxing them out of the room with the light show, we moved on to the COMMUNICATIONS station, which was a lot of fun for both of them.  There are all different types of phones, and they spent a lot of time talking to each other on each one of them.  Their creativity shined through in this area, as they pretended to be superheroes talking on the phone to plan how they were going to take on the bad guys.  I believe that they could have stayed in this area the whole day and called it a great day.  My little one even enjoyed this area, as there were computers with cameras that took your picture and allowed you to rearrange your face on the screen.

We had been at the museum for about two hours, and the little one was starting to get a bit cranky, so we moved on to the final exhibit of the day for us, although there were some that we missed.  The last station was a replica of a TV studio, which the boys really enjoyed.  Each one of them took their turn behind the news desk as they pretended to do a sports report.  There are various buttons that allow the kids to have sports or news appear behind them.  There is also a station where they can pretend to do the weather.  The cool part is that they can see themselves on the screen.  My son and his friend did a nice job with the weather, and then it was time to call it a day.

When asked what he thought of his day at the museum, he replied "It was so much fun that I can't get the words out!"  As a parent, what more can you ask for?

For more details about the Long Island Children's Museum, please click here.