Delaware Children's Museum is located in Wilmington's Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware. Great place to take the kids with more than enough activities to keep them busy for hours on end.
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| Delaware Children's Museum (image taken from Museum's Website) |
This 37,000 square foot museum is divided into a number of exhibits, Stratosphere, The Power of Me, Structures, Tree Pavilion, ECOnnect, Training Wheels, Bank on It and a rotation exhibit section.
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| Floor Plan of Museum (image taken from the Museum's website) |
As you first walk into the museum you are greeted by the first exhibit, the Stratosphere, which is a 30-foot diameter climbing structure. It has multiple entrances and a staircase that allows you follow your children as they make their way up and about the exhibit.
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| Stratosphere (image taken from the Museum's website) |
The second floor platform, primarily for parents, circles around the structure and allows you to watch/follow them around. For those that opt for my laziness, there are a number of benches at the base of the structure.
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| View of the exhibit from the second floor platform |
Once you are able to pry the kids out of the Stratosphere, you can head to your left, which is the location of the rotating exhibit. During our visit, the exhibit was a cardboard box maze. This massive maze was constructed by cardboard boxes. The boxes were about 4 feet high, just high enough to hide the kids but short enough where adults can peer over cheat... I mean, keep an eye on where the kids are running off too.
At the center of the maze is the main structure which has a bench located at it's center.
Continuing in my clockwise direction takes you to the Power of Me exhibit, which focuses on a number of interactive and hand-on activities. There is a chin-up bar that counts how long you can hold on, a balancing board that tracks how well you can balance, a giant table that replicates the board game Operation, a baseball pitching trainer lane, a number of basketball hops at varying heights and a multitude of other stations.
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| Balancing Board - I couldn't beat 1.2 seconds.... |
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| Hang on! |
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| Slam Dunk! |
Adjacent to Power of Me exhibit is the Construction exhibit that, as it's name suggestions focuses on construction and engineering. There is a light table where kids can trace architectural drawing, an area where they can don a hardhat and personal protective equipment an begin constructing a building or an arch, and K'nex and pop-cycle building areas.
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| Learn about shapes |
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| Build an arch bridge |
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| Or build a draw bridge |
After the Construction exhibit, stop by and climb through a tree in the Tree Pavilion. The tree is a 350-year old Sycamore tree that measures both seven and a half feet wide and tall and 21 feet long; large enough for daring parents. The tree is preserved for a smooth feel so no worries of splinters on the exhibit.
or find your way to the tree house...
ECOnnect is where you really appreciate in having brought along a change for clothes. There is a mock house that shows ways to power the home through sustainable and clean energy but the more popular part of this exhibit for the kids is the stream/water table that allows a whirlpool to be created, manipulating pipes to start a rain storm or work locks and channels for boats to traverse along the water table.
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| Creating a whirlpool |
There is also an aquarium where kids will have an opportunity to see fishes, shrimps and even touch sea anemone and star fishes.
Across the hallway is the Training Wheels exhibit which showcases various transportation vehicles from trains, cars to bicycles. Kids can climb through the train or work on a race car in the auto shop.
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| Training Wheels (image taken from Museum's Website) |
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| Bicycle hanging over the entrance to Training Wheels |
The final exhibit is Bank on It, which allows kids to explore local and foreign currency. They can also have the opportunity to work on budget, learn to save and how to spend appropriately. There is a STEM lab within this area which offers structured activities which are led by staff members during certain times of the day.
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| Map of the World's Money |
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| Bank on It |
Panorama view of one side of the Museum, going left to right is Training Wheels, Bank on It, and Stratosphere.
There are many number of items that I failed to touch on but this is a great place to bring the kids for an hour or for a full day of fun. The only downside that I was able to find is that there is no cafeteria to purchase food so if you plan on staying for more than a couple of hours, expect to pack some food/snacks. There are a number of restaurants within walking distance but they are more of a sit-down restaurant versus a quick grab-n-go venue.
For latest news and events, please visit their website at: Delaware Children's Museum
