The Children’s Museum of Cleveland

The Children’s Museum Cleveland is located in a renovated mansion on “Millionaire’s Row” in downtown Cleveland. The museum offers an “open-ended learning environment giving children the opportunity to imagine, experiment, problem-solve and communicate.” We arrived not knowing what to expect from the space, and left feeling extremely impressed by the interactive, hands-on exhibits.

The museum boasts eight interactive and themed play areas, with one specifically designed for children age 0-3.

Adventure City is a kid-sized world complete with a kitchen, doctors office, construction zone, and more. The area is a multi-level environment which provides children with multiple opportunities to climb, explore, and problem solve.

We spent the majority of our time in Adventure City in the kitchen and doctor office area. It took a lot of coaxing to get my kids to check out the other areas, such as the roof top garden area and construction zone.

The Theater exhibit provides children with a chance to explore a realistic theatre setting complete with a back stage prep area, stage hand area, audience, and stage. My kids spent time getting ready in the hair & makeup and costume area. They then had fun adjusting the lights and creating sound effects for the show.

Once everything was set the adults then took a seat while the kids took the stage.

The Wonder Lab was probably our favorite part of the entire museum. This space is filled with two water tables, a wall of air pressured tubes, a magnetic tube wall, and a water painting station.

This air pressurized tube wall is fascinating. My kids loved watching the scarves race around the tube until it was spit out at the top. It was a race to see who could catch it as it floated down.

The other half of the space was a water area. This section provides children with the opportunity to explore jets, whirlpools, and rivers. My son loved placing a plastic ball on the water jets and watching the balls shoot up onto a ball ramp.

We spent a lot of time exploring the above exhibits which didn’t leave enough time for us to check out Playlist, Arts & Parts, Making Miniatures, and Meadow (this space is designed for children 0-3). I did peek into these areas I loved what I saw.

Update: The museum has added a bubble exhibit since our visit. This space allows children to play and experiment in the bubble laboratory by  with a variety of features that spark curiosity stretching a bubble bigger than your body, painting bubble solution onto the custom bubble-blowing wall, making long winding bubble snakes at the giant hoop stations, jumping and catching bubbles filled with fog, and setting a flurry of bubbles in motion with the bubble blizzard. We really can’t wait to check out this new space!

I do appreciate attention to detail the museum put into the design. The coat room provides hangers, bins, and free lockers for you to stash your stuff, and was a nice place for me to leave the diaper bag.

The family restroom was also super helpful. I was able to change the babe while my daughter used the rest room. These little touches just makes taking children on outings a tiny bit easier.

Some things to know before you go:

• Parking is located in front of the building and is free.
• Admission to the children’s museum is $15 for adults/children and children 11 months and under are free.
• Bring a change of clothes. If your child is anything like mine, he will be all in when it comes to the water table and will need a change before going home.
• A visit can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 3+ hours. We explored for close to two hours and there was still so much more we could have done.

The trip to the Children’s Museum Cleveland was the highlight of our Saturday. We are so glad we made the trip and can’t wait to go back. There is still so much for us to explore.

Disclaimer: The Children’s Museum Cleveland provided me and my family with complimentary admission. As always, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.