I would describe the center as nourishment for the imagination. My son was able to become fully engaged with the experience by exploring science with hands on exhibits.
The museum is pretty small, even thought it is divided into two levels. But because of the hands on experience we spent a lot of time in there.
If you are going on a week day morning be prepared to share the experience with kids on school field trips. The large crowds of school kids may make it more difficult to enjoy all of the activities and exhibits not to mention the parking can be a challenge while the school field trips are in progress.
What we did to avoid ‘sharing’ the exhibits with that many kids, was to first take a ride around Balboa Park in the free service Trolley, then we had a wonderful picnic outside the museum and then we were ready to go.
We had been at the Reuben H. Fleet 2 years ago when my son was 3 and although he had enjoyed it, this time at 5 years he not only enjoyed it but I could see how the exhibits were making him ‘think’ and how at the time he was ‘playing’ he was learning important concepts.
There are pendulums, gyroscopes, wind tunnels, sound exhibits, magnets mechanisms, wooden blocks ..... you name it! A very diverse and definitely hands-on.
Within the museum they have Kid City specially design for kids under the age of five. This area has computers, a little grocery store with shopping carts and conveyer belts that they need to move mechanically to make the food go from side to side and the most amazing and interactive ball exhibit.
We really enjoyed the museum, and I highly recommend it for people with small children.
No comments