The Minnesota Children’s Museum

Another great thing to do in the Twin Cities if you have young children is to visit the Minnesota Children’s Museum!  The museum was started in 1981 in downtown Minneapolis but in the first 4 years they had over 80,000 visitors and decided to expand to Bandana Square in St. Paul where they were unitl 1995 when they once again had to expand due to the over 200,000 visitors.  In 1995 they moved to their current location in downtown St. Paul where over 5 million children and families have visited.

The museum is a non-profit organization. The idea behind the museum is to give children a hands-on experience where they can learn – Do Not Touch signs don’t exist in the Children’s Museum.  There are 7 different galleries where children from ages 6 months through 10 years can touch, climb, splash, crawl, push, pull and press at things to spark their learning.

The museum offers different types of memberships allowing families to go to the museum more often for less money or bring guests or get discounted rates on special events.

They also have Target free 3^rd Sundays where all admissions are free compliments of Target.  Another deal are the Second Saturday rides where visitors to the museum ride the Metro Transit system for free and get $2 off of their admission!

The museum is located at 10 West Seventh Street in downtown St. Paul – just minutes away from several major interstates and is open 6 days a week, closed Mondays.

This spring they are also opening a second museum in Rochester, MN located in the River Center Plaza at 1643 1/2 North Broadway Street.

Take the kids down to the museum – they will love it and really learn something!

For more information click here.