My name is Christy, and I am a senior at Texas Woman’s University, graduating this December. My major is in Child Development, and I have 2 little ones of my own. When I interviewed with Explorium for the internship position, I knew that Explorium was going to be a fun and exciting place for me to get involved with children and the Denton community.
As part of my internship, I traveled to 3 children’s museums around the state. This blog post will cover my family’s adventure at The DoSeum in San Antonio, TX, formerly the San Antonio Children’s Museum, which just opened in June.
We traveled to San Antonio on a Saturday morning. I figured this place would be busy on a Saturday, so I wanted to get there right as they opened. I think everyone else had the same idea as we did, because the place was PACKED!
My daughter was excited from the minute we pulled up, and it’s obvious to see why. The museum is decorated in bright colors, and it just has a “big adventure” feel to it.
As we walked in, I noticed that everything was laid out very well. There were signs directing visitors where to go, and it had a very progressive layout. The beginning exhibits consisted of some pretty basic things… a Pulley System, Puppet Parade, Kaleidoscope table, and a Big Wind Tunnel. All of these little exhibits were lumped into one big area, and were very easily accessible.
The first big exhibit we came to was a magical place called “Little Town.” If you have children ages 5 and under, they’ll fall in love with it… and you’ll spend hours in it. Literally hours.
When you walk up to the gates of Little Town, the “Town Mayor” keeps control of the population and how many kids are inside. We didn’t have to wait long to get in, thankfully. Once a visitor walks through those gates, it becomes a huge mecca for dramatic and social play. Vygotsky, Parten, and Garvey… oh my! (Sorry, my love for child development theories came out).
There is a mini-sized EVERYTHING in this place! There is a small airport, construction site, vet clinic, post office, HEB Market, Frost Bank, etc. Everything a town would consist of!
There is a closed in area for 18 months and younger that has little bouncy balls and sensory motor stations. This was a nice place to sit with my 14 month old while my daughter roamed the Little Town and all it had to offer. I was hesitant to just let her do her thing at first, of course for fear that she might accidentally leave without me. But I was assured by the Little Town Mayor that they do not let children leave unless they are accompanied by their parent. What a nice safety feature for the worrywart parent like myself!
Anyone can see the wonder in all the children’s eyes as there is SO much to do. This is honestly a parent’s dream come true if you want your kids to burn off some energy and stretch their imaginations. We Loved it. ABSOLUTELY loved it.
After leaving Little Town, we ventured over to another amazing exhibit called Spy Academy. This exhibit is definitely geared toward older kids. It featured math activities, with critical thinking and problem solving skills. It is basically like a huge game of Clue.
The last exhibit I’ll highlight is called Explore. Wow, this was SUCH a cool space! Kids are able to look at different parts of the planet on a huge interactive TV screen, as well as video chat with a classroom in Mexico! The classroom wasn’t there at the time we were in this exhibit, but
how cool to be able to communicate with some friends hundreds of miles away?! There is also a huge foam puzzle of the United States that the kids can put together, and a hand crank station that lets the user see just how much energy it takes to run an appliance in your home.
The whole second level of The DoSeum consists of some tinkering, craft work, puzzles, games and fun engineering activities. It was HUGE. This level will appeal to older children, as there is ample space for them to do all sorts of STEM/STEAM activities.
We spent 6 hours at The DoSeum, and I still walked away feeling like we didn’t get to explore all that it has to offer.
What I learned from this visit: San Antonio is such a fun destination to visit with the kids, especially during the summer. There’s the Alamo, Riverwalk, Sea World, and of course Six Flags Fiesta Texas. But do yourself a favor and make The DoSeum a stop on your itinerary. The whole family will love it!