Cincinnati Children's Museum

Important Note: The Museum Center is closing down the History and Natural History and Science Museum as well as the rotunda (including the food area) starting June 30, 2016. It is supposed to be closed for approximately TWO YEARS! Good gracious! The Children's Museum will be open for the entire time of the renovation. But, your membership or ticket price will not cover near as much as before. Also, we asked an employee today if there would be places for the 100000 kids that go to the children's museum to eat lunch and he said, "they might put out some tables downstairs." Hmmm...not much faith there.

Even though this is a fairly long drive at 1.5 hours, this is one of my favorite places to take my little one. There is so much to do, including the Children's Museum, the History Museum and the Natural History and Science Museum (link here). It is a bit expensive for tickets ($10.50 for adults now, $8.50 for children 3-12, and $5.50 for toddlers 1-2) but they have good deals on membership around Christmas time that also includes parking, which is normally $6.00 upon entering the lot.

This museum really has it all and is ranked in the top 10 in the nation. When you walk in, directly on the left is one of my kiddos favorite areas. It is a large ball area with vacuums that lift up the balls, buckets that drop balls, ball launchers and tons, and tons of plastic balls. This area can get pretty crazy when they first open since every kid wants to run in there. And, when there are a lot of play groups there or schools, it can get a bit crazy. So, we try to skip over it if at all possible (it usually isn't). Further on the left are train tables, a car repair area, grocery store (complete with food and carts), a diner, a play kitchen and house area, vet clinic, foam building area with foam rocks, a Lego area, a new teeth and dentist area, and homes around the world.

On the right, there is a gated toddler area (kids less than 4 years of age) that my son loves. There is a slide and climber area, train tables, a bunch of cars to climb on, a ramp that they can ride toys down, a sand table, and a ball ramp. We usually spend quite a bit of time here whenever we go. It is a good place to get away from your older kids during field trip season. They do have story time in this area on Wednesdays at 11am, so it can get really crowded then. They also have a gated area for crawlers in here. It has some things to hold onto, but is not too impressive really. The other area of note in here is the private nursing room. It has a closing door and a number of seats for nursing. Not the fanciest of places to nurse, but it gets the job done. Also to the right of the entrance is a large water area. Even though they provide smocks and a hand dryer, I would recommend bringing a change of clothes if your kids like water like mine does. We always get wet. Like, dripping wet here. There is also a small dinosaur area and a few animals in tanks around here. Lastly, is the Woods. This area is for kids 8 and above. It has a lot of climbing areas and I know it has a large fish tank. To be honest, that is about all I know about it since it is too old for my little one. This area usually has a ton of kids and they are all running and jumping and having a blast though.

Whew, that was a lot. And, I am sure I missed a bunch of stuff. As a side note, the bathrooms are behind the ball area and there are family bathrooms around the right side of the regular bathrooms. There is also stroller parking in front of the toddler area. They do not allow food or drink, but I have never had a problem with my toddler eating dry snack or a pouch inside the museum. They also have lockers outside of the children's museum that cost $0.50 each time you lock it up. They also have lockers upstairs near the men's bathroom for the same price.

For food, there is a pizza place and a sandwich places upstairs in the rotunda that is fairly good for museum food. The menus and prices are here. There are quite a few tables upstairs and they set up large cafeteria tables for the field trips and large groups to eat at. And, they do a great job clearing the tables quickly and moving people through. However, the tables are still full by noon, so I would suggest eating before 1130am or after 1pm.

I could mention the things I love at the History and Natural History and Science Museums, but since they are closing in a week and they won't be the same after renovation, I will hold off on that. Overall, we love going to this Children's Museum. It is clean, very few items are broken or in disrepair (which seems to be an issue for many children's museums), the building is easy to move around and is absolutely beautifully restored art deco design, and they have a large variety of activities for different age groups. Too bad all three museums will not be open again for another two years. Especially since we usually hit the other museums after lunch since the Children's Museum gets really crowded around that time while those seem to clear out.

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