CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF HOUSTON 8pm-10pm








The CMH was voted #1 children’s museum by Parents Magazine so I was really looking forward to seeing what it was like. The exterior featured columns in the shapes of children which was very welcoming. Upon entering the building there is a grand hallway with bright, colorful archways and two big gear machines framing the ticketing area - airy and bright.


























After a buffet of Mexican food which was pretty tasty, we wandered around the museum. It became quite apparent that each of the exhibit spaces are packed to the gills. The 90,000 square foot building is easy to get lost in! I’m sure they get lots of visitors and I wondered about the quality of time spent inside areas crammed with so many items. In some areas I had the feeling like I was in Chucky Cheese!



I think it was hard to determine the themes of some of the rooms because the signage was always in different locations in the exhibit room. Themes were incorporated into the archways, posted on plaques, located from drop down signs from the ceiling, posted high on ceilings. There was not a cohesive look to the museum.



Flow Works – outside water play area next to naturalist cabin. The water exhibit was huge! Big cannons shot water into a giant cauldron and when cauldron filled up would dump water down as a big waterfall. Long locks and water flow exhibit. You can build a boat and float it down the exhibit.


























The outdoor area also featured a naturist exhibit with a wooden cabin and garden. Inside the cabin there was a sad exhibit with chicks in a bubble – Angelica made me depressed. As an aside – we shared a Super Shuttle with a man who presented from the Madison Children’s Museum and he also said he felt uncomfortable with the treatment of the chicks. He said at their museum they have a chicken exhibit too, but they have a coop and children like seeing the chicks grow up. They have birthday parties for the chicks! Children make cards for them. They’re working on a carrier pigeon project too and are in the training stages of having pigeons fly to the children’s schools to transfer messages wearing WWII harnesses. The area featured a wooden sand table created around an oak tree with bird tracks on a board and bird track stampers for the sand. The also had a little exhibit where children could make rubbings of different leaves.

The museum had an extensive fitness activity area – big chase the light game board on floor, stretch and touch the lights activity, a dance dance revolution type of game, virtual jumprope using lights and a pulley race. Another area had a rock climbing wall and virtual surf/snowboard big screen game. I tried it and kept falling off the mountain - no balance!

Power Tower!
One of the most impressive features of the museum is a huge 2 story Lucky Climber. Jason and Angelica clambered into it - I don't think I would have been able to get out of some of the spaces. It's enclosed by a flexible metal mesh so kids can’t fall out. No croc, flip flops allowed. Ages 5 and up.

I liked their Tot Spot. You had to wear booties over your shoes and their were some nice inset wall toys – including a light bright, swiveling blocks, dollhouse rooms. I think they also had some sort of fragranced air being piped in.







Don't worry Angelica - someday we'll get a light bright!











Museum staff were very open and welcoming but not sure how knowledgeable. We walked through a room exhibiting Mexican artifacts. I was told by the eager museum staff member that this room dedicated to “Yolala” town in Mexico and every year a staff person travels to Yolala to bring back more artifacts for the cases. I asked her why they had this particular replica of this town and she said “You know, I really don’t know!” Her response left me feeling a bit like staff wasn’t prepared. I told Angelica and she pointed out a plaque on the wall dedicating the room to Benito Juarez who was born in “Yolala” and served five times as President of Mexico.






The Houston Public Library has a branch inside the library! They have a librarian and part time museum staff run the library during museum hours so they are open during som holidays. They conduct walk in storytimes and have quite a nice collection of books, multimedia and themed sets in bags (like our storypacks but only smaller.) Staff said that people do come into the branch and not the museum mostly to use the one internet station.




Overall, the museum was certainly big and offered some features that I liked: Flow Works, giant robot (as decoration), Lucky climber , inset wall features in Tot Spot, and the rock climbing wall. But the cacophony of items and lack of general visual signage made me appreciate the space and theming that I’ve seen in the Children’s Museum of Denver, Pretend City, and Children’s Museum of Minnesota. Quality vs. quantity