Summer Fun List: National Children's Museum

Once a month, the National Children's Museum at National Harbor in Maryland has a Free Family Night. This was a great opportunity for us to visit this museum, which we had been interested in visiting since it opened last December.

Luke loved the giant world map near the entrance

It's a small museum with lots of pretend play and lots of educational items packed into it.

The first area we visited was "My Town." It had several fun play stations including a pizza parlor, fire truck, market, and campaign headquarters.

The kids really enjoyed Pizza Place. There were several different pizza playset to "cook" with including Plan Toys and Melissa & Doug items.

At the market, Luke was the cashier while Scarlett shopped for groceries.

Then Scarlett brought her basket into the firetruck.

Luke went to the loading dock to operate the crane while Scarlett did a USA puzzle at Campaign Headquarters.

There was a tight race for mayor going on!

The next area we went to was an international section. It had an airport baggage carousel, an exotic market, costumes, and a kitchen for "cooking" cuisine from around the world.

Scarlett shopped for interesting ingredients, then Luke drove her in a taxi.

Time to cook!

Next, Luke went to a classroom to do an art project. He and Tom made masks.

Scarlett and I went to the room for kids aged 3 and under. This room had lots of toys, a food truck and a climbing structure as well as a place just for infants to play. And it was Sesame Street themed!

Our last stop was Imagination Playground, a room full of pieces and parts to build anything you can think of.

 

This was everyone's favorite part!

We spent several hours at the museum and the kids enjoyed themselves. I'm not sure I would've liked it if we had paid the regular rate of $10 per person, but for free it was a good time!