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The Best Museums for Children in New York City

We go to New York City several times a year, but we try to make these vacations during the warmer months. Once, a cold rain turned to hail in April, and my California daughter said, “This rain hurts my nose!” That’s when it really hit home for me that my kids really aren’t being raised in the same climate zone as were their parents. That surprising weather led us to spend a lot of times in the great museums in NYC (hey, they’re indoors, aren’t they?) and my children enjoyed all of them, albeit in different ways.

The Best Museums for Children in New York City

Butterfly Exhibit (amnh.org)

American Museum of Natural History, 79th St and Central Park West - It goes without saying that the Hall of Biodiversity is a big hit with kids of all ages.  The giant blue whale hanging from the ceiling practically compels younger children to run in maniac circles underneath it, and the walk-through diorama of a rainforest is really interesting for older kids (it looks accurate, but lacks the humidity, buzzing insects, and soft squishy ground of the real deal). Time it right, and the Butterfly Conservatory will be open, too. I credit an early visit to the Butterfly Conservatory with my older daughter’s long-standing interest in entomology. The small Children’s Discovery Room is only appropriate for younger kids.

The Hayden Planetarium, 81st St and Central Park West - Renamed the Rose Center for Earth and Space several years back, this is part of the AMNH, but with a separate entrance. Younger children may get scared at the Big Bang Theater - mine freaked out - but older kids will love it. The narrators of the Hayden Planetarium shows are Tom Hanks and Jodie Foster. The Space Theater’s Field Trip to the Moon is beyond cool for kids (and, admittedly, plenty of adults) who are interested in outer space.

"Little West Side" at the Childrens' Museum (cmom.org)

The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, 212 W. 83rd St - This one is best for the younger set. Even my freaked-out-by-the-Big-Bang 6 year old was bored here after a few minutes. But preschoolers have lots of fun running around this museum, playing with balls, on tables with water, and the like. On a cold or rainy day, simply giving kids the physical space to run amok is worth the price of admission. Hotel rooms (and apartments) are too small!

New York Transit Museum, corner of Schermerhorn St and Boerum Place  -  My children don’t fall in this category, but I know plenty of little boys who are endlessly fascinated with all things transportation-themed. For kids who love trains, subways, and the like, this museum is worth a trip out to Brooklyn.  The New York Transit Museum is based in a real station from the 1930’s.

The South Street Seaport Museum, 207 Front St - If your kids enjoy modes of transportation, they’ll probably also like looking at examples of New York’s maritime history. Most tourists visiting NYC plan on getting a good view of the Statue of Liberty, which is easily seen from the South Street Seaport. The city feels different down here - more open, with the smell of sea in the air. There’s still plenty of bustle of course - this is New York City we’re talking about - but the whole area is a living testament to New York’s shipping past. The actual museum is an exhibit on board on board one of the two tall ships permanently docked here - the Peking, to be exact. Kids can examine what it was like during the heyday of NYC’s prominence as a shipping port, and what life was like on the ship. There are two onshore galleries as well.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5th Ave and 82nd St, and Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St - These are two world-class art museums in NYC, and no museum-loving, art-appreciating adult should miss them. However, taking the kids to these museums can be a chore. Some children may be fascinated by the mummy exhibit at the Met, while others’ attention may momentarily be held by MoMA’s Jasper Johns retrospective. But kids are kids, and we can’t expect them to have the same tolerance for long, studied strolls through what seem to them to be an endless parade of portraits and the like. Leaving these famous museums off the list seemed remiss; please make sure your children know that there are behavioral expectations at these stolid old museums, and if need be, a reward for good behavior at the end.

Sony Wonder Technology Lab, on 56th St between Fifth and Madison - Older kids (I’d estimate ages 8 and up) will be totally thrilled here - there’s a robotics lab, an interactive design lab - this means creating video games - and a very, very cool nanotechnology center, using forced perspective. Exploring the Sony Wonder Technology Lab easily brings out the kid in many grown-ups too… Please, mom and dad, remember to take turns! Other interactive exhibits here include a Virtual Surgery room, a Timeline of the evolution of technology through the ages, a Motion Capture room, and more.

Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)

Source: MudslideMama