We went to the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose on Friday. It was rated one of the top children's museums in the country. I have to say, given the amount of children's museums I have been in all over the country, I have to disagree. Though the kids had a lot of fun, never have I been to a more crowded and chaotic children's museum. There seemed to be no limit to the amount of people anywhere. They had two play areas for under 4 that weren't regulated, so were crammed and had children of all ages playing in them, which I was super disappointed in...especially since the Boston children's museum had an amazingly large young children's area that was monitored and at max capacity, had very few children in it.
The water play area was crazy. Like literally crazy. I didn't realize that my kids would leave soaking. There were actually kids playing it in wearing bathing suits. Apparently those parents knew. But it made a fun exhibit not so fun when you are soaking wet on a cold day. Well, Callum didn't much care about being soaked, but Isla did. And this was an indoor exhibit, not a splash pad or anything.
There was a diy face painting area and that was fun to watch Isla do. She was super into it and it was really cute. Unfortunately both the dinosaur exhibit and the food market had too few toys for kids to play with compared to the number of kids. For instance, there was a huge dinosaur area to play in, think 12 feet long. There were four, I repeat FOUR, dinosaurs out for the kids to play with. The market and kitchen areas had almost no play food. Huge disappointment.
Thankfully the visiting exhibit, which was about germs and medicine was a huge hit with the kids. It was in a sort of hidden room, so was way less crowded than the rest of the museum and allowed the kids to actually get to play with the stuff. There was also a little bubble area that was a big hit with my kids.
The coolest part was this huge outdoor area they had. Unfortunately it rained for most the time we were there. After the rain mostly stopped, we took the kids outside to play. They had a grand ole time. There were numerous treehouse type play structures and an entire area to play in the rocks. Needless to say, after getting soaked inside and playing in the rocks outside, Callum went home in only a diaper. The outdoor play area was definitely the highlight of the museum.
We always enjoy getting out and trying new things with the kids. So, it was a fun adventure going to the Children's Discovery Museum. But, next time I would stick with the much closer and much cheaper Stockton Children's Museum.
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