Museum of Natural Curiosity

Museum of Natural Curiosity

Thanksgiving Point has opened a new museum on their property called the Museum of Natural Curiosity. We checked it out last night and it is AMAZING!  We had so much fun that we played right through dinner and my children never once asked for food. They didn't want to leave even though we had been there for 3 hours. So plan on staying for awhile when you go.

The Museum is connected to the Discovery Garden. If you know where the Gardens and Children's Gardens are then you will have no trouble finding it. It is right before them on the road out by the golf course. This is not by the Dinosaur Museum and Farm.

Watch for this sign.

There are four different exhibits in the Museum of Natural Curiosity. The first exhibit that we visited was Kidopolis. It is a small town with different places for the children to explore: a bank, a doctor's office, a laundromat, a movie theater, a recording studio, and much more. Our one year old loved the train station. Here the kids pedal a train around Kidopolis and they watch on the screen where it is traveling. He spent a lot of time in here. The older boys loved the bank because it had one of those tubes for sending money back and forth. Kidopolis had a lot of fun places to visit, and we didn't make it into all of them.

The entrance to Kidopolis

Playing the bubble piano.

Driving the train

Here is the screen he watches.

Then up above, he can see the train moving.

The bank

The vet--we thought the x-ray machine was so cool.

Throughout Kidopolis, there are little windows that when you
lift them upthey sing a song and do a  little show.
We had a great time watching for these throughout Kidopolis.

The laundromat. Our one year old loved turning on the washers and dryers.
The big kids loved the HUGE bubbles they could make.

The second exhibit is called the Innovation Gallery. Here the kids can build with large blocks or design things to fly up through tubes with fans for wind. Some of these activities have been inside the Dinosaur Museum for a little while. We didn't spend a ton of time here because we had played with these things before.

The Innovation Gallery is a big open room.

The third exhibit is called the Rainforest and this was the family favorite. This section has tons of climbing areas with rope ladders, big slides, and an airplane to climb into. It also has a Hall of Bravery, a Trading Post, and lots of little activities to test your abilities as an animal (how high can you jump, how many prey can you catch, how hard can you squeeze). Mom and Dad especially enjoyed this part! We definitely spent the most time in here. In this area, you can also pay extra to do the ropes course. It is high up in the rafters (look in the bottom picture and you'll see someone doing it) and you have to be 7 and older. Dad wanted to, but our 7 year old did not.

Walking into the Rainforest.

Dad trying to hang like a sloth.

The trading post seems fun. If you take one of their cards home and find
something outside (leaf for example). Then bring it back in and you
earn points and you could buy something at the trading post.
 It's geared toward getting children outside.

The boys are walking through the rope bridge, but you
can see someone doing the ropes course above them.
The Rainforest has lots of levels.

The fourth exhibit is Water Works, and you will be wet when you leave this place. We were so glad we went here last because all of us were wet. This area has a few non-water activities including a topographical table, earthquake tables, solar powered cars, and a tornado tube. Their is a water basin where you can change the currents and try to get the balls circling, and there are two different areas where you connect tubes and try to make water flow from one end to the other, and much more.

SO awesome! We loved this table.
As you changed the height of the land, the colors changed just like a topical map.

A view of Water Works

The tornado tunnel

Water Plexis is one area where you build with pipes and water.

Here you can make rivers and streams using the rubber tubes.

My boys loved this current activity, but they sure got wet!

My favorite part of the whole museum is that they have one activity in each section for kids under 3. In Kidopolis there was a little farm, in the Rainforest they have a small play area, and in Waterworks there is a water table that toddlers can sit in--genius! It was great because our one year old obviously couldn't climb a lot of things, or connect water tubes, but he loved playing in this small areas. They are contained by a bench that wraps around, so they can't leave the area easily. My almost two-year old could climb out, but most little ones couldn't. I was so impressed with these parts of the museum.

Kidopolis farm for little ones.

The Rainforest three and under area.

Water Works kid table. Awesome!

It is a little pricey for this museum. It is $15/adult and $12/kid (3 & up), but this is the price to get into all the locations at Thanksgiving Point. So you can spend some time here, at the Dinosaur Musuem, the Gardens, etc. If you have a current Thanksgiving Point pass, it includes this new museum (for free).

I would recommend this museum to anyone and for all ages. It was a blast and we can't wait to go back!