Treehouse Children's Museum — Attraction in Alexandria

Not overly fancy or pretentious, this is the kind of kid's museum that delivers on the promise of its name. TREE House Children's Museum is a place where kids of a certain age (the 2 to 6 or 7 crowd primarily) can run around happily and play (and thereby learn without meaning to). We've been to a few different children's museums, but this was an instant favorite. It's the right size for the intended audience: big enough to be entertaining but small enough not to overwhelm or make parents feel like they need to rush a child through the areas.

The attractions are genuinely fun -- like an ingenious contraption parents can use to encase their children in a giant soap bubble, or the biggest pin art toy ever, or the fabulous scent station where you can test your olfactory prowess. There are classics as well: a dress up area, a grocery store, a "TV station" where your button-pushing kiddo can push hundreds of buttons without setting off any alarms, and a truly wonderful toy railroad area (complete with a sound station my four-year-old used to make the trains "choo choo" for 15 minutes straight and left only because he was dragged away).

Everything is a little run-down, but the overall effect is that you don't spend the entire excursion worrying that your child will be the one who breaks the shiny new gadgets. We especially appreciated that there was plenty of seating, so that worn-out parents could rest and Instagram the experience while kids engaged with an area independently.

This museum is a gem, and if it hadn't been over 100 degrees outside when we went, we would've played outside on their awesome playground as well. All in all: a brilliant way to spent a few hours of quality time with your little ones! Beats staying home and watching...

Place was nice as far as exploring and variety in the play place, but the cleanliness was absolutely TERRIBLE!! Floors looked like they hadn't been swept or mopped since the place opened, and there was three employees just standing at the front counter the ENTIRE two hours we were there. Lots of wear and tear around the building too. Neat place, but has NO cleanliness anywhere. Not even tissue or paper towels in the bathroom! I've been now twice for two birthday parties. One was three years ago (before COVID) and one today. The place has just deteriorated and gotten dirtier in that time! I didn't even want to sit down anywhere, I just felt so filthy! And letting these children touch...

I took my granddaughter for 15 whole minutes, maybe 20. She is 9. She played with the giant pin wall for 5-10 minutes. Everything else was "bad" in both our opinions. The girl that took our money sat in her office for most of the time. Things were broken, there was no ball for the bemoulli blower, the shadow wall did not work, the "cafe" was for 3 year olds, the bank had nothing there, the trains were not in operation, the giant bubble never made a "bubble" more than 12 inches high, I never saw the fire engine - perhaps we left in too much of a hurry to spot it? A huge waste of $8. Perhaps if you had a 3 - 5 year old, they would be fascinated. Any older will not...