Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum and Leslie Science & Nature Center — Attraction in Ann Arbor

This place was the bee's knees!! Be forewarned though that there is no parking lot unless you are an employee. I followed directions to the actual museum and then realized that I would have to find public parking and it was momentarily stressful. Luckily there were some nearby lots, so it worked out just fine.

As far as the museum goes, it was awesome! My nephew and sister-in-law were visiting, and we decided to venture out to this museum "and once we were bored we would wander downtown." Well, spoilers... We spent the whole time at the museum. I live 30 minutes away and bought a season pass because we had so much fun and it was totally worth it! Everything is "hands on" hence the name, so the kiddos were free to experiment and play and learn and entertain themselves for... I think we spent about 3 hours here. It was like the museum babysat the kids for us... They can touch everything so there was no need to worry! We had a 9, 8, 7 year old and an 18 month old for reference.

There is a preschool age section and my 18 month old spent the entire time in it playing and exploring. Everything was clean and the employee in charge was on top of not only keeping things organized, but also being so welcoming and kind. My 7 year old wanted to join her younger brother to see what was going on in his section. The employee immediately came up to my daughter and said, "hi, how old are you?" ( I was honestly thinking that she was going to tell my older daughter she wasn't allowed, so I was starting to stress.) When my daughter said she was 7, the employee said, "oh great! Can you be a sibling helper and wear this tag?" She gave my daughter a tag and designated her a "helper."

Now you and I know that it was a crazy smart psychological move to make her feel empowered and responsible, etc but she was really super proud to be a helper and she told her older sister all about it after playing with the blocks and "helping" her brother in the preschool area. :)

The two older kids explored and there were tons of awesome exhibits with bubbles and electricity and water.... Don't be too scared of the water section by the way. I let all of the kids play in it assuming that they would be drenched and it wasn't bad at all! They stayed pretty dry.

10/10, I recommend this place! It's not super expensive, there's a ton to do, it's educational and as a parent it was insanely stress-free. The staff was also awesome.

If you are near Ann Arbor with kids, just go here! Its a...

I brought my kids, 8 and 4 here for a little trip at the end of their holiday break. It was a bit underwhelming. There was a lot of science and that was cool for me, but so many things were just “hit this button and watch it do something mediocre.” The kids ran through each exhibit so much faster than I expected because they didn’t understand it, couldn’t/didn’t want to read the description, or it was just a quick button or lever and didn’t capture their attention. There were some more interactive things but they weren’t so cool that it held their attention. They’d do it once and move on. I’d say there’s one, maybe two solid attractions per exhibit but every kid wanted to do that so there was a line and on our specific day, not all parents supervised line manners and it didn’t always go well. But it goes to show you, the rest of the stations are pretty underwhelming so they move through them super fast and just want the cooler ones. It was an hour drive so I was hoping it would be cool enough to be a full day trip. We honestly struggled to last 2 hours and by like 90 minutes my 8 year old and I were done but my 4 year old wanted to continue for a short time after.

Cleanliness: pretty good, no complaints Attractions: Just okay, kinda disappointing Staff friendliness: didn’t have many interactions but the one we did talk to was nice Gift shop: ehhhh okay....

This is such an innovative way of having a museum. My husband and I wanted to bring the kids here for the first time. The bad news is there was an art fair and no parking only $20 parking. That did not kill our vibe. Tickets are $16 a person and under 2 is free. We purchased the tickets and we parked our stroller.

The kids walked up the stairs and went into this water room. My son loved it so much. He was squealing and running around. My daughter loved played with the balls and throwing them in the water. Once we were done with this floor, we decided to go up the stairs.

We were shocked to see a massive preschool room suitable for ages 4 and under. They have tons of toys for the kids. They had another water station. My kids were dry at first. However, a little boy sprayed water at my son and soaked him as his mom watched and said nothing. This didnt make our experience bad because luckily we had a change of clothes. I only say this to warn you to bring a change of clothes just in case they get wet.

We didn't really go to the third floor. My husband said it was more for older kids when he went to check. The kids were having too much fun inside the playroom. We will definitely be back and hopefully not on a day where an event is...