Hands On! Children's Museum — Attraction in Hendersonville

Hard with one parent and two plus kids.

There is so much great fun stuff here, but the sight lines are terrible. The kids love it so they want to run around all over the place, bouncing from thing to thing. If you have more than one kid, you can’t watch both at the same time so you are constantly having to bounce back and forth. Add to that, the sections themselves are set up poorly for visibility. For example, the grocery store has aisles that are perpendicular to the front. An odd choice since this is the opposite of real grocery store. This means that you have to go in, all the way to the back, when looking for your kids. The entrance to the museum isn’t secured so you can’t have confidence that they are here somewhere. It is exhausting and stressful. There is also little seating, should you have enough adults to be able to sit. This is a particular problem for grandparents or anyone with physical limitations to a lot of standing. Contrast with Asheville science which has a main area with great visibility and comfy couches.

I’m guessing ripping out the visibility blocking central structure isn’t an option but there is a lot they could more easily do to make it possible for a parent to quickly scan an area. (Reorient the grocery aisles, add a mirror showing the top of the slide, behind theater curtain, etc.) They could secure the entrance and they could change the pricing structure so you aren’t penalized for having more supervision.

I feel a little bad giving only two stars as it is clean with nice exhibits that the kids love. But those are the basic things I would expect of any kids medium. And it accurately reflects the dread I feel when contemplating caving to my kids...

A fun, inexpensive place to take the kids for a few hours of safe, semi-educational fun. The "museum" description may be a bit of a stretch, but it still provides some quality teaching opportunities. But what they do have is several different themed kid size play areas, that kids can interact with and learn about such as, a grocery store area that has little shelves and little shopping carts and they even have a working cash register with a working conveyer belt. The shelves are sectioned into fruits grains oils etc... So that kids can learn about the food pyramid. There's a vet office with x-rays of animals for kids to look at and stuffed animals for kids to "treat". They also have a stage with curtains and dress up clothes so kids can put on a play for their parents. Beside the stage is a small puppet theater with puppets. There's a post office, a baby nursery with baby dolls, an ice cream shop, a Lego area with race track and an art area where they can paint, draw in sand, blow huge bubbles etc.., and every where you look they have various facts on plaques for kids or parents to read and learn.

All in all it's not as educational as a traditional museum, but it's certainly more fun for the young and young at heart crowd. But probably the best part about the place(aside from wearing out the kids lol) is all the adorable photo opportunities to take📷📹📱😍😍😍💞...

For the price you pay and the simple fact that it is non-profit its a pretty nice place. My daughter especially enjoyed the "grocery store" they had where she could shop, pay for, and ring up groceries. They have a lot to do but it is a LOT smaller then I imagined. It is all one floor with several different areas. My kids are 18 months and almost 4 and they had a good time.

Pros: As described, several different play areas Nice for all ages Primarily clean (could have done better on the restrooms) Good price Non-profit

Cons: Small On the main strip so parking is..... minimal

One really big con for me was that they don't monitor the areas so kids were, for example, taking 5 dolls at a time and putting them into the wrong area so other kids did not have a chance to play with them. Or taking the shopping carts out of the shopping area and running a muck with them. I understand this is not the museums fault, its crappy parenting honestly, but the volunteers could do a little better to walk around make sure things are tidy / in the correct play area.

Overall, would recommend and will probably return...