Flint Hills Discovery Center — Attraction in Manhattan

Long Post Alert:

Great place for kids to explore, HORRIBLE MANAGEMENT!

Yesterday I took my children to the Discovery Center as part of my 2 year old daughter’s birthday celebration. My kids thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Dino exhibit and other parts of the center and as some may know there is a play area upstairs. It was later in the evening when we went and it wasn’t busy at all, so another mom and I sat there and chatted while our kids played. About 10-15 min before close, my daughters dad came to be with us when he got off work because after we were headed somewhere else.

After he made it all the way upstairs to where we were, behind him I see a woman charging at us and when she stopped she starts yelling at him asking how can she help him sayin he can’t be up there etc etc. Well when she finally took a breath, I informed her that he was with us and my membership, that I just purchased that day, covered him as an extra guest. She then looks at me and proceeds to say he’s gone too far without permission to be in there, she doesnt know if my membership really covers him (after just telling her it did) and just continued to cause a scene.

At this point he has already walked off. And without my knowledge because she turned her attention to me after I told her he was with us, my daughter who just turned two was headed down the stairs trying to follow after her dad. When she finally got done scolding me for not understanding the process of bringing the extra guest. She heads downstairs and looks at me and goes “is this your child, the one with the braids?” And at this point now I’m irritated because her safety was at jeopardy, those stairs are steep and theres a lot of them. My daughter could’ve fell! But because she had to make her point to us so bad, now its become an unsafe and uncomfortable situation. Whereas before then, my kids were attended and playing just fine.

After bringing the situation back to her attention before we left just letting her know I understand she has a job to do but the approach and the manner it was handled was completely unnecessary. She claimed he ignored her, after speaking to him outside when we left he claimed he let her know his family was upstairs and proceeded up the stairs. Either way having my attention so tied that my daughter was left unsupervised was completely unacceptable. After expressing how she made us feel, she gave such a disingenuous apology. Which only furthered my feelings of feeling “out of place” and uncomfortable.

All in all, it was so heartbreaking to deal with this when we were just wanting to celebrate my baby girl turning two. I get it, we were unaware of the process of me bringing him as an extra guest but the manner in which it was gone about was soooo inappropriate. And I will say, neither him or myself got out of character to push her to the tone and manner in which she handled us. She could’ve informed us, brought me downstairs to verify since he was already interacting with our kids and let that be that. But yea, It truly saddens me because I literally have a membership I just started, that I may...

The one star review is for the film they encouraged us to watch with our children (4, 2 &1), Robbinson Crusoe. It was fantastic, until it wasn't, and my husband and I were is total shock that this was acceptable entertainment for any child. Common sense has completely left whoever approved the viewing of this film, it is embarrassing that something like this would have gotten by anyone who is involved with a center geared towards children!!!!! In the movie the parrot and other animals get ahold of a musket (GUN!!) And try to figure out how to use it like a human would... this entailed them putting their faces against the barrel of the gun to try and look down to see why it wasn't working, while instructing the other animals to pull the trigger to get it to work!!!! Who thought of this???? My husband is a Marine, we are for the right of gun ownership, but SAFE GUN USE should be taught at ALL TIMES. Even when our kids play with their play popguns we tell them not to aim it at themselves or others. Even a nerf gun could cause a serious eye injury if pointed and shot in the eye. For the chance that someone may be watching a child and not think of putting away their guns (if you watch the news this has horriffically and unfortunately happened), why risk it, why risk a child copying the only things they may have seen about guns?? The film was very well made and fun, and if not for teaching children something so WRONG, could have been great.

Everything else was excellent, my children LOVED it, was CLEAN, staff was EXCELLENT and the set up and displays were well maintained and interesting, we stayed over two hours and loved it...

First of all, I would like to personally thank Director, Susan Adams for providing me with a lot of helpful information prior to my visit.

I’ve wanted to visit The Flint Hills Discovery Center for a number of years, and I’m SO glad that I’ve finally been able to!

There’s a film in a small theater that provides guests with a historical background about The Flint Hills. The exhibits are VERY hands on, and are all about the preservation and culture of The Flint Hills. It’s a VERY serene and calming environment, as are The Flint Hills.

This would be a great place to bring a group of students on a field trip, and there’s a lot of fun activity sheets for them to engage in. I would also point out that this can also serve as a community center because there’s several rooms available to hold any kind of event.

The kids have a great deal of fun on the second level in The Prairie Playscape. If you go up to the third level, that takes you outside to where you have amazing views of The City of Manhattan.

On the first level, as soon as you enter, is a gift shop with all sorts of unique Kansas products. The staff are VERY friendly, knowledgeable and can assist you with ALL...