Children's Discovery Museum — Attraction in Normal

Review Date: November 10th, 2012

Where a kid can be a kid and where an adult can also be a kid.

If you are wondering, I don’t have any explanation why 3 adults visited a museum that is geared towards kids besides that we are all kids at heart and like to have silly fun. With that in mind, Erin, Matt, and I checked out the Children’s Discovery Museum.

I’m not sure exactly how we ended up wanting to explore the Children’s Discovery Museum but I am glad we did. None of us have kids so it was a bit weird that 3 grown adults were walking about this museum and playing with the stuff as if we were kids, but we were never told to not play with the stuff as well. We did avoid the stuff that our adult size might break or render unusable.

Overall, I don’t have much to say about this place since it’s been so long and I can’t remember all the activities and interactive things they had. I will say that if you have kid(s), they will love this place. If you have kids and are a kid at heart, you AND your kid(s) will have...

Recently, I’ve been disappointed with the up keep. I’m not sure if they are understaffed at the moment, but I don’t see the staff picking up as much anymore. As a kid whipped through and made a mess, the staff would come through and pick it up quickly for the next kid. When things are put away and not already “played with”, it is more attracting to the kids. They are able to play how they want with a fresh start. Recently, it has just been a constant mess. Even when it’s not super busy, there is still no one cleaning up. Now, I know the kids should be taught to clean up after themselves, but in reality, not all kids do. It’s very sad to see the decline of a space that I have memories of playing at as a kid. I have always been very impressed with the fast clean up of areas from the staff to make it look “new”. Again, I’m not sure if they’re understaffed like everyone else, but I still see staff just sitting or walking around, ignoring the messes...

This is a very precious resources for families with young children; we've travel a lot and we've visited many children's museum including to National one in D.C., I must say that for a small town like ours, this is a great museum, very well-kept, with highly dedicated staff. For the past 8.5 years, I've held the membership for the most years, the one that allows the babysitter to go in with my child. My 8.5 years absolutely loved it when she was younger (as a play area), and now she enjoys the day camps. The pictures I have shared are of the recent day camps on Pi and Space. The premium membership gives you discount in many other museums around the country, I've enjoyed the discount in St. Louis, Portland, OR, Boston, and a few other places. The membership is really worth it, also gives you discount for day camps. I am just amazed how well-kept and well-designed this place is, Kudos to all the staff...