The Children's Museum of the Brazos Valley — Local services in Bryan

Pros: staff seems friendly and knowledgeable, clean, vacuum wall

Cons: TINY, for young kids only, did not seem wheelchair friendly (though technically accessible?)

Best age: 2-8 years old

This is by far the smallest children's museum I've ever seen (and much smaller than the past two locations of the BVCM, back when we had memberships). There is Main Street, a rocket play structure, and area for those under 2, tables for crafts, and a science area.

The "street" of Main Street is wide, but there was not space within the pretend businesses for my daughter's friend who uses a wheelchair to move around. Very few kids can use a space at once.

In the science area there is a wall is the highlight of the museum. There are tubes and movable elements so that you can make a path for a ball to be pulled by a vacuum. This was enjoyed by the widest range of ages. There are also very small tables for Duplo and tiny LEGO (the small ones are stored in small drawers, so avoidable by littles who may want to mouth them). There was a tiny space for train tracks (not anywhere near the size of a small train table). There is a small light table with MagnaTiles. None of these had any sort of educational information or recommendations (for example, how colors of light combine), which felt like a missed opportunity considering they target (or at least charge kid admission for) ages 1-14 years old - mostly readers.

I feel like educational value sets museums apart from play spaces, but this was lacking in the permanent displays. The only thing I saw was some facts about different planets at adult eye level on the outside of the rocket play structure. Overall, it felt like many missed opportunities.

The under two area is clearly visible (short wall around it) from most parts of the museum so you could mostly watch an older kid at the same time. I didn't go in this space so I can't...

I wasn't totally sure what to expect. I was a bit unsure about the cost because we need the largest tier. It is still less than $15 a month though. We are also looking forward to making some use of the reciprocal benefits. What made me pull the trigger is reading the review and the response from the owner that they are trying to make a larger space. I would love to hear more about this. My kids 9, 6, 4, and 1 ended up having a good time, and asked when they will get to go back. My younger kids would have enjoyed a baby doll to play with at some of the stations. I am not sure if we didn't see it but they weren't sure what to do at the bank area because there wasn't any money to play with. Again it might have been over looked, but we took all the food items we saw to re stock the store but couldn't find much cookware or plates or much to actually make "cafe" type items - coffee set or sandwich accessories. We have the best time making meals in our play kitchen at home. The learning resources "new sprouts" line is our favorite for playability. Maybe an apron at the cafe, and a name tag badge at the store. They LOVED the little shopping carts. I am not sure what the activity of the day was supposed to be when we went but I enjoyed the small projects at the innovation station. I am not sure how often they change, but there was guided drawing, putting a skeleton together, exploring with magnetic objects, a scavenger hunt, building with planks and something else. I wish there was a sand pit. Yes it is small and there are things that can be improved but I am excited for the...

Really wanted to love the new location, but after going to the old one this one was just lacking. It was tiny and cramped and missing so many of the features of the old location like the helicopter and playscape. The main street buildings were cute, but tiny and cramped with only room for a couple of kids and all the accessories for each shop was thrown all over the ground. The grocery store was the most disappointing as the only location had room to push a shopping cart and tons of food like a real store… this one had no room and no appeal with just some shelves of food that were all empty and spread throughout main street. I have 4 children including 11 month old twins and when they start walking I would feel very unsafe at this location due to lack of visibility because it sort of L shaped and if you had one kid in main street you wouldn’t see the other in the rocking or walking out the front door or walking out without another person. Would be nice to have a checkout point and matching stamps or something to ensure no one can leave with a stranger. Of course I would hope that wouldn’t ever be an issue, but with twins this is definitely a security issue. The other main problem is the price is OUTRAGEOUS at $12/kid and $4 per adult. It is actually cheaper to take my kids to Play Oasis which is sad because that is a private business making profit. This is not an affordable place for my family. To buy a membership is $165 for my family and it does seem worth it with the new museum. We were highly...