Kid Power
Boston Children’s Museum
Boston
The Boston Children’s Museum celebrated
its 94th birthday last year by putting the
final touches on a $47 million makeover
of the facility, which is a short walk from
Amtrak’s berth in Boston’s South Station.
Already a kid favorite is the new three-story
vertical maze, a towering centerpiece in
the airy 23,000-square-foot glass addition
to the building.
Fittingly, this institutional pioneer
of hands-on learning for children offers
plenty of new challenges, demonstrations
and teaching moments well cloaked in
fun. The Kid Powered exhibit delights with
hand-powered bikes that light up a dance
floor and a tennis ball-launching challenge
akin to a carnival sledgehammer game.
Here, the higher kids lift a pulley-controlled
bowling ball, the more rings the tennis
ball shoots through on its skyward arc.
Nearby, those who want to take to the air
themselves can command the throttle in
a video-enhanced cockpit in a private jet
flight simulator.
Families weekending in Beantown
should take note of a great TGIF bargain:
Fridays are Dollar Night. Everyone gets in
for a buck from 5 to 9 p.m., the one evening
the museum stays open late.
300 Congress St.; 617-426-8855;
bostonchildrensmuseum.org
The Boston Children Museum’s three-story New Balance Climb allows visitors
to climb onto the first floor and ascend
from platform to platform—safely within
the steel mesh enclosure, of course.
