Taking a child, especially a smaller one, to a museum can be a dicey proposition. Will they care about a 300 year old canvas with a picture of some fruit? Could they grasp the importance of a stone wall covered in ancient hieroglyphics? Maybe not, but that certainly does not mean that family fun cannot be had at a stately museum.
Here is a road-tested and proven method for occupying children at a museum with an activity that is amusing, interactive and dare I say it – educational!
Upon entering the museum, head straight for the gift shop. I know, I know…the gift shop is usually the reward for making it through the entire museum without major international incident. But for this idea, you are going to want to both start and end in the bastion of museum commerce that is the gift shop.
Inside the shop, you will undoubtedly see a spinning rack, wall, or section of postcards depicting the major and even some of the minor exhibits on display within the museum walls. Allow (and encourage) your children to each select anywhere from one to three of the postcards – help them select the images, artifacts and statues that they find the funniest, coolest and most intriguing. The next step, is to cough up the $2-$3 and buy them all!
Now the real fun begins, as you and your family embark on a museum-wide scavenger hunt to find the real life versions of those postcard images. For the older kids, provide them with their own map of the place and have them chart their own course. For the younger kids, hold their hand and casually walk up and down the corridors in search of the treasure(s). Along the way, enjoy the sights yourself. Be sure not to take the shortest possible path to the pot of gold, you want to build the anticipation and get in as much adult museum viewing as possible.
My family used this exact method at the Louvre, with a 2-1/2 year old girl, and it worked like a charm. We spent a fun and peaceful, save for the big crowds, three and a half hours inside the world famous home of the Mona Lisa and backdrop for The Da Vinci Code. Our girl loved the scavenger hunt and was hysterical when she found her three treasures (Venus di Milo, Winged Victory and of course, the afore mentioned Mona Lisa). She still talks excitedly about those two statues and Da Vinci’s masterpiece.
Always remember that even a grand old museum can be a blast for a child, just be sure to keep it fun and light. There are going to be exhibits that, to many adults, are just strange and maybe even a bit boring – statues of dogs, cats, lion heads, etc. but to a child they can be hilarious and wildly entertaining.
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