Iowa Children's Museum

After our Labor Day weekend in Iowa, we made a visit to the Iowa Children's Museum located in Coralville, Iowa. We had long awaited a visit to the museum and thought it would be a perfect location to spend an afternoon as we made our way from Cedar Rapids back to Peoria.

"The ICM is dedicated to educating children and strengthening families in an informal, interactive learning environment that inspires every child to imagine, create, discover, and explore through the power of play."

I have to say that the ICM did just what its mission intended. We enjoyed every area of the museum and loved watching Lydia go through the exhibits. It my opinion, it is much more interactive and accessible to toddlers than the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal. In every single exhibit, there was something for Lydia to do. Furthermore, there was an area dedicated to children younger than five and a reading area for kids and parents to read and interact. The Imaginacres was the area reserved for the young visitors and it included a small farmhouse that kids could visit, cook, and play 'house.' Kids could cultivate and harvest their crops, or go down a slide in the silo and barn area.
Lydia loved the medical area of the ICM. She enjoyed steering the ambulance down the road, checking on the babies in the nursery, pushing the walker, and playing with the stethoscopes.
In the space area, Lydia flew big planes and small planes, rode in a hot air balloon, and watched the effects of the forces of air. She was in awe of all the interesting inter-actives and fun toys!


Other highlights of the museum included a grocery store, pizza parlor, bank, post office, and Notion of Motion exhibit. There were other areas that Lydia will enjoy when she is older. There was a full-sized theater to dress up and act on a stage, an art studio, and communication center where kids can create their own newscast!

It was such a fun day. I even decided to purchase a membership at ICM. Not only will we now get free admission every time we visit, we will have free admission to the reciprocal museums on their list. The list is huge and includes all of the Chicago and suburban museums, the Normal museum, and the Magic House in St. Louis. We can't wait to visit them all when we take road trips back to visit my parents, the Ellises or to St. Louis. I heard that the Magic House was incredible and I think that will be our next stop on our tour:)

Denise has some other pictures on her camera of the visit. Once I get those, I will likely update the blog!