Spring Break Adventure #1: Rockford Children's Discovery Museum

Our Association of Children's Museum (ACM) reciprocal pass took us to the Rockford Children's Discovery Museum during spring break. Coming from the perspective as a parent with a toddler, I was initially upset that the exhibits were geared toward school age children on the first floor. We spent a mere 20 minutes on the first floor and were thinking that it was going to be a quick visit when we took the elevator to the second floor. We were surprised to see a large area completely dedicated to toddlers. The toddler exhibit contained several areas specifically designed for younger patrons. Lydia loved all the themed areas: a home, garage (complete with mechanic tools), construction zone, train station, grocery store, water table, ball exhibit, and baby zone. Lydia played at length in the grocery store, collecting plastic fruits and vegetables in her cart, categorizing and sorting them as she returned them to their appropriate locations.

She spent a short time in the mechanic's garage, but was more inclined to spend time in the 'home' cooking, baking, and setting up the kitchen table before she folded laundry and read books on the couch. She also spent a significant amount of time in a fun ball exhibit in which older kids manipulated various switches and levers to move balls through tubes and tunnels. Lydia loved putting the plastic balls into the holes and watching them whiz their way through the tunnels.

Lydia also loved the boulders at the construction zone. She stacked (and then helped me stack) a tower that was taller than she was. She happily knocked the tower down. The highlight of her play time in the toddler zone was the water table. She loved to splash, pour, and dump water in the various tubs and toys. Despite the smock that she wore to keep herself dry, she ended up wet, but happy.

One of the exhibits in the agricultural area on the first floor had a grain elevator that kids were able to raise and lower to transport grain from one bin to another one. Lydia took one piece of grain at a time and moved them from one bin to the next. I laughed. She would have done that forever hadn't we stopped her and moved her on to a new exhibit. Overall, we had a great experience and we loved spending the day with grandpa!






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