Attractions

by Linda (minnemom) of Travels with Children

DuPage Children

With four young children, a lot of our outings involve children’s museums.  Whether close to home or on vacation, we usually find at least one or two children’s museums along the way.

When in Chicago, we explored the DuPage Children’s Museum in the western suburb of Naperville.  This sprawling hands-on museum has three floors of activities.  Instead of being divided into separate galleries, the exhibit areas are grouped into more fluid “neighborhoods,” allowing siblings from one family to do different activities while remaining under the eye of one parent.  Even the toddler areas are adjacent to bigger-kid activities rather than being in a separate room, and offer a variety of activities that are fun for little tots, including scaled-down versions of some of the regular exhibits.

Our kids especially enjoyed the kinetic sculpture, the building workshop, the music area, the ball blast, and the water tables.  We ran out of time during our visit, so we didn’t even get to explore the second and third floors.

The museum is brightly colored and fun throughout.  Windows allow natural light in many areas.

Clear directions for reaching the museum are given on its website, and there’s a Metra train station just across the parking lot.

We’d love to return to the DuPage Children’s Museum and explore some more.