Open Call: Delaware Children's Museum is a great winter escape
Warm up this winter with an engaging trip to the Delaware Children’s Museum.
Every visit to this special playful learning space is guaranteed to warm hearts, activate brains and make mouths smile. Delaware’s only children’s museum has many interesting and educational exhibits, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) programming. The DCM’s activities and experiences will inspire you so much that you and your family will want to replicate them at home!
Upon entering the museum, enjoy a winter wonderland area filled with inflatable penguins, lighted Birch trees, and sparkling snowflakes. This seasonal set is the perfect wintry backdrop for your family’s winter photo opportunity for posting on social media or place on your first page of the 2024 family scrapbook. The DCM wants to be a part of your family’s traditions and help you to create precious memories of fun times spent together learning and playing.
The Delaware Children’s Museum is a museum of first experiences, and is filled with wonder, creativity, and inspiration.
It’s often difficult to find an indoor activity in the cold winter months where young children can be active, learn, play, and expel pent up energy. Often, we hear grateful parents quip, “They’ll sleep good tonight” after an hour or two at the museum!
Kids can actively build with huge, blue blocks; take a lap or two or three on a roller racer/scooter in the DCM Speedway; throw a baseball while having it clocked by a radar gun; shoot some hoops; enjoy multiple climbing structures, or crawl through a 300-year-old Sycamore tree or complete a sensory obstacle course. The museum is a perfect place for a winter play date with neighbors or new friends, or for meeting relatives to catch up on family time.
Celebrate a winter birthday with a visit to the museum and give the gift of time spent together. Share with DCM, front desk staff that your child is having a birthday, and the birthday child will receive a birthday bag filled with lots of birthday treats: bubbles, a foam airplane, DCM pencil, a DCM birthday sticker to wear and receive birthday greetings over and over, a birthday crown to decorate, and a special DCM birthday activity sheet. We will wish your child a happy birthday using the museum’s PA system. There is also a special birthday backdrop in the museum where you can write their name and age on a chalk board and take their picture.
There’s always something new at DCM. Come visit the DCM’s new hen house in our "Farm to Fork'' exhibit or experiment with the Bernoulli principal at our new, air table in the museum’s "Ecconect'' exhibit.
Something brand new: The DCM will offer an educational theater performance series by beloved actor, museum professional and special friend of the DCM, David Hutchman, beginning February 2024. Each month through June, DCM will host a different, themed, interactive show on the first Saturday of the month at 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. You will not want to miss ''The Snow Show'' on Saturday, Feb. 3, or "The Seuss Is Loose,'' celebrating Dr. Seuss on his actual birthday, Saturday, March 2.
Educational programming changes weekly in the museum’s colorful, Studio D art space and STEM Program Room.
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Any day is a great day to visit the DCM. Look for reduced pricing on the third Wednesday of every month, when all guest admissions are $2 per person between 5 and 8 p.m.
The DCM is open on holiday Mondays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for those who are off from school and work and looking for something to do.
Make sure to follow the museum on social media for current hours, calendar and special event information.
Visit the DCM’s website to learn more about how to become a member and/or donate to the museum. You’ll have such a great time; you’ll want to purchase a yearly membership – currently priced starting at $119.
DCM membership is guaranteed to help break those winter blues.
The DCM is located on Wilmington’s beautiful Riverfront. There are great restaurants all around, and there is free parking for all DCM guests located at Riverfront’s Lot K. This lot is located at the entrance of Beech Street between Shipyard Drive and Judy Johnson Drive. Those using GPS should enter 601 S. Madison St.
So beat the winter doldrums and plan a day at Wilmington’s Riverfront. Enjoy free parking, a delicious meal, and a visit to Delaware’s best and only children’s museum.
Jen Bush is executive director of the Delaware Children's Museum.
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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware Children's Museum offers winter fun, educational adventures
