Toddler Fun at the Terre Haute Children's Museum

In one place, kids have the opportunity to try out being a farmer, veterinarian, construction worker and TV weather person.  Of course, our busy little toddler did not miss an opportunity to try out all of these trades, plus more, at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum this spring.

In Central Illinois, and surrounding areas we may not have beautiful beach views, or picturesque mountains, but we do have some pretty great Children’s Museums.  After hearing positive reviews of the Children’s Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana near my parents’ home, I decided it was a “must do” on our short travel adventures list.

When we started our adventure at the Children’s Museum, a doll house and child’s bedroom set up welcomed us.  Miss A wanted nothing to do with that and quickly walked through that area.  She’s not normally a doll kind of girl, and is more interested in exploring hands-on things, which is why the next exhibit we encountered was perfect for her: a dinosaur fossil dig area.  The cut up rubber pieces were perfect to allow for our girl to do some exploring, without getting dirty (thank you Terre Haute Children’s Museum for that!).

After checking out everything on the first floor we moved on to the second floor, which was definitely the favorite.  Some very loud, and wet kids, made us quickly move on from the water table exhibit.  Grocery shopping, a toddler play area, and farming area were all fun to explore.

On the third, and final floor, Anderson played in the home building and construction area.  We bribed her into taking a picture on the TV News desk for her dad who was not able to join us.  She wanted nothing to do with the green wall in the Weather area.  If this is any indication for a future career, Miss A wants nothing to do with weather, or TV News.  I’m completely okay (and relieved) at that.

The final area that was the most fun for our girl was the Animal Hospital.  She didn’t care too much about the stuffed dogs in the cages, but she did want to answer phones and type on the computer.  She sat at the reception desk answering the phone, asking for people and then saying “bye” and hanging up, for the longest time.

Before we knew it, we had almost spent three hours at the Children’s Museum.  For our busy toddler, who normally has an extremely short attention span, this was a huge surprise once we realized how long we’d been discovering the Museum.  One final trip to the now deserted water table, which resulted in a very wet and cranky toddler after we made her leave, wrapped up our trip to the Terre Haute Children’s Museum.

 

Even though our family has spent several days at various zoos and Children’s Museums, it never grows old.  I know it’s not the exhibits that make the trips so special, but the little girl and other family members that I get to share the trip with.