The Children's Museum of Richmond

We are not frequent visitors to the Children's Museum of Richmond. Their closest location is in Fredericksburg, which is an hour drive from our home. But there are times when an indoor play area is needed--for example, during a heat wave. A few weeks ago, when every day was nearing 100 degrees and my kids were sick and tired of being in the house, we drove to Fredericksburg and visited the children's museum.

While the Fredericksburg location is not huge (it is part of a shopping center), it is well designed. For the most part, the various play areas are located along the sides and the middle area is kept open with only a few play centers that do not impact the flow of kid traffic. It feels spacious and it is easy for parents to keep track of numerous children at once. 

When the girls need to get rid of energy, there is nothing better than the giant mountain of tires at the museum.

This structure allows the kids to climb, slide down ropes and engage in fantastic pretend play. My girls joined up with numerous other children at the museum to play pirate ship on the tires. I could hear Meg shouting orders across the museum, so I assume she was the captain. My favorite part came when she yelled, "Man the ship." A boy then yelled, "Yeah, abandon ship." Apparently, these pirates were having some communication problems.

The grocery store play area is a constant favorite of my children. I'm not sure what it is about grocery stores and children. Is it that they spend so much time observing us in grocery stores and they want the opportunity to do it themselves? They do seem to love the opportunity to be the shopper and especially to be the cashier. The museum offers the kids grocery carts and shelves lined with food boxes as well as a produce section filled with plastic fruits and vegetables. After filling up their carts, the kids can head over to the checkout where they find a cash register as well as a sensor that allows them to pretend to scan the food. My girls spent so much time scanning groceries. 

A play diner is located right beside the grocery store. This was well-planned. The kids take food back and forth from the grocery store to the diner. There is even a pass-through between the two play areas, which makes it easy for kids to ask for certain food and makes clean up a little easier as well. The diner includes a place to cook and plate the food as well as tables on which to serve customers. Parents often play the part of customers and, I can tell you, the kid-size seats can be a tight fit. But it works. 

The play areas also include a bank and a dentist office. The bank never seems to get much traffic. It makes me wonder whether the kids really knew what the bank was and how to pretend play in it. So many of us manage our banking through ATMs, direct deposits and phone deposits. I rarely take my kids into a bank. The dentist office was a little more popular. Anne had recently been to her first dentist appointment and I noticed, of my girls, she had the most interest in the dentist office. She very much enjoyed using the dental tools to clean the teeth of the mannequin patient. 

An ongoing favorite section for all of my kids is the art area. Here kids can use paint, markers, scissors, glue, as well as cardboard, tissue paper and various other supplies to create their masterpieces. The girls kept returning to this area to make new things. We were able to store their artwork on a drying rack until we were ready to gather it up before heading home. 

A new addition to the museum since our last visit was the building area. Anne loved this area. A partially framed room allowed kids to pretend to be contractors working away. The girls made walls with blocks. They used toy tools to hammer and saw. They even pretended to do a little wiring. It is a very fun area.

The Children's Museum of Richmond (Fredericksburg) continues to be a fun outing. Some of the play areas are starting to show a little age. As I recall, a few things in the dentist office were not working. But the kids had no problem imagining around these technical difficulties. The best review has come from Anne, who continues to ask to go back every other day.