Making Museum Visits Fun for Kids

Science and natural history museums are almost always fun for kids. But what about fine art museums?  

Are we really going to be in London and not go to the Tate? To Madrid and not visit the Prado? Well, maybe. But if we do want to go, we should be able take our kids and still have fun.

You may be tempted to try to recreate your adults-only style art museum visit with your kids in tow. Unless your kids are particularly precocious, this approach is not likely to work.  

Instead, play into the universal strength of kids of all ages...IMAGINATION! 

Here are a few approaches you can use:

With Portraits:

• Tell them to find the weirdest, most mysterious, interesting painting in each room.

• Ask them to imagine the story behind it. Major kudos for creativity. 

• If you have multiple kids, you can award points for things like ‘strangest backstory’ or ‘funniest explanation’. Then, let them redeem the points at the gift shop on your way out of the museum. Our prizes tend to be pretty tiny, but that hasn’t seemed to matter at all.

With Statues:

• Start by making up your own story...like, what if the statues were once alive, but an angry ogre/wizard/witch/elf turned them all into stone. 

• Let them build on the story:

  • Why was the ogre angry?

  • What were the statues doing right before they were turned to stone?

  • What might make them come back to life? Wait…did that one just move?

• To kick it up a notch, when you get back to your hotel help them write out the story they came up with. Then send it (or pictures of it) to your family and friends. Read them all the responses their story gets!

With Abstract Art: 

• If you’re planning to go to a specific exhibit, look online with your kids to see what abstract pieces they have.

• Have the kids pick out a few of their favorites so they can look for them when you get to the museum.

• Bring sketchpads and colored pencils to the museum.

• Look for the pieces your kids picked out online and find a spot nearby where they can sit.

• Ask them to either draw what they see hiding in the abstract art or create their own version. Meanwhile, you can stroll around the room and take in a little of the exhibit yourself.

Tap into your own imagination to come up with other approaches to engage your kids. By playing into their creative strengths, the whole family can enjoy cultural experiences together. It also allows ALL of you to see art in a completely new and imaginative way.  

And lastly, keep it short. An hour is perfect. More than ninety minutes and you may be pushing your luck!

The Galápagos Effect: Nurturing Growth and Learning in Young Explorers

Iceland, Belize, Italy, Corsica, England, Argentina, the Galapagos. We’ve traveled to all these places with Wolf in his first six years. With each trip, Jane and I observed significant advancements in Wolf’s development. It almost seemed like he was saving up his leaps in speaking, agility, and maturity for when we were in different time zones.

I’ll be the first to admit there is probably A LOT of confirmation bias in this non-scientific conclusion. But we’re convinced the stimulation his growing brain receives during travel has significant and long-lasting effects. (Aside: We have another example of personal growth from travel regarding my son Justin when he was 18 and traveled with us to Belize. You will have to wait for another post for that story.)

Our recent trip to the Galapagos Islands with Quasar Expeditions resulted in more examples of developmental leaps. The most obvious was his sociability. To give a little context, Wolf has always been an outgoing kid. From an early age, he’s been able to express himself well verbally. And maybe because of that, he’s also always been at ease around adults. Jane and I encourage this in several ways. For example, Wolf has ordered his own meals at restaurants since he was three and gives flight attendants his own passport and tickets when we fly.

When it came to our Galapagos cruise, he took his sociability to an entirely new level. The main reason we picked our boat, The Evolution, was because it was small and had a great ratio of guides to guests. In it, we could go to places the big boats couldn’t access. And we never had to worry about being shuffled around in a massive group. A surprise benefit was that with just 25 or so guests on board, Wolf made friends with practically everyone on the boat.

Whether on board or during outings, we often found him hanging out chatting with one of our fellow passengers or guides. He was incredibly engaging and the nature guides basically adopted him on every excursion. We had two guides for each island exploration. For at least half of each, one of the guides would explore alone with Wolf. Which leads us to the next development area…

Wolf is now a talented and avid photographer! During Wolf’s private hikes, the guides gave him loads of tips on taking pictures and, in particular, nature and wildlife photography. Like, how to lie down on his stomach when taking pictures of the iguanas. It steadied the camera and made the iguanas look like Godzilla.

Before the trip, about one in twenty of his pictures were salvageable. Now, he takes pictures and video with most turning out quite well. It’s heartwarming to see him excitedly grab his camera and run to take a picture. When he does, he says, “if I don’t take this picture, no one will ever see this again.” All the pictures at the bottom of this post were taken by Wolf.

But perhaps the most significant area of Wolf’s development in this short eight-day cruise was his independence. During our week in the Galapagos, he was so adventurous and curious. He was up for anything. It seems that he was in his true element in the nature setting where no hike was too difficult or too long. He tried snorkeling for the first time. And even with a life ring to float in, it is a brave act for a five-year-old beginner-swimmer with hammerheads patrolling beneath him. I’ll never forget the sight of him furiously kicking away, determined to keep pace with a rapidly swimming penguin.

He has come away from our Galapagos trip with the confidence to try new things, ask interesting (and sometimes silly) questions, and fearlessly explore his world. As an extension of this, he‘s gotten into experimenting. Now, everything is an experiment, or at least involves the “I’m doing an experiment” excuse to make a big mess. We love how this further develops his curiosity and capability.

Almost three months later, Wolf is still talking about the Galapagos. Yesterday, he asked Jane what kind of animal she would want to be. After she responded with “falcon”, he told her that he’d like to be a blue-footed booby and then started acting out the famous blue-footed booby mating dance.

Traveling overseas with kids can be challenging. But it is an investment in ourselves and our kids. The Galapagos trip has already paid off for all of us.