the discovery museums

My children, husband and I had a great day here. The kids are 1,2, and 5 and the children's museum was perfect for those ages! The other museum was great too and definitely not just for young children. We will definitely return :)

We moved to Acton 30 years ago. My kids were 5 and almost 2. We were thrilled to find out there was a children's museum right in our home town. The Acton Children's Museum had been open for a year or so and was housed in an old Victorian era house. The target age was baby to about 5 years old. It became one of our favorite places to go. In 1982, The Science Discovery Museum, for kids 5 and up, was opened. And we continued to be members who visited often.Recently I had the immense pleasure of taking my granddaughter to the Dinosaur Museum for the first time. We called it The Dinosaur Museum because of the big, friendly green dinosaur, Bessie, who resided on the front lawn. It was heart-warming to watch our 2 and a half year old make her way through the rooms, playing and discovering the wonders of the scientific and natural worlds as her mother and uncle had done before her.Kids make their way through room after room, playing with water, bubbles, magnets, trains, puppets, costumes, building materials, and balls. They can get involved with making things happen. They pour water into various vessels to make them turn. Or they stand in the middle of a mat with a hoop that makes a huge bubble around them when they pull the rope. Gravity makes balls go through pipes and ramps and various gizmos that make noise and are great fun to watch. There is a place under the stairs where you can sit and watch fish and other water life. Pillows are in plentiful supply for just hanging out and trying to process all the stimulation that surrounds you. There is so much there, it's difficult to recall it all, but around every corner, there is something new and wonderful for the smallest kids, or their adults, to take part in. We spent over two hours there and my granddaughter never got bored. She picked up and toted a stuffed fish with her the entire time. It was returned to its place under the stairs before we left. I think her favorite spot was upstairs in the attic where the row boat and costumes my children loved so much were still there, waiting for this new visitor to plunge into with her imagination. She steered the big wheel on the bridge that looked over the room. She put on a turtle costume and taught us the turtle dance. I taught her Row, Row, Row Your Boat, while we pretended we had oars. She and her mom enjoyed time with some stuffed penguins.I look forward to many more visits to this museum, as well as the Science Discovery Museum as our little girl grows up. It is a timeless place of simple pleasures and unlimited fun. Memberships are available for those who live in the area and want to come often. But if you're anywhere nearby the Boston area, you should not miss it.

This place has lots of fun things for kids of all ages. The front house has great themed rooms for babies and young kids. My daughter loved the camping room! Next door is also a little building for having birthdays.The building on the top of the hill has great science related displays as well as creative activities. My favorite was the wobbly table that creates a cool unique picture for you to take home. My daughters favorite was standing in the tornado tube.We got the membership this year and will be back a lot. It's a good rate and you get discounts for tons of other kids places across the country.

The kids love this place. Two buildings. one for the little ones and the other is more geared to the pre-teen set. Friday nights are free.

We recently brought our 2 year old granddaughter to the museum and she had a fabulous time. I had brought my son here years ago and it is still a wonderful hands on place for children to explore. The exhibits range from a water room with a giant bubble machine to a back yard sleep out with a tree fort, to Miss Bessies Diner and more. In every room kids can explore and touch and interact with the exhibits. Bessie the dinosaur is the museum mascot and welcomes all from her spot on the front lawn.We didn't visit the Science museum portion this visit as my granddaughter is only 2, but I am sure that this portion remains a great space for kids to learn while having fun.There are also outdoor woodland paths, tricycles to ride, pirate ships to play on and crafts to do.Highly recommend. Also offers Free First Friday Nights and is a Blue Start museum year long meaning that they offer free admission for veteran's and their famiies.

I live in Houston and would love to see this kind of museum/playhouse. Discovery lends itself to sparking children's imagination and creative play. The staff is very helpful. Discount passes are available at the local libraries. They have lots of fun activities throughout the year so it's worth checking their calendar on a regular basis.

We took our 16 month old daughter to the Discovery Museum in Acton and the front building (ie not the Science one) was perfect for her. I had emailed them previously to see if they had anything for little little kids as it's tough for her age group at some of the bigger museums and they said their museum was targeted for 1-8 year olds. Now having been there they were totally dead on. What a great place! Our daughter is just learning to walk and had a blast toddling from room to room seeing what else there was to poke at and explore. There was a train table in the first room and then the second room I don't know how to describe but it had tubes everywhere and you could put balls in and see where the balls went down the tubes. A bit advanced for her but she enjoyed watching it and the ones closer to the floor she would pick up a ball and put it some place where she could reach (which was basically the bottom). There was a room with a big water table and this big bubble thing that was cool and tons and tons of other rooms with all sorts of stuff to explore and poke at. Out front there was a big dinosaur and a sand box with trucks and shovels. It was fenced in so she could toddle around and we didn't have to worry about her toddling right into the road. We will definitely be taking her again. It's great because it's a lot closer than the big Boston museums and more for her age bracket. Definitely recommend it for parents/grandparents of small children.

My 7 year old son loves this place which makes visiting grandma a little more bearable, especially on a rainy day! Separated into 2 buildings, older kids and younger kids can find something to their likings.

These two museums have countless interactive activities for little children. Each room offers new exhibits that actually spark the curiosity of both kids and adults. The children's museum has a diner where children can pretend to operate a business and serve their friends and family. There is also a room where children can roll down golf balls down ramps and similar obstacles (a really simplified version of a Rube Goldberg track). However, crowdedness could be a problem, especially since the children's museum is an old house with small rooms and steep stairs. The science museum is slightly larger and more exploratory. Older children will truly enjoy the interactive exhibits of the second museum. Hours of fun.

Easy access and fun activities for your kids to do. Love the summer camps they have and my kids have enjoyed going to them. Always changing the exhibits.

I've only been to the younger side of the museum - great interactive things for kids, cars, balls, chalk boards, things to crawl through and investigate, the outdoor dinosaur was a hit alsoif you live close enough, having a membership is a nice idea.

Great place to take the kids to learn and have fun. Everything from a dress up or Lego room to figuring out how a tournado happens. Older kid will get board but will learn too the all enjoy the life size Spirograph!

Hi, thank you so much for your feedback, and sharing your experience with others! I am glad your daughter enjoyed her time at The Discovery Museums. Thank you also for your feedback regarding the admission price. I'd like to share some information that may help you visit again for free or at a reduced price: - The museums are open for free every Friday night over the summer, and the first Friday night of each month during the school year, except September. - We are also open for free for a full day and evening once per summer as part of Free Fun Fridays, thanks to the Highland Street Foundation. This year that date will be Friday August 30th, we will be open from 9am to 8:30pm for free. - We offer free museum hours for families with children on the autism spectrum, and for families with children with hearing loss--see our website for details. - If you visit the Ways to Save page on our website, you can find various ways to get a discount on admission, including military discounts, library passes, Charlie Card, etc. - A museum membership can pay for itself in as few as 2-3 visits, so that may be something to consider as well.- Also, many museum memberships, including ours, offer reciprocal half-price or free admission benefits to several hundred other museums. This information is detailed on our website under Membership.One other thought, it seems from the description of your visit that you may have visited just one of the two museums on our campus. Your admission ticket gets you into both the Children's Discovery Museum and the Science Discovery Museum for one price. We feel that it is very important that families have the opportunity to visit a children's museum and to that end we try to offer many discounts and free admission hours. I hope that one or some of these can work for your family, and that you visit us again! Thank you again for your feedback.

The membership for those that live nearby is worth the price. My kids were never tired of going to these two unique experiences. Special activities and events were always well done too.

I brought my 3 kids (5,7,9) to the museum on the recommendation of the mother who is an elementary school teacher. On arrival (on weekend during April vacation) there was plenty of parking. Admission was very reasonable compared with other children's museums I have visited (Boston, Easton, Philadelphia). We visited the building geared towards older kids. Building was several levels and did not feel crowded at all. There were many activities/displays for the kids who thoroughly enjoyed the museum. There was not a significant wait for anything which was great. The museum was well maintained and clearly $ is spent on keeping up/updating exhibits. We will definitely return for another visit.