Minnesota Children's Museum, St. Paul, MN

The Minnesota Children's Museum is located at 10 West Seventh Street, St. Paul, MN 55102. The museum is open Tuesday through Thursday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Friday from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and is closed on Monday. They are also closed on Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. Visitors can park for three dollars for three hours. The admission is $8.95 for everyone ages 1 - 101, but museum members and children under one year are free.

The Minnesota Children's Museum has seven galleries that provide hands on activities for all, but is geared to stimulate the environment for children ages six months to ten years old. They have "funstigators'' throughout the area that interact with the children to blow bubbles, toss balls, or play with finger puppets.

Earth world is one of the permanent exhibits where children can climb over ant hills to find the Queen, create a thunderstorm, go down a beaver slide, go inside a turtle's shell or pose for pictures. The area is a replica of Minnesota environments such as the prairie, forests and wetlands. There are also turtles and snakes from Minnesota so that children can learn how they live.

Habitot is for the younger set that loves to crawl, reach, creep and cruise through the exhibit. There are mats and pads so that the area is soft for babies. There are four different areas in the Habitot: cave, pond, prairie and forests. The exhibits sport fabric flowers, mirrors for looking in, buttons for pushing and peek a boo holes for looking through. The exhibit is to help infants and toddlers use their cognitive, physical and social development skills. Children four years old and younger have a special time for them on the first, third and fifth Tuesdays each month. They have the Habitot all to themselves.

Our World is a neighborhood atmosphere where children can learn about the diversity of the world they live in. Kids can pretend to cook a meal and serve it to customers at the Korean Restaurant. They will also be able to become a manager or cashier at the grocery store, drive through the town in a big bus and perform like a rock star on a video screen.

The Rooftop Art Park is on the fourth floor of the museum's roof that overlooks the city of St. Paul. There is a stream of cool water and a sand cove for creating masterpieces. There is a twelve foot tree fort and a shadow dome so that kids can watch the movement of the trees and plants.

World Works shows kids how they can make a medallion from recycled materials, race boats down a chute so that they see how powerful water is, how to work as a team to load boxes in a warehouse, explore energy as they blow bubbles with a giant wand or play with light to cast shadows on the wall.