I love this museum. While it is a little older than the dupage museum, there's so much for kids to…read moredo. My boys stayed here for about 4 hours on the first visit and this has become a monthly affair. Staff are so friendly. Various areas that were of interest to my 4 year old Twins.

Very nice place for kids. My daughter's aged 4 years and 6 months came here on a Friday afternoon…read more Lots and lots and lots of children, which is understandable, but at some point you have to reach a limit. My 4 year old loved everything and didn't want to leave. The cashier, VAmparano, was not the friendliest, but she wasn't rude, maybe she was tired of all the kids. The young lady who stamped our hands, she was smiling from ear to ear from the moment we walked in the museum. If you show your WIC card or EBT you get a discount, it cost is $6 total. I believe children 12 months and younger are free. We will definitely be back

Stopped in while on the job…read more What a great place to bring kids both young and old. And to have it on the pier is perfect. After you spend a few hours burning the little ones out pop out and grab a bite. Employees are wonderful. So many things for the kids to do and see. If you have kids and you're visiting navy pier this is a must stop

This place is perfect for children and there are so many areas of play, creativity, and adventures…read more There is a lot to do and a lot to see, so you really can spend the whole day here. I'm from Houston, Texas and didn't like how we had to pay a non-residential entrance fee, which is more expensive. I feel like there should only be one flat fee. Also, the ticket price is so expensive, especially since we have to pay for the children AND adults. I mean, it's a children's museum so the adults HAVE to be there to accompany them. It's not like the adults come to play on their own. We come to play with the child. I just feel like adults should be free, or at least only pay like $5. On a normal day, it would not be reasonable to come here. I did see that they are hosting a Family Day when tickets are about $5 a person; that is an amazing deal and is so worth it. The hours are so short! We came on Thursday when the hours are 10-2pm. We came in at 11:30pm and I felt like we didn't have enough time! My boys wanted to play more; I wish we had come in earlier. So if you plan on going, I recommend going at 10am when they open, especially if you're going to pay full price. I didn't like how the hours are short and when it came to closing time, stations were shutting down early. At 1:45pm, the Cloud Buster exhibit was closed, which was disappointing because my boys wanted to go in there. A lot can happen in 15 minutes, so I didn't like that. The staff were all incredibly nice, sweet, and patient, though! They all kept their cool and were great at encouraging my boys, especially when climbing the Schooner. The museum reminds me of Montessori school, where it teaches independent play and discovery. I wish it included some facts and interactive play that reinforces the subject, like at a science museum. Overall, my two boys had a blast. They really enjoyed the "Play It Safe" and "Water City" exhibits. My favorite was Michael's Museum. I appreciated all the small messages of advice and reminders for parents in all play areas. It encouraged us and helped us understand the reasoning behind how children play or the purpose of the activity. From a child's perspective, this place is AMAZING, so I'm glad my boys enjoyed it.

My toddler was in heaven at this place! It's $8 a person (12 months and older). They have a toddler…read morearea for 4 and under but every area has stuff for every age kid. The staff are nice and keep the areas clean. They do have a storytime but we opted out to get a little more time away from the other kids as it can get overwhelming. I would recommend this for younger age range as some of the older kids seemed to get bored at some of the areas

This place is perfect for kids! A well established gem in St. Joseph, Michigan. My 5 yr old son…read moreand husband go there when I need a need a "mom" break. Please keep this place open forever!!

Museum is great for kids younger than 5 years Water table…read morefeature is fantastic! However the cafe can use some improvement We orders macaroni and cheese it was a small bowl about 4 " with bunch of noodles & cheese thrown on top and as a side a dried up mandarin for close to $ 7 you can do better Ended up not eating

We visited here on first night when driving to Chicago last week. Parking was fine since a few…read morehours before closing. The cafe in basement was closed. The first floor looked like tornado went through. Honestly earlier time of 4pm closing is probably when staff does cleaning and sorting. It is too bad there isn't cleaning and sorting throughout the day. A lot of exhibits are for older kids so my son didn't find much interested in it. Outdoors was tinker lab with bubbles which closed early at 3pm. 2nd floor was quieter and not as crowded. There were a few places for baby play area. Overall we were underwhelmed with this. Kohl children museum had outdoor play area which looked better which we visited the next day. This is closer to our hotel but not much for our son's interest. This is better probably when he is older.

This place is great with a caveat - your kids need to really be in the sweet spot for it. Like, 2-5…read moreyears old. Also, prices are now up to $20 per person, whether an adult or child. Last time I was here I was amused to see the grocery store was a Whole Foods and the sandwich shop was a Potbelly's, but I guess those sponsorships have expired and everything's kind of generic now. Kids won't care but I thought it was fun. The main draw of this place is the sheer amount of variety they have. Kids can play with toy cars, instruments, water, trains. They can paint, build things, read. They can pretend to be a vet, build a house, grocery shop, run a sandwich shop (oh I guess I mentioned those). There's a whole bunch of little science-y things, and some areas that rotate periodically. Toddlers and young kiddos have a blast, but I feel it'd be hard to keep older kids engaged. It also feels pretty pricy, especially charging parents, though I didn't know you could save a couple bucks buying online ahead of time. Parking is mostly easy but it is a popular place so be prepared to have to do some conflict resolution at times.

This children museum is a bit of a hike for us. We have to drive at least 50 minutes but our girls…read morelove the grocery store (resembles Whole Foods) and sandwich shop (resembles Potbelly) exhibits so we would suck up the drive. We have the Dupage Children Museum (DCM) family circle membership and Kohl Children Museum used to be the one of six in-network museums with free admissions. However, it is no longer the case as of the summer of 2025. Now with our DCM family circle membership, we will receive a 50% discount from the full general admission fee. It is still a good deal. Our girls would usually spend at least two hours here. We have visited Kohl several times over the years and I generally find it best to arrive at the early morning, members-only hour because there will be less people and less chaotic. And also because we have visited so many times during different months, we noticed they rarely change up the exhibits.

I'm not sure why some of these reviews were bad. This place was so fun! You'll pay $15 for ice…read morecream in Chicago anyway so why not pay 2x that & get a fun experience! We went as a family of 4. There were so many cute photo ops, lots of free ice cream in normal flavors & fun little games to play in several of the rooms. Be cheery, have fun & you'll have a blast. We spent about 90 minutes here.

The Museum of Ice Cream in Chicago is one of those places that's fun to do once, especially if…read moreyou're with kids or just want some colorful photo ops. The decor is definitely creative and unique..every room is super bright, playful, and clearly designed for Instagram. That said, it does feel pretty overpriced for what you actually get. You do get samples of ice cream throughout the experience, but it's not unlimited and there honestly weren't as many flavors or tasting options as I expected going in. I'd say this is probably best suited for families with younger kids (maybe under 10), because they'll likely enjoy the interactive rooms and activities way more. As an adult, I thought it was interesting enough to check out once, but probably not something I'd rush back to.

This is a nice addition to the area. The museum is not large but there are plenty to keep the kids…read moreentertained. We have visited twice and some of the exhibits that my girls enjoy are the imagination (arts and craft) studio, dinosaur and fossils, around the world, and fire station. During our most recent visit, we noticed there is an outdoor playground with plenty of slides, musical equipment, and climbing apparatus. We did not notice it a few months ago when we first visited so we are uncertain if this is a new addition. It is neat because there are a few picnic tables with shades and parts of the playground is covered. Since this is a fairly new addition, I am uncertain how often they will change up the exhibits. But we look forward to revisiting and exploring more of the area.

Very fun museum, exhibit for everyone from dress up to fire truck and car and coloring and…read moreclimbing. The new outdoor playground is great! It's always clean it's so large can't really notice when it's packed.

Was searching for fun stuff to do in Chicago and the suburbs with a toddler and this place popped…read moreup for us! Perfect way to beat the heat wave! Wonderful selection of things to play with, though this isn't really a "museum". Because it isn't a museum, it does seem a little crazy that they charge for adults. All of the indoor play places I've visited in Phoenix (where I live) they only charge for the child. But my son had so much fun it was worth it! His favorite were the treehouse and the cars. Glad we came here!

We visited this museum in Oak Park with our 15 month old grandson…read more He had a great time playing with so many different things. There were other families there, but it was not overly crowded. Many separate areas of play; a treehouse, veterinarian, kitchen, blocks, puppet stage...etc. fun place for young kids.

This place never gets old. I've been going here since a toddler. Recently I've seen the Spider-Man…read moreexhibit with my grandson and me had a blast. Brought me back to old times. Being able to see outfits and paraphernalia, and read things about Stan Lee and how great his mind worked was impressive. The last exhibit I saw was the James Bond exhibit. This two was outstanding. I wish I had known it was two separate rooms because I left the first one and thought it was it before tumbling upon the second room which had even bigger and better things. It's impressive how they had the James Bond car on display. I ended up buying quite a bit of James Bond paraphernalia at the end and wear it to this day.

My husband and I visited from Baltimore specifically to see the German U-505 submarine. The sub…read moretour was an extra $18 tacked onto the museum general admission price but it was worth it. I can not imagine 59 men packed into a sub with 1 bathroom and sharing bunk space. I'm slightly claustrophobic but the tour was only about 30 minutes and the distance toured was short. I can't imagine living on it for an extended period. We spent about 2 extra hours touring the rest of the museum but it must have been a field day for local schools, as it was packed with children. My second favorite exhibit was touring the Pioneer Zephyr train.

Family Day at the Smart Museum…read more When my daughter booked our family for Family Day as what we thought was part of U Chicago's Family Day, we were quite excited. A fun crafting adventure for the weekend. We almost didn't go as we were running late. Called and they said to come, so we did. Lucky to find a parking spot next to the Smart Museum on the University of Chicago campus. Walked in to the open atrium where we saw families of preschool aged kids with their mommies and daddies weaving on paper looms. My daughters have progressed to grad school, so we were a bit surprised. The museum curator also said when she scheduled Family Day at the Smart Museum of Art, she didn't realize that was also UChicago's Family Day. What a coincidence! So....we explored the museum first for inspiration. The museum is small, but had some beautiful installations. My favorite was the sunflower quilt print. The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles. Rosa Parks. Sojourner Truth. Ida Wells. Mary McLeod Bethune. Harriet Tubman. Vincent Van Gogh watching strong women advocate for equality from a distance. So powerful. Then, back to the atrium to pick up paper looms and fill brown paper bags with and assortment of strands of yarn, cord, shells and cards. Not having a plan, we went to work. Creativity inspired by our love for each other. Nice to have their featured artist come check on us. No, we were not on our phones. We were weaving small works of art. A great opportunity to spend a few quality hours with my daughters away from their responsibilities as adults studying to make an impact on the world. Family Day at the Smart Museum of Art. #2700

I came here for a Saturday opening and reception of Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas and…read moreBeyond Boundaries: Three Decades of Contemporary Chinese Art. It was so nice to go to a reception on a Saturday afternoon instead of a week night. The setup of the place is such that the food and drinks are floor level, but no food/drinks are allowed in the gallery space. Not convenient but understandable. This was my 2nd or 3rd time in this space. There was cheese/meat/fruit in one area, sealed pieces of cake in another area, and bartenders pouring wine, beer, soda, and water. Also a special drink dedicated to Alma Thomas. I was not familiar with her work, she was big admirer of outer space. It coincided with the Artemis II lunar space trip, so that was just awesome! The other exhibit about the University of Chicago's history with Chinese art was visually arresting and thought-provoking. There was a space separate for kids to do crafts as well. the bathrooms were small but clean, and a coat rack was provided, which was quite convenient. It is not far from public transportation, and I can't speak to parking, but the campus is so nice, if you live a mile or so away, it's a nice walk.