This place is so sweet. Took my sweet lady here after a day trip to Davis for a school thing. She…read morehad the best time and volunteer staff were so lovely. Been hoping for an excuse to go back!

Just had my daughter's birthday party here! We were able to (last minute!!) rent out the entire…read moremusem and it was so fun and affordable. We had plenty of time to celebrate, set up our own decorations, and let the kids play for a few hours. Highly recommend.

If you're looking for a hands‑on, family‑friendly museum in Sacramento, the SMUD Museum of Science…read more& Curiosity is one of the best local experiences you can find. As a Sacramento realtor who works with families moving into neighborhoods like East Sacramento, Midtown, Natomas, and River Park, I always recommend this museum because it shows off exactly what makes our city special -- creativity, education, and community. Every gallery has a dinosaur scavenger hunt, and it's a hit with kids. You walk into each room and there's a hidden dino waiting to be found. It keeps children engaged from start to finish, which is something parents relocating to Sacramento always ask me about: "Where are the fun learning spots for kids?" This is one of them. The museum is completely hands‑on, with touch‑friendly exhibits about electricity, engineering, space, and nature. It's the kind of place that makes families fall in love with Sacramento's lifestyle. When I'm showing homes near the Railyards, Old Sacramento Waterfront, or the River District, I often mention this museum because it's right in the heart of the city and adds so much value to living nearby. And the planetarium is absolutely worth the extra $7. It's immersive, relaxing, and one of the coolest science experiences in Sacramento. Buyers with kids always appreciate having something like this close to home. The only downside is I wish it was bigger. If you want a museum that's interactive, kid‑friendly, and genuinely memorable -- especially if you're exploring neighborhoods around downtown Sacramento -- the SMUD Museum of Science & Curiosity is a must‑visit.

We were pleasantly surprised of this place. We have visited children's museums regularly all over…read morethe Bay Area. From reading the reviews, I didn't expect much. But, we hand a great time. Parking was $6 for the whole day, $19.99/ adult and $17.99 for kids. We especially loved the planetarium. We had just gotten back from another planetarium, but this one was so much nicer! My kids loved it. And the instructor was very knowledgeable. The kids loved downstairs and upstairs. You can tell they did a lot interactive displays for children and adults to learn. My kids loved touching all the buttons, interacting with the screens, jumping/hoping, making songs, etc. My favorite exhibit was the brain one- such fascinating stuff! I definitely recommend going especially if you have young kiddos. We had a Great time! Tip: There's a McDonalds on the other side of the freeway - go there before entering if you have kids.

We stopped by the World of Wonders Science Museum for their birthday celebration and honestly had…read moresuch a great time. WOW has always been a favorite for our family, but this event really brought the whole community together. The museum was full of energy with kids running from activity to activity, experimenting, building, and just having fun learning without even realizing it. The raffle baskets were fantastic and way bigger than I expected. You could tell local businesses and supporters really showed up for this event. There were vendors set up, tons of hands on activities throughout the museum, and yes, free popcorn which automatically makes any kid event a win. What I love most about WOW is that it never feels overwhelming or overly structured. Kids are encouraged to explore, touch everything, and be curious. You can easily spend a few hours here and still not see it all. It is such an important space for downtown Lodi and a great reminder of how valuable places like this are for families. Fun, educational, and genuinely community-driven. We had a blast celebrating with the WOW museum!

Fun place to bring the little ones to explore some science! Love the hands on exhibits and the…read morekids (a lot of them) seemed to really like the sand box. There's a separate area for the littlest kiddos which is nice and enough throughout for my older child to keep occupied for a few hours. It doesn't look like a huge space but there's enough for little kids to explore and I think it's great to have something like this in the community

Came here with high expectations and was not disappointed! My entire family had a memorable time…read morelearning and exploring here. Pricing was great; $12 per adult and toddlers at no cost. Exhibits were interactive, creative, clean, and educational. There is even an indoor playground for kids, which was thoroughly enjoyed by my 4 and 2-year-old. It is impressive how there is something for everyone here, and it is equally impressive how detailed the historical replications are. You could definitely spend a good 1-3 hours here, and I'll be recommending this place as a worthwhile stop in between the Bay and Tahoe!

Fun place to spend a couple hours with my granddaughter. Parking in the adjacent garage is $15-$20…read moredepending on local events. Convenient walk to museum. Entry fee $12 for adults and $6 for kids; no senior discount. Beautiful and ultra clean exhibits. They must have a dusting crew as nothing is dusty. 2nd floor is quiet space, model trains, 3rd floor kids interactive area. I may have 2nd and 3rd floors mixed up. Clean restrooms. Friendly helpful staff. We came Sunday about 11am, hardly any crowds. Cool and fun.

An amazing find! We were looking for a place to take the kids and found this gem! Plenty of…read moreinteractive exhibits inside then go outside for mud fun but don't forget to walk behind the building to go to the other side and play in the "river", helicopter, tricycles, and building with Legos. There are also bathrooms outside on that side. Great way to spend time with your kiddos!

This is a non-profit children's museum in Sonoma county in Santa Rosa. It's fun for all ages…read moreespecially if you're a kid at heart. It's centrally located in town and very close to the Charles Schultz (Peanuts/Snoopy) museum which is pretty well known. Pluses: - fun for all ages, but especially the littles both indoors and outdoors. - pretend play areas indoors including a dentist office and a medical clinic and a fast diner. All 3 were a hit w/my kids. - lots of other hands on activities inside to include a treehouse where kids can load apples and send them up and down baskets, my kids love that when they were little. - very popular air launchers to shoot wind spinners. - a huge manual pinball machine that is super fun, my kids never tired of making the pinball launch over and over. - a miniature train set that goes around, it's on the 2nd floor. - plenty of outdoors activities and play areas. - a little stream for water play, little kids love that. - a real life former medical helicopter (a bit random, but still cool). - a climbing structure, and a few other play areas also. - so many ways to tire your kids out, guaranteed a good nap on the way home and they'll prob sleep a lot that night. Minuses: - The building indoors is really quite packed. The different features are each thoughtfully designed and very nice and colorful, but it can get crowded here. - Pretty expensive admission. We got a discount, but I think their prices have increased. All in all, a great little place and good for creative play for kids maybe up to like 5th-6th grade at most, but best for 9 or younger probably.

Adj: Impressive, Informational, Innovative, and Incredibly Interesting!…read more Another visit to the RUEC, which is the Roseville Utility Exploration Center. It is located next to Martha Riley Library, one of 3 City of Roseville libraries and the newest one. The RUEC is pretty cool and admission is free. We like to come by every once in awhile because they have changing exhibits, but their permanent displays are informative and interesting too. As an environmentally minded person, I try to conserve, but how do you know what to do and what is worth your effort and what doesn't make much of a difference? The RUEC has quite a few exhibits on how to conserve energy, water, and how to minimize our impact on the planet including garbage disposal (that often end up in landfill more than anywhere else), recycling, being conscientious in our resource usage by setting our thermostats properly, cycling our ACs, replace or clean air filters regularly, install a programmable thermostat, and properly insulating and weatherizing your house down to HVAC ducts! There's even information on where our stormwater and runoffs go (which affect our fish and other wildlife), how much energy different specific kitchen appliances use, not putting grease/oil down the drain, vacuum the coils on our fridge 2x's a year to keep our fridges efficient, thinking about the temp and weather when considering what to cook (don't run your oven on hot days), installing energy efficient fixtures/bulbs, and only doing laundry and dishes with full loads so as to maximize efficient when washers and dishwashers. These are things many people don't know or haven't thought about. Overall, the RUEC does a great job at educating the community and especially kids on environmental and resource conservation and also provides info about how we can practically make a difference just by being more aware of how we use energy and other natural resources.

Located next to the Martha Riley Library, the Roseville Utility Exploration Center is a community…read moreeducation center that's free to visit anytime it's open. I think that's pretty cool. We took our kids here since we like fun educational activities and free is always the right price. We went on a Saturday and it was not too busy. The staff is friendly who greeted us, then we just wandered around a bit. They have interactive utility exhibits about how the City of Roseville provides utility services to their residents. They have their own power plants and substations, etc. to generate their own energy, so their residents pay less than even SMUD customers, I was kind of jealous about that. At least I'm not paying PG&E electricity, but maybe I should've looked into living in Roseville. Anyhow, they also have their own sewage and water facilities of course, and their services are focused on saving water and sustainability and being resource conscious and eco-friendly, which all make sense. My kids enjoyed the interactive activities about using less electricity and water, but what they really liked was the Utility Truck Experience where they got to go on a Recycling truck and pretend play. It was pretty cool. There are also tons of education displays on shopping smart to get things that last and not disposable items that end up in the landfill. In addition to permanent exhibits, they also offer kids educational classes. My kids took a few over the years, one of them was on urban planning and it was quite interesting for them to learn how to design and layout infrastructure for a pretend city that makes sense for where to put the power plant, the landfill, the sewage system, etc. relative to locations of homes, roads, nature places like rivers and lakes, and public places like parks, schools, and fire stations, etc. All in all, RUEC (as they call it) is a really nice little museum that kids and adults alike where we can learn a lot about utilities and resource conservation, it's great that it's open 6 days a week and it's free and everyone's welcome, not just Roseville residents, and they even offer free educational classes (w/advance RSVP) for kids. Worth checking out if you've not been.

Really cool place to visit with the kids! We came here on a Sunday morning when they opened and had…read morethe place pretty much to ourselves for a good hour or so. They make such good use of the space. There's so much here, and almost all of it was interactive! We especially liked the first responder vehicles that we could climb in (with uniforms, too!) and play with. The Lego racetrack was a hit as well, and there were a couple of space-themed stations where we could design badges! More favorite places included the pretend grocery store and the water course area where we could use panels to change the flow of water to see how the currents are affected when we raced little boats. We ended up spending close to 3 hours here. Very worth the price of admission. We'll be back!

This is spot is perfect for meetups, play dates, school trips and so much more. Paid a small fee to…read moreget in but after that we had such a blast. They do offer several types of memberships too. It's like a mini Exploratorium with less science and more toys and activities for the little ones. Great for all ages. Arts and crafts, building blocks, story time, some science, miniature places to visit, huge hand washing station and so much more. Highly recommend having some sanitizer , or wipes on standby as there are all types of kids and age groups playing . There is a huge wash station when you walk in but kids are gonna be kids you know. Definitely want to come back and have a huge play date and utilize more stuff.

Drive past it so you know where to go, but park in a "C lot" on la rue. A stroller may be necessary…read moreto get from parking lot to entrance. "A" parking is for faculty and staff until 5pm. 35260 for a hint on the parkmobile app. You'll prob need parking for 1 hour. Cut through the parking lots and building walkways to get to Bohart. Museum (I think "open lab" is a more apt name) is on the ground floor, wander til you locate the door. Entrance is free. Have an idea about what bugs you would like to request to see. They have a small case for live/preserved bugs that you can hold, but if you come without ideas you might find it a little underwhelming with young ones. Ideal for kids who can safely hold a bug or glass jar without dropping or shaking. The staff is kind and knowledgeable. The room is small, you may like a mask on hand. They have a gift shop area and they have bug nets you can borrow.

Bugs are cool! Betcha didn't know that the seventh largest worldwide collection of them in No…read more America is nearby at UC Davis. They also boast the second largest mosquito collection -- shhh, don't tell Bill Gates! This was my second visit, this time with kids on a field trip. The collection is vast -- so extensive that they have installed rolling bookcases to house the specimens. Our 45 minute tour led us through some of the cases and then on to live specimens which included a giant millipede, hissing cockroaches, a scorpion, black widow, tarantula, walking sticks, and a leaf bug. Our group of little bookworms with ants in their pants was enchanted! The museum is open to visitors from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday. Wise people call first before they go to ensure the museum is available. While there is a small charge for tour led groups, the museum is free for general admission. But don't be a stink bug; put some money in the donation box.