This is a fantastic place to bring the whole family--fun for all ages! For just $9 per person (kids and adults), you get access to a huge indoor play space filled with themed areas like a veterinary clinic, grocery store, mechanic garage, painting station, dinosaur zone, and more. There are also sensory stations that encourage imagination and creative exploration. A brand-new indoor water area is set to open on June 10th, which will be an exciting addition. The outdoor space is just as impressive, featuring nature trails, a sandbox, water play area, treehouse, bikes, and more. We especially appreciated the separate toddler-only zones that keep the littlest ones safe while they play. With so much to do, we easily spent around 3 hours exploring. You're welcome to pack a lunch and enjoy it at one of the indoor picnic tables or outside in the peaceful pollinator garden. Highly recommend for a fun, interactive, and affordable family outing! read more

See all

We had the greatest time here with our Grandson. He is 17 months old and played for 2 1/2 hours and could have played longer but we needed to go eat lunch. There are many activities that entertain kids and I would say up to ten maybe. Some of the areas included were painting, grocery store, a car repair shop, restaurant, water feature, air flow type activities, small area for toddlers, outdoor activities, blocks, plus many more things. I like that adults have to be with children in order to enter. We decided to go ahead and get a year long membership. With the membership I could put my grandchildren on it and they can even go with their parents if we are not with them at no charge. There are also workers spread throughout the area who are so very kind and do a great job at keeping the place picked up and organized. read more

Big, free, clean, updated, caring staffs, happy kids of all age. I love their outdoors area and indoors playgrounds. They are really intentional on encouraging kids to explore at their own pace. read more

This place was interesting, though I'll be honest if you have kids you'll get it. If you don't have kids, it's a nightmare. Children are everywhere. Literally all over the place going nuts. The activity centers are very imaginative and very engaging, so I really appreciated that about this place. But, I didn't see anyone walking around cleaning any of the activities, but maybe I missed them. When we were there, we were involved with probably 90 children running around sharing toys. It was absolute madness, but the inventive displays were really entertaining to the children and informative of science and whatnot. We played with fake grocery centers and some child checked us out at the register and told us we owed her 20 bucks. We got money out of the fake ATM and then fixed a vehicle with a fake air ratchet. We learned about electrical conductivity, and air pressure and fishing and there's an entire paint room that children can literally paint on the windows and go nuts in. There's this massive grain elevator that makes a massive mess everywhere so if you're not into that sort of thing I would not go to the back of the building. But overall, this is definitely a go-to and the prices are really reasonable for a day out with your child to do something that is stem focused. It's really well built too I would say. The outdoors of this place has a full garden and pond with fish in it that children can interact with and a disc golf course basket and bikes that they can ride around on a trail that's marked and a sand pit and literally tons of stuff to do here. I think all in we were there for 5 hours. A definite go to if you're just stuck in Topeka for whatever reason. I know we were. read more

This is one of my favorite children's museums! I really like it better than what is offered in Kansas City/ ours I do not like. It's also close to the Zoo and train/ carousel. The outside area is so cool with a big pirate ship! Staff are really nice as well. Anytime we are in the area we try to visit! read more

We absolutely love taking the kids to the Discovery center! So much to do, they never get tired of the many activities they have to offer. Fun for all ages! read more

My son has a great time every time he visits and doesn't want leave. He is 3 but has been going since he was one. We have a season pass plus one so we can bring friends, so worth it for us. read more

Wonderful experience! We went as a family with our 1.5 year old. He loved the little toddler area, all the balls that float on the air and the scarf area. The giant lite bright was a winner too. We enjoyed exploring the outside music area and walking down the trails. Great little spot for all ages. read more

My wife and I were in town visiting my brother and his little family which included his wife and 2 kids. My niece is 4 and my nephew is 2. Their family received an annual membership for the Discovery Center as a gift and they have definitely utilized this educational establishment. This was our first time taking in the activities and interactive learning center and I was pretty pleased with their offerings. Growing up in a small town, places like these did not exist nor were they easy to travel to. It makes me very happy to see how much my niece and nephew enjoyed playing here. Kids of all ages can be both physically and mentally active with the wide range of educational tools available. I realize I sound like a terrible promotional agent, but I was impressed to see the fun available to my family. We weren't able to enjoy the outdoors because my family had some sniffles, but I could see the potential. I highly recommend families in the area check this place out as it really is beneficial to children. I also loved seeing my niece and nephew having such a good time. read more

This place was amazing!!! My suggestion is to go on a nice day. Everything inside is child friendly, and even allows the parents to get involved and allows the child to learn while having fun. There are many different sections such as body, a wood shop, painting on windows, a garage...and much much more. Outside was AMAZING, they have a trail through a woody area with wooden bridges and different activities, and then a fun wooden play house comes out of now where. "Who can be the first one to the top?" Then the best part of it all....there is a "yellow brick road" that you can use tricycles on it, including adults...yep that's right there are adult tricycles for you to use. I think we ended up laughing so hard and having so much fun I wanted to go home and buy one of these tricycles. So if you have children probably ages between 3-10 (There were some areas that would work for a little older or younger.) There was a 'soft' play area for the younger kids. Go Explore!!! read more

Love this place for kids to play! We got a membership and go often! We play inside and outside, paint and build, explore and experiment! We are planning a birthday party here soon and can't wait to see how it goes! This place is one of the few things that is really awesome about Topeka. read more

See all

Came to Topeka from KC with my 5 and 9 year old boys to watch NHRA drag racing. Rained out. What do with these boys.... Stumbled upon this place. 3 hours later I had happy and tired children!! Tons of little activity stations. And if you take your time, you can spend half the day at this little gem. Really cool outdoor stuff as well. In the woods....awesome!! Staff was super friendly. Saved my Sunday. Thank you KCDC!! We'll be back!! read more

I brought my 5 and 7 year old here during their spring break week. We had a nice day and I am glad we did because the outdoor area is impressive. They have a large track that kids can ride bikes around, a zip line, a jungle gym, a sandbox and more. They have a good sized toddler and infant area too. There were so many things to do inside from painting to a carpentry area with real tools. We went on the day that the local schools had a field trip so there were a lot of students, but this place was able to accommodate everybody well and it didn't feel too crowded. We got there at 10, went out for lunch and came back and stayed until closing time at 3 (and the kids were still having a great time). read more

One of my kids favorite places to go! Hours of fun, with more than a dozen hands-on science/learning stations this place is well worth the admission charge! I like that it is small enough that you can keep your eye on multiple children doing different activities all at the same time (within reason). Some of our favorites are the art station, construction zone (use hammers, nails, saws, and scrap pieces of 2x4 to build some you can take home) and a series of tubes, belts, pulleys, buckets that a group of kids operate to move pellets from one portion of the exhibit to another. Pack a lunch or snack and be prepared to spend longer than you thought at this place, at least 2-3 hours. I'd recommend this place for kids ages preschool-3rd grade, although older siblings will have fun playing along with younger siblings/cousins. During one of our visits last summer, they had a special science hour geared more for older elementary kids where they were bouncing light from a laser pen using a series of mirrors - really fun and was open to anyone there that day who wanted to join in and listen and participate. read more

I don't know if there is a better place to take little ones for a fun adventure. My nephew's 4th birthday party was held here and every one of the kids had a great time! You know how at nearly every kid's birthday party someone ends up crying? There was no crying here! All the kids were smiling the whole time! You can rent out a room and they'll give you the set up for cake, too...plates, plasticware, etc. read more

I brought my nephew here when he came for a visit when he was four years old. He really loved the place and we spent almost three hours there. At first glance, it looks like there's not much to do, but when you look a little closer, you will notice that the room is divided up into several little stations that can keep kids busy for quite some time. The wood shop, the painting room and the giant tricycles in the back were the favorite activities of the day. If you are looking for a way to entertain a little one for a few hours, this place has it! read more

I have only been here once with my kids about 2 months ago. They had a great time! It is pretty pricey. I loved the sand machine and the painting area! My 10 month old loved the smaller kid area and had a blast! The outside is super nice too! The only negative thing was that the girls helping in the paint area were just gossiping pretty loudly the whole time. Talking about boys and other teenage drama that my young kids didn't need to hear. My 8 year old kept asking me about the things they were talking about and i was not pleased. I made several glances at them in hopes they would get the hint but they didn't. So we just left the paint area. Otherwise a good experience and I will still go back! read more

This was a fantastic day my daughter's kindergarten class. Can't wait to take the kids back for another visit.