Marbles Kids Museum, Raleigh, Part II

A continuation of yesterpost...

The Kid Grid area was all about producing and using electricity. A complicated system distributes circular tiles (representing fuel) throughout the area. Various machines pick up the pucks and send them down tubes to other parts of the room. The children enjoyed the complicated contraptions and learned something about the electric grid too.

Kid Grid entrance

A climbing area

A way to send power into the system

Driving an electric car

Electricity use at home

Just outside Kid Grid is STEMosphere, an area devoted to science, technology, engineering, and math. Some challenges were meant for kids to conquer, others to inspire wonder.

Building a Lego bridge

Wind on a hankie makes for an interesting display

Working with circuits

Moneypalooza is an area about using money wisely, very similar to the Kid Grid area, but using cash instead of power.

Moneypalooza entrance

One area emphasized saving for the future and let visitors shoot money through air guns into a savings area.

Aim to save!

Loading the Aim to Save air gun

Still loading

Making a deposit

Another area helps kids choose what to spend money on by that classic game of skillful choosing...skeeball!

I hope I get to spend more money on food!

Many of the soft money balls would accumulate in a big piggy bank in the middle of the room. Occasionally the piggy would get overfull and burst his seams, dropping money on excited children below.

Waiting for the bank to crash

Pennies from heaven?

On our way out, we put our faces on a hundred dollar note....

$100 daughter

Toddler bucks!

Aren't you a little young to be wearing a wig?

The final inside area of our visit was Splash! As the name implies, water was a big theme in this area. We managed to stay dry during our exploration.

Splash! entrance

Inside a yellow submarine

At the controls

Beyond the submarine is a pirate ship, which looked like more fun to me but only the oldest child was interested in playing there. I felt obligated to keep an eye on the toddler so I did not get a chance to explore. Maybe next time.

Front of the pirate ship

Back of the ship

The scurvy mate

Outside, we visited Tree Tunes. The area has plenty of musical instruments, mostly of the xylophone variety.

Playing a tune

Playing together

One last note

Tubular bells

A fountain in the middle

The area also has a river where children can play with boats and other water implements. Protective smocks were available but unused by my children.

Waterfall at the end of the river

A water tower

We enjoyed our visit but were getting hungry (and the toddler was getting sleepy). We headed off for lunch happy with our experiences at Marbles Kids Museum.

Marbles Kids Museum, Raleigh, Part I

While in Raleigh, we visited the Marbles Kids Museum, a downtown museum featuring interactive kids' exhibits. My children were excited to go because we have been to plenty of kids' museums and had plenty of fun at each one.

Marbles's logo

We arrived right at opening time, so the place was fairly empty. The very first thing we played with was large foam construction pieces that my older children tried to turn into a marble ramp. Too bad they had no foam marbles!

A quiet entranceway

Working on foam construction pieces

Ramp with wheels if not marbles

Trying out a bigger wheel

Further in, we discovered a lower-than-regulation basketball hoop with fun watermelon-colored balls to throw through the hoop.

Two balls in the air

Ready to catch one

A large chess set was ready to go so my son challenged me to a game.

Daughter makes a last adjustment

My son makes a capture

We visited the Around Town area, where children can experience the adult world scaled down to their size. This section is very popular and has many favorite for my toddler--driving vehicles, shopping at a grocery store, and cooking food.

Driving a "big" truck

Done shopping; big sister is readying the kitchen

The ambulance was a fun spot for all the kids to try out their medical skills (happily, not on me).

An ambulance (without the siren)

Inside the ambulance

What's this machine do?

Defibrillation!

The area also has a farm experience which was fun for all!

Maybe not as fun for him

Checking out the chickens--"Nugget" seems like a terrible name for a chicken

Rube Goldberg-style feeding mechanism

The coolest part was the TV weathercaster station. Not only did it have a green screen, it also had some green clothes/sheets so that the children could make themselves disappear!

Practicing the weather forecast

Reporting with just one head

What the broadcast looks like

I managed to pry the kids out of that section to go upstairs. The stairs are an interactive piano, making the climb fun!

Corporate-sponsored staircase?

The Power2Play section has both sports opportunities and healthy eating options. The older kids were more interested in sports; the toddler was happy to cook again!

Entering the Power2Play area

More basketball!

Gym

My strong daughter

Checking out the other equipment

Using a pulley to get up in life

More strong girl muscles at work

The star attraction here is the hockey rink. Children put on special socks, then slip and slide their way on the rink in an effort to score some goals. A mom was in with her two sons and was very glad to see some other kids show up so she didn't have to keep playing!

Playing hockey!

Easy without a goalie

Meanwhile, the toddler was cooking up something special.

Making grilled cheese the old-fashioned way

What if I add pineapple to your grilled cheese?

One last workout before moving on

We found a cool window that reminds me of the Millennium Falcon cockpit.

Ready to fly

More in the next post!