I.D.E.A. Museum

Getting Creative

Getting Creative at the IDEA Museum (i.d.e.a. Museum: 150 W. Pepper Pl, Mesa, AZ 85201)

My eldest son is absolutely obsessed with space—he reads every book we buy him on the subject from cover to cover in hours, and is constantly telling us all the things he’s learned. He especially loves Mercury, and plans to be the first man on that planet! When I heard that the IDEA museum’s family day theme this year was the solar system, I knew we would have to go. I brought my four children, and they all had a blast. We had to get there pretty early in the morning (8:30 AM!) to beat the crowd, but it turned out to be worth it. Most of the events were over by 1pm, so we were glad to have plenty of time to explore. There’s nothing worse than missing the window for a cool opportunity that your kids are excited for, as every parent knows.

ArtVille at the I.D.E.A. Museum was the greatest

We’d been to the museum before, but they still had fun at all of the permanent exhibits. The area specifically designed for kids 4 and under, called ArtVille, delighted the two young ones. They spent most of the time just chasing each other around all the different foam obstacles and playing with other kids. While the little ones tired themselves out in ArtVille asking to go home, my daughter got to work at the Recyclery, where she made trains and planes out of old cardboard materials. I noticed they also had stations to build with blocks and even design buildings via software on a touchscreen, but I could never get her to budge from the recycling table! I had a little bit of fun myself with the animation station.

We could’ve spent all day in the Hub, but our son dragged us off to a little class about space exploring featuring little robots called ‘ozobots’. I had never seen anything like them before, so it was entertaining for me and all the other parents in the room too.   My son’s favorite part of the whole museum was the meteorite exhibit, where he got to examine real meteorites. For the rest of my kids, the highlight of the day was the blacklight room. We had been there before, but they redecorated it as “Area 51”, and my kids must’ve spent 2 hours in there alone! They loved trampling along in their white shirts, glowing against the ultraviolet light. For the adults, the best part was all of the museum staff that facilitated all the activities and helped all the kids out, leaving us free to sit down and enjoy a few minutes of rest but not headed home!  I think Riverview Park is on our list next.