What are the opening hours?

Wednesday 9am - 4pm Thursday 9am - 4pm Friday 9am - 4pm Saturday 9am - 4pm Sunday 9am - 4pm

Boston Children's Museum

Name: Boston Children's Museum
Address: 308 Congress Street, Boston, MA, 02210, US
Telephone: (617) 426-6500
Price range: $
Rating: 4.6

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Boston, MA
Boston Children's Museum

Embrace the power of play with one of the world's most influential children's museums!
(1957)

About Boston Children’s Museum

Boston Children’s Museum is the second oldest, and one of the most influential children’s museums in the world. It was founded in 1913 by the Science Teachers' Bureau, a group of visionary educators dedicated to providing new resources for both teachers and students, as a center for the exchange of materials and ideas to advance the teaching of science. For over 100

years it has been engaging children in joyful discovery experiences that instill an appreciation of our world, develop foundational skills, and spark a lifelong love of learning. The Museum’s exhibits and programs emphasize hands-on engagement and learning through experience, employing play as a tool to spark the inherent creativity, curiosity, and imagination of children. Designed for children and families, Museum exhibits focus on science, culture, environmental awareness, health & fitness, and the arts. In addition to extensive child-centered exhibits, Museum educators develop numerous programs and activities that address literacy, performing arts, science and math, visual arts, cultures, and health and wellness. The Museum is also one of the few children’s museums in the world to maintain a collection. The Museum’s collections of Americana, Natural History, Global Culture, Native American, Dolls and Dollhouses, and Japanese artifacts encompass more than 50,000 items. As one of the largest children’s museums in the world, Boston Children’s Museum also provides museum consulting services and creates award winning traveling exhibits, staff training curriculum, and exhibit kits for Museum professionals.

11/24/2024

Thanksgiving is just around the corner! We're excited to welcome visitors near and far to Boston Children's Museum. The Museum will close at 1:00pm on Wednesday, 11/27 and reopen Friday, 11/29 at 9:00am. Happy Thanksgiving!

Find current Museum hours and reserve your tickets at: https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/ticketing

11/20/2024

A Nutcracker Spectacular returns to Boston Children's Museum - this Sunday! Join us in KidStage for a special Urban Nutcracker performance from 1-1:30pm and 2-2:30pm. Anthony Williams' Urban Nutcracker, presented by City Ballet of Boston, is a modern remix of the classic holiday story. This enchanting production showcases winter scenes set against the backdrop of downtown Boston, blending the vibrant rhythms of Duke Ellington with Tchaikovsky's timeless compositions.

Anchored in classical ballet, this year’s performances feature a diverse array of dance styles—including tap, hip-hop, breakdance, flamenco, and jazz—all accompanied by an 8-piece live ensemble of talented local musicians.

11/19/2024

Imaginative play fuels children's creativity and allows them to explore the world around them. ✨ In the words of author Ursula K. Le Guin,“The imagination is an essential tool of the mind, a fundamental way of thinking, an indispensable means of becoming and remaining human.”

11/18/2024

How can online resources support educators and young learners? The Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) wants to hear from you! If you work with children ages birth to 14 in an educator, childcare provider, or similar capacity, we invite you to share your thoughts: https://research.rockman.com/s/educator-survey/tt-7CaQL

Your response will help museums across the country, including Boston Children’s Museum, create online resources that better support you and the children you work with. Thank you for your participation!

11/15/2024

Learn a traditional Native American art form and game called hubbub with a Visiting educator from the Tomaquag Museum! Visitors will be invited to play hubbub and even get the chance to create and decorate their own bowls to play with. This art focused workshop includes educational discussion around the cultural relevance, spirituality, history, and change over time of different Eastern Woodland art forms. Offered in Boston Children's Museum's Art Lab this Saturday at 11:30am and 2pm.

11/14/2024

This Friday, Nov 15 from 9:30-10:30am and Saturday, Nov 16 from 10:30-11:30am, Boston will experience a spectacular tidal event: the Perigean Spring Tides. This natural phenomenon occurs a few times each year.

Boston Children's Museum and Martin's Park invite visitors to engage on the topic of sea-level rise by observing flooding across the boardwalk, right outside the Museum. These “wicked high tides” result in tides that are 2-4 feet higher than normal. Waterproof footwear highly recommended!

11/13/2024

It’s World Kindness Day! Magic happens when children and families engage in joyful discovery each day at Boston Children’s Museum. Every child deserves the chance to learn, explore, and grow in a space designed to inspire creativity and wonder.

In celebration of World Kindness Day, please help spread the love with a gift to the Helping Hands Campaign. Your kindness makes our work possible! Make a gift: https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/?form=HelpingHands. 🪄👐✨🎁

11/12/2024

“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” - James Matthew Barrie. Sharing kindness is impactful. When we extend kindness to those around us, we also can fill our own cups. ☀️

11/09/2024

Boston Children's Museum will be open this Monday, Nov. 11th in honor of Veteran's Day. Advance tickets/reservations are highly recommended. Visit the Museum's ticketing page to reserve your tickets: https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/ticketing

11/08/2024

Making the world a little kinder starts with small everyday actions. 💜 This Sunday Nov. 10th and Sunday Nov. 24th, join us at the Museum for Generation Brave: Glimmer Garlands. Make a garland of memories and everyday actions that bring you joy, peace, and calm! Hang this resilience tool in your home to turn to when you are feeling down.

Boston Children's Museum's "This Generation" program series builds self-esteem, fosters empathy, and encourages upstander skills for children and their caregivers.

11/07/2024

This Friday, join us at Boston Children’s Museum for a special screening of the new Molly of Denali episode in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. Produced by GBH right here in Boston, Molly of Denali is an animated series about a young Alaska Native girl who goes on amazing adventures, learning from maps, books, and more. The new episode will be screened in the Museum’s KidStage Theater from 11-11:30am and 2-2:30pm.

In this episode, “Truth, Trust, and Harvest/Thanks-For-Giving,” Molly and her friends are excited to plant a community garden, but they keep arguing. Will they learn to work together? In the second part, Molly and her friends discover Grandpa Nat doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, so they work with their community to create a special feast.

Come early for a special chance to meet Molly the character in real life! Molly will be greeting visitors in the Museum for 30 minutes prior to each showing.

11/06/2024

Boston Children's Museum acknowledges Native American Heritage Month with opportunities for free admission for visitors with a Tribal ID. Visit our discount ticketing page to reserve your tickets: https://estore.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/webstore/shop/viewitems.aspx?cg=tt&c=dtt2

Limit four per Tribal ID holder while tickets are available.

11/05/2024

Thanks for celebrating STEAM with us at the Museum’s CreatedBy Festival this October! In addition to our visitors, the Museum welcomed 145 students and chaperones from three schools for the event!

CreatedBy partners facilitated fun and engaging drop-in activities, including coding with MathWorks, trivia with nonTRIVIAL Games, chemistry activities with the American Chemical Society and students from BC High, shadow and color play with E-Green, and math challenges with Russian School of Math. A true celebration of all things STEAM!

Special thank you to MathWorks for sponsoring this year’s CreatedBy Festival.

11/04/2024

Kicking off the week with dose of optimism and inspiration.🌟 In the words of Harriet Tubman, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

11/01/2024

Meet the Citizen Kid: Collection Election Candidates! This Saturday, Boston Children’s Museum invites visitors to participate in a playful program about the voting process featuring objects from our collections. Which party would you like to see on display in the Museum's lunchroom windows?

First up - meet the Beach Party: A sunshiny party that loves everything about the ocean! The presidential candidate is a stunning seaweed album made from two whole scallop shells!

Next - the Surprise Party: Exciting, creative and downright shocking in everything they do, this party hopes to open your mind about what things can be! Its presidential candidate? A teapot made of a coconut and melted-down silver coins!

Third up - the House Party: Bringing together the old and new, this party shows there is wisdom in the past as well as the future! The presidential candidate is an Old Toaster who brings an old fashioned flair to the modern thinking of its shinier cousin!

Fourth - the Retirement Party: A party that hopes to show that history and tradition are important. The presidential candidate, a Japanese stirrup, shows us how things used to be and why that still matters.

And finally - the Dance Party: Love music? Just want to groove? This is the party for you! The party of all things musical has a presidential candidate, the Toy Radio, who wants to keep life whimsical and fun. Just let loose!

Cast your votes this weekend or submit your “mail-in” ballot here by next Wednesday, November 6th: https://forms.gle/RzHPQ6pFqEJ5pMTc6

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween from Boston Children's Museum! Here's to a spooktacular-ly safe evening of trick-or-treating and sweets! 🎃🍬👻

10/30/2024

It's Critter Weekend at Boston Children's Museum! 🐢 Join us for a special live animal program from our friends at The Reptile Nook in the STEAM Lab, offered on Saturday Nov 2nd and Sunday Nov 3rd from 1:30-3:30PM.

10/29/2024

Looking for a fun music and dance experience for young learners? Look no further!🕺Boston Children's Museum's Wiggle Wednesday program is a 30 - 45 minute class that offers infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their caregivers a fun and engaging environment to have developmentally meaningful experiences together. Join us tomorrow or the following Wednesday from 10-10:30am in KidStage! Program details on our calendar: https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/calendar/

Address

308 Congress Street
Boston, MA
02210

Opening Hours

Wednesday	9am - 4pm
Thursday	9am - 4pm
Friday	9am - 4pm
Saturday	9am - 4pm
Sunday	9am - 4pm

Telephone

(617) 426-6500

Website

http://www.BostonChildrensMuseum.org/

Alerts

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Videos

Don't miss Boston Grown-Ups Museum "A Nightmare at the Museum" on Friday Oct. 25. Advance tickets are required and going fast! https://bit.ly/3zMKe6G Big kids only! This event is 21+

Trick or treating, spiderweb maze, zombie bowling, and more 👻 We’re brewing up a frightfully fun event for the whole family! Join us for Spooktacular, Saturday, October 26th from 5-8pm 🎃 Tickets available at: https://estore.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/webstore/shop/viewitems.aspx?cg=tt&c=ahe2 Advance, online purchase required. Event is expected to sell-out!

A Resilient Waterfront, A Learning Landscape

A Resilient Waterfront, A Learning Landscape. Boston Children’s Museum is undertaking an ambitious waterfront project which will transform our property to better protect the Museum and our community from flooding and sea level rise. We are thrilled to begin sharing the story of this important project with the world. ⏯️ Learn about the Museum’s bold approach to create a groundbreaking, interactive learning landscape on the waterfront that will act as an example for Boston and of living with a changing climate on our YouTube: https://youtu.be/j9X7LpW5JJE?si=d5-lh2TgRwYRq6OT or in the video below. ⏯️ This video was generously funded by the Liberty Mutual Foundation.

Breaking News! Dr. Bor Dumm is still on the loose and we need your help to save play at Boston Children’s Museum. Join us this Superhero Week, September 25-29 to put your skills to the test and defeat Dr. Bor Dumm and his Boredom Dust. 🦸‍♂️ https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/superhero-week/

Who will save Frida from the clutches of evil Dr. Bor Dumm?! Watch to find out 🐢 The story continues at Boston Children’s Museum during Superhero Week, September 25-29. Help us save play and put your superhero skills to the test! Learn more at: https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/superhero-week/

Calling all Superheroes!! Boston Children’s Museum Superhero Academy is looking for new superheroes to help save the Museum from evil Dr. Bor Dumm! Join in on all the heroic fun, play, and joyful discoveries during Superhero Week, September 25 -29, 2024: https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/superhero-week/

A visit to Boston Children’s Museum - zine edition! Make your own zine, a little book to share your ideas and stories, this month in the Art Lab. 🎨 Zine design by Sage Brousseau, Senior Art Educator at the Museum.

Lights! Camera! Action! Create your own animated film at one of our STEAM Family Workshops: Stop Motion Storytelling this weekend. 🏜️ Maybe you’ll win an Oscar! Please Note: this workshop is recommended for ages 6+. Space is limited, please sign up in front of the STEAM Lab.

Fantastic family fun awaits with this year's Summer Carnival! 🎪Join Boston Children’s Museum on Saturday, July 27, for an exciting summer night full of games, unique performances, and (most importantly) fun. 🤹🕺 Tickets on sale now - Don't miss out on this unique limited capacity Museum experience! Reserve your tickets: https://estore.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/webstore/shop/viewItems.aspx?cg=TT&c=ahe2

"To be able to engage in deep listening to the world around you-- and you might start hearing overlaps. So the bird on top of the rain on the window pane creates-- maybe it creates a melody, maybe it creates a counter melody, which are musical terms, but it's a natural phenomenon. It's the idea of wonderment... And I think kids especially are more primed to want to play and wonder and explore. So just invite that in the world around you." - Ashleigh Gordon the co-founder, Artistic Director, and violist of Castle of our Skins. Learn more about the intersections between music, education, and creative expression, the inspiration behind founding Castle of our Skins in our latest Big and Little Podcast, Music as Expression, Exploration, and Celebration. Available wherever you get your podcasts: https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/bigandlittlepodcast/

The Summer of Curiosity is right around the corner! Help us reach our goal by midnight on Sunday with a gift to our Helping Hands Campaign: only $10K away! We’re celebrating the power of play with programs and activities that inspire curious minds, like our Curiosity Kitchen, a new outdoor exhibit opening this weekend!☀️👐💦🫧📆 Make a gift: https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/?form=HelpingHands #PowerOfPlay #HelpingHands #Summer #Curiosity #Fun