6 Tips for Keeping Your Kids Engaged on a Museum Tour

The following article was contributed by a blog partner.

A trip to the museum will likely get one of two reactions: excitement or boredom. If your child reacts the way you hoped for when you say you’re going to the museum, enjoy your tour. However, if your child reacts with eye-rolling, a big sigh, and not really wanting to go, then this is for you.

Museums are an excellent opportunity to not only give your children something to do in the day, but they offer opportunities to learn that takes them outside the classroom. Some, though, find a museum to be boring or overwhelming, so they ultimately become disengaged.

With a few tips in your pocket for your next museum trip, you’ll be able to keep your child entertained and engaged while they gain more knowledge at the museum.

Turn the Trip Into a Scavenger Hunt

It’s hard to not love a good scavenger hunt, especially when you’re a kid. Having to find and decrypt clues to make it to the next location, it’s a modern-day Sherlock Holmes that is fun and exciting.

There are two ways you do a scavenger hunt. The first is to come up with a list of clues that your child must find in the museum. It could be anything from a certain painting to a whole exhibit. Once they answer all the clues, reward them with a prize.

If you’re unsure of what to do for making up a scavenger hunt, option two is to hire a company who specializes in them. Organizations like CityHunt will tailor a scavenger hunt to you and your group.

Let Them Lead

Give your child a map and let them lead you around the museum. When a child is put in charge, it makes them feel that much more special, which will help keep the excitement up. When you enter the museum, hand them a map of the whole building and ask them to lead you to each exhibit.

It’s All About Timing

If your child gets easily overwhelmed, go to the museum when it first opens or closer to closing. Avoid going in the middle of the day when it’s most likely to be at its busiest. Removing some of the crowd from the museum can help you both focus on the exhibits rather than pushing through a bunch of people.

Include Snack Breaks

Depending on how long you plan to be at the museum, plan for a few snack breaks. Children can get hungry very quickly and without a snack, they can turn grumpy. Prevent them from disengaging due to hunger by having mess-free snacks along.

Often museums will offer a cafe or quick grab snacks for sale.  But many will also allow you to bring in your own snacks and drinks.

Enjoy a Workshop

See if your museum offers any workshops for you and your child. Museums often have hands-on activities for all ages that are fun and engaging. It will be fun to see what they come up with and what they learned during the workshop.

Collect Photos

Before taking photos in a museum, ensure that it is allowed. If it is, play a game in which your child must mimic the pose of the painting or artifact they’re viewing. If you’re at a dinosaur museum, have your child pose like the dinosaur for a fun picture.

Make museums fun again for your child by including some of the tips above. Museums can teach us so many things in a way we can’t learn elsewhere. So, show your kids how important museums are and that they can still be fun.

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