Children's Museums

Children's museums are exciting glimpses of other worlds where facts and theories are presented in ways that appeal to children. Colorful and imaginative hands-on exhibits are designed to hold your child's interest. The following museums make for a vacation outing that the entire family can enjoy:

Brooklyn Children's Museum, 145 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn (718/735-4400). Founded in 1899, this is the world's first children's museum. It offers more than 50,000 authentic ethnological and natural exhibits.

Children's Museum of Manhattan, 212 West 83rd Street (212/721-1234). This museum offers activity centers and hands on exhibitions designed for youngsters and adults. Featured are an Early Childhood and Family Learning Center, a media center, a TV studio for kids, an environmental center and an urban tree house.

Discovery Center, 60 Morgan Road, Binghamton (607/773-8661). This hands-on children's museum features a fire station with a real truck, a Boeing 747 cockpit and exhibits on everything from bubbles to the body.

Science Discovery Center, Exit 15 off I-88, Oneonta (607/436-2011). Located in the College at Oneonta Physical Science building, this museum provides children and adults with an opportunity to conduct hands-on discovery in the sciences.

Children's Museum, 311 Main Street, Utica (315/724-6129). Crafts and exhibits are on display and OK to touch.

Children's Museum in the Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes Cave (518/296-8949). The museum describes the continuing creative spirit of the Iroquois. Story-telling sessions are held periodically.

Victorian Doll Museum, North Chili (716/247- 0130). One thousand dolls from the mid-1980s to the present are on display, along with doll houses and a toy circus.

New York State Museum, Empire State Plaza, Albany (518/474-5877). This features major exhibits on the New York metropolis, the Adirondack wilderness, Upstate New York and Native American peoples. Among the things that delight young museum visitors are seeing the nine foot tall skeleton of the Cohoes Mastodont, boarding the 1940s New York City subway car, seeing the set from Sesame Street, walking inside the full-sized Iroquois longhouse, and standing face-to-face with a New York native mountain lion. The museum is open daily from 10 - 5, closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years days.

The Junior Museum, 282 5th Avenue, Troy (518/235- 2120). Just for kids programs and exhibits are devoted to science, history and the arts.