Giving Kids Some Culture

After my family moved back to Washington, D.C., recently from small-town Michigan, I was determined to visit the free bounty of the Smithsonian Institution on a regular basis.

We’d spent four years in a city that had a single art museum, and it was time to immerse my kids, ages 13 and 10, in the cultural mecca that is the nation’s capital. I envisioned weekends on the National Mall, traipsing from the Natural History Museum’s Great Hall to the East Wing of the National Gallery, where we would stand in the lobby and marvel at Alexander Calder’s 76-foot-long mobile.

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With high hopes (mine!), we set out early one Saturday morning to explore the city’s offerings.

First stop: The Museum of Natural History. The kids were excited as we entered the cavernous lobby to be greeted by a towering African elephant, then rounded the corner into the dinosaur hall. When we finally arrived upstairs to see the Hope Diamond — possibly the museum chain’s most famous offering — I was expecting unbridled enthusiasm from my kiddos.

Instead, I got a single, momentary glimpse of wonder, then requests for snacks, which quickly became an urgent chorus. Just two hours into our Great Museum Foray, we retreated to the coffee shop to drink hot chocolate and eat cookies.

I was expecting unbridled enthusiasm from my kiddos. Instead I got a single, momentary glimpse of wonder, then requests for snacks.

The same pattern repeated itself at the Air and Space Museum, where my son and daughter were thrilled to wander through a cutaway of a space station, but quickly lost interest in reading the history of the Apollo astronauts. (They did, however, lobby for buying freeze-dried ice cream in the gift shop.)

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By the time we reached the National Gallery of Art, instead of gazing in wonder at the Calder mobile, my kids were complaining about their aching feet, and begging to sit down in the gift shop — a retail space that spans a football field, and is filled with thousands of wondrous objects including toys. It’s the kind of place that usually sends my kids into overdrive. It was then that it hit me: I had overdone it.

A well-intentioned artful outing had turned into a forced museum march. We packed up and headed home.

I had overdone it. A well-intentioned artful outing had turned into a forced museum march.

Since then, my kids have fondly recalled some — many, even — highlights of our day. But they’ve also instituted a two-museum maximum on mom.

Here’s what I learned about taking kids to museums.

Let your kids help plan the itinerary.
Sure, you want to show them every great masterpiece in every museum around, but if you try to do this all at once without mixing in some kid-sized fun (think dinosaurs, airplanes, live butterfly exhibits), you’re inviting a galaxy-sized meltdown. In the words of my 10-year-old son, “I want to see cool stuff — arrowheads and dinosaurs and spaceships.” Ask them what they want to see.

Take regular breaks. 
Every hour or so (or two, at most), find a seat and catch a little break. Use the time to have a snack (remember to bring some from home because museum cafeterias can be pricey), get a drink, or answer and ask questions about what you’ve seen.

Visit the gift shop.
What kids don’t love a souvenir? Give them a budget, say $5 — most museum shops offer plenty of bargains — and let them pick out a memento of the day.

Indulge in an IMAX. 
The theaters in many museums not only offer up well-made educational films in 3-D, they’re also a great place to get off your feet for a while and recharge.

Check your expectations.
Kids have a limited attention span. It’s a win if you can get them to focus for 20 minutes, and remember one interesting fact. Don’t try to take in too many things at once.

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