Children's Creativity Museum

Another great ASTC reciprocal museum! One of the smaller children's museums we've been to but were delighted to find some things we still have not yet seen.

We came by on a Sunday morning and were pleasantly surprised with how uncrowded the place was. The downstairs is full of Duplos, painting, story corner, etc. The upstairs was a bit more geared towards older kids. We loved the various different stations where you could really sit and focus and accomplish something.

Our 5 year old (with help) made a "song" at the music station and got to save and e-mail the recording. The Lego stop motion animation area was also fantastic - explained well by the staff and was so easy to do. My little ones delighted at making their own "movie" that they also e-mailed home. Lots of room for creativity here. Even the mini golf area was full of creative supplies to create (and decorate) your own mini golf obstacle and courses.

This was our first visit to the Museum and will not be the last. Wow! We took our 3 and 5 year old grandchildren and there was plenty for them to do. I can see them enjoying this Museum for many years to come.

Their favorite activities:
a) Rube Goldberg white pipe area with the balls.
b) Painting anything they wanted to outside in the canvas and fence area.
c) Inside drawing and then posting their drawing onto the wall.
d) Lego Stop Animation was the highlight of the trip. The two young gentlemen supervising the room did an excellent job giving us a brief explanation of how to create the video and then locating the specific legos the kids wanted to create with. We stayed in this room until we absolutely had to leave. Only because the kids wanted to ride the carousel and it closes at the same time the Museum closes.

Suggestion: More trains needed at the train station so all the kids that want to play are able to.

We came here for the first time with our 4-year-old daughter. I was curious about the museum but had never gotten a chance to visit.

We parked in a nearby lot and walked over (5-minute walk). The location is nice because you can ride the carousel (with discounted tickets of $3 if you visit the museum) and go to the nearby park at Yerba Buena Gardens. If you're hungry, there is a pedestrian walkway to access the Metreon.

Probably due to Covid, exhibits were spread out and it didn't feel crowded at all. The majority of the activities are open-ended, allowing for creativity and expression. My daughter used loose parts (toilet paper rolls, mesh, rubber bands, wax paper) to make an instrument. They provided similar materials to make something you can put in a wind tunnel and see if it flies.

Other areas had trains, large blue foam blocks, Legos, books, music instruments, and Magnatiles. The art area had markers and cards to add to a large mural, and an outdoor area where kids could paint anything they wanted - chairs, doors, pumpkins! This section was really fun.

I liked the activities at the museum and my daughter enjoyed it. I think they could add a few more things for kids to do, and I do think the museum is more appropriate for 4+ year olds, rather than toddlers.

It's a great museum with a lot of little stations set up for children to create different projects (make a movie, record a song, hands on projects using a variety of materials to create whatever sparks their imagination and much more). My daughter is just shy of 2 and spent most of the time playing with the legos and train set. We had fun but most of the museum I do feel is geared towards older kids. The lady at the front desk mentioned that to me when we arrived. Note children under 2 are charged the full admission fee of 20 dollars.

Spent a few hours painting and building Lego buildings. We also enjoyed a few of the other areas with books, sensory experiences and even mini golf and a train.

What a great place for children ages 2-10! Great sensory stations and a focus on STEM. Entry is very affordable and there are stations for children to create art, music, read, animation or just simply play and have fun. The perfect place to take kids on both a nice or cold rainy day. No to mention, is right next to the carousel in Yerba Buena Gardens.

This place is a LOT of fun for kids! We went there as a group this weekend and the kids in our party had a blast!

From lego blocks and train sets to DIY and play with light; the kids loved all the activities. We had varying age groups in the party but the museum is most suited for 4-8 years. The toddlers did enjoy but did not understand 100% of the displays.

There are various sections of the museum and one admission ticket lets you navigate through the entire space. Plus, they give a discount at the carousal and that ride is totally worth it!

The sections of drawing, writing notes, lego blocks, train sets, fun with light and color, a telephone booth, a see saw, a reading nook and mystery box challenges were the most popular at the museum.

$20 per kid is totally worth the experience but they charge the same per adult too. Adults do not have much to do in the museum. It would be a great idea to allow one adult free with a child. The carousal is $5 per person but with an admission to the museum you can get that for $3. Kids below 42 inches height can have a free accompanying adult.

The carousal at the museum is amazing and the kiddos did enjoy that a lot. I recommend going early to the museum to get the most of the experience. They have a park adjoining too, and it is pretty amazing. Plus, there are a lot of dining spots around and they are all very nice!

Coming from LA, I would compare children's creativity museum to Kidspace. The difference is that this is in SF downtown so it's an indoor space with two floors and they're focus is on hands-on activities, some drawing, music recording, Lego/video production, and some coding.

My opinion of kidspace is that it's for younger kids. This place is fun for a slightly older group, maybe preschool to kindergarten, and then again for an older group around 9/10 age where they can join the Lego and coding groups.

In terms of price, I think the annual membership is 100% worthwhile if you take advantage of the classes on a weekly basis, utilizing it as an extracurricular. In this way, it's actually more affordable than signing your kid up for coding classes, Lego classes, music classes, or art classes. It does make sense.

Having said that, my six year old was in between these age groups and found the museum a little boring. I think she actually enjoys kidspace more because it has more active areas where she can physically move her body as well (something that is important to her). Her favorite activity here was the creativity challenges where kids are given an age appropriate prompt and recycled materials and are asked to design/build/create something. She did that one multiple times.

Personally I thought the art area could have had more guidance rather than employees just sitting around on their phones. It could've had more paints, whether finger paints or acrylics or watercolors. They could've been more generous with leaving out sculpting clay and had spaces for paper mache or other fun activities. Just having markers and crayons out was incredibly disappointing for a "creativity museum".

I might bring my 8 year old back for the Lego and coding activities but I can't have a place that only caters to one age/gender when I have more than one child to entertain.

My daughter is 6 and is really into arts and crsfts, so this museum was amazing to her. She even said she didn't know it was this kind of museum. She wanted to do every activity and spent a good amount of time doing them. Mystery box was fun and the staff were so friendly.

Unfortunately she didnt get to the second floor, but she's already asking to come back. There is also a playground nearby for more fun after the museum closes.

We used to come here once a year and love the variety of plays it has. Dress up karaoke, robot coding, sensory clay molding, big blue blocks, magnetic toys, animation, mystery box, just to name a few.

With the pandemic, now they only have everything on the ground floor. They got rid of our favorites coding and sensory clay, but added a music synth pod studio. The mystery box remains, so is animation and they added a blue block mini golf area.