Like they say on TV, membership has it’s privileges. Both of the Bay Area children’s museums that I have been to are part of this consortium of Children’s Museums that have reciprocal memberships. This means that if you get a one-year membership at Habitot in Berkeley, for example, you can go to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito for free anytime. Also, if you travel to a place with a Children’s Museum, you are totally in.
The point, however, is not the membership. The point is that these are destinations with rooms for crawlers. Usually they have mats on the floor or different textures and large scale shapes that crawlers and young walkers can put their grubby hands on, in and through. The Discovery Museum Tot Room, for example, has at least four waterbed-type areas for babies.
If you live near one of these places, and buy a membership, consider it a mommy meet market. Go there when you and baby are feeling lonely, let down your hair, and have a juice box or two.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Check your local libraries for free passes to local museums! I live near Portland and my local library has a membership to 5 local museums inc. the Children’s Museum (CM2). They are usually good for the whole family and are free! It varies on how you sign up for them so ask the librarians. We have enjoyed the local children’s museum for free each year when my mom comes to visit.
In San Diego, the museum at Balboa Park are free on Tuesdays. It is on a rotating schedule so different museums are free every week (except the 5th Tuesday of the month should there be one). Six of these museums have been labeled as “kid-friendly” (Ruben H. Fleet Science Center, Model Railroad Museum, Natural History Museum, San Diego Air and Space Museum, San Diego Automotive Museum, and the San Diego Hall of Champions)
http://www.balboapark.org
Also located in Balboa Park is the world-famous San Diego Zoo. A pass for 2 adults for the entire year is only $89 ($129 for Diamond membership). For kids ages 3-11 is $24/year and kids 12-17 is $28/year. Annual passes are good at the zoo as well as the Wild Animal Park in Escondido, CA.
http://www.sdzoo.com or http://www.sandiegozoo.org
In Berkeley the deal between museums got much suckier this year. I don’t remember the details exactly but I know that Habitot essentially raised the rates significantly, cut the hours in half, and does not honor reciprocity for FREE any more with the neighboring museums. If you don’t work and the hours are not a problem, I still say go for it, but they just took away my Thursday evening ritual and I’m still pissed about it.
Leave a Comment