Come Explore! Come Explore!

The Mid-Hudson Children's Museum is the ideal destination for families with young children. We celebrate childhood and are proud to offer exhibits that get kids moving, exploring, building, pretending, collaborating, creating and discovering.

Our exhibits focus on nature, science, literacy, art, music and community and create for children the opportunity to develop foundational learning skills.

Our four exhibit galleries allow families to connect in meaningful ways through purposeful play.

New Exhibition! Fun 2 ,3, 4!

Fun 2, 3, 4! invites families to explore the fun side of math through hands-on exhibits that introduce measuring, estimating, counting and calculation in sometimes zany ways. “How Many is a Million?” challenges visitors to be the first to topple a glass by spinning gears one million times. “Super Bowl” is the exhibition’s own skee ball arcade game that introduces basic graphing. Children can even “Measure the Dino” with their own feet.

“This exhibition gets kids moving and families exploring together while introducing the foundations of math in a playful, hands-on way,” states Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum executive director, Lara Litchfield-Kimber. Fun 2, 3, 4! strongly supports the museum’s new school readiness initiative by introducing young children to core mathematical concepts and providing opportunities for them to develop early problem-solving and communication skills.

The Fun 2, 3, 4! exhibition includes 16 hands-on exhibits, including:

  • Double the Doggie
  • How Many is a Million?
  • Measurement Factory
  • Aztec Counting
  • Double Your Allowance
  • Weigh Out
  • Millimeter Mystery
  • Cool Curves
  • Fabulous Features
  • How many hands high is the horse?
  • Super Bowl
  • Measure the Dino
  • Time Challenge
  • How Do You Measure Up?
  • Math Bloopers
  • Math Around the World

Fun 2, 3, 4! opens at the Mid-Hudson Children's Museum on February 2, 2013. It was developed by the Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY, with funding from the National Science Foundation. The purchase of the exhibition by the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum was made possible with generous support from IBM.

IBM

 

Featured Exhibitions

RiverTown

Bake a cake, build a house, shop for groceries, or respond to (pretend) emergencies - all in RiverTown. Featuring playful, kid-sized shops and storefronts full of engaging activities and play areas, families can celebrate the diversity of the people who live in towns and cities throughout the Hudson Valley. In RiverTown, children and adults role-play the activities of the culturally diverse merchants and business people of our community.

RiverTown was created in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Little Sprouts Farm

Designed for small hands, short bodies and inquisitive minds, this safe environment welcomes the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum’s youngest visitors by encouraging hands-on exploration and play. Little Sprouts Farm is an area designated for children ages three and under that encourages pretend play, gross motor development, and tactile manipulation.

Little Sprouts Farm was developed with support from the Junior League of Poughkeepsie

Hyde Park Mastodon

The Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum is proud to feature a fully intact, re-constructed replica of a twelve-foot tall mastodon that lived during the Ice Age. Our Mastodon is an exact replica of the perfectly preserved skeleton that was found just three miles up the road from the Museum in Hyde Park. What makes this exhibit really special is that it invites children to climb up next to the mastodon from “inside a giant tree trunk” and look the mastodon right in the eye – or, rather - the eye socket.

Development and installation of the Hyde Park Mastodon Exhibit was made possible with the generous support of the New York State/DEC Estuary Program, the Hudson River Foundation and the Dyson Foundation.

The Hudson River Dive Bell

Enter the dive bell and descend to the depths of the Hudson River to see what is under all that water. View live Hudson River fish through the portals. Manipulate a real robotic arm as you try to catch fish and then return them to the watery depths. Peer through the periscope and view the real Hudson River flowing by the museum.

The Hudson River Dive Bell was created with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

 

 

And, there is much to explore. Join us for a day of play and discovery!

Mid-Hudson Children's Museum

75 North Water Street

Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

845.471.0589

Fax: 845.471.0415

info@mhcm.org