Bay Area Discovery Museum
The Bay Area Discovery Museum (BADM) is a space for imaginations to run wild! BADM features seven exhibition spaces and more than six daily drop-in programs for children 6 months of age to 10 years. All of our programs and exhibitions are research-backed and provide STEM-focused, inquiry-driven experiences that help children develop creativity and creative problem solving skills.
You could try the bay area discovery museum in Marin. They have a nice tot area for crawlers and early walkers with lots of padding and things to pull up on.
How wonderful that you are prioritizing art for your daughter. We have the opposite situation -- my daughter's preschool does minimal art and we do more structured projects at home -- but I've also made it a focus of enrichment. She is not quite four, whereas your daughter is likely making at least some transition from purely process art to a greater interest in results, but these are my recommendation.
If it fits your budget I strongly recommend a membership to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito. Among all the other attractions there are three art rooms with rotating projects and a helpful staff. They focus on different artists (recent examples are Gaudi and Kusama) and create kid-level projects borrowing from the artists' techniques.
I use Pinterest a lot to find art projects but I love books and a few on our shelves are The Artful Parent (Van't Hul), Art for the Fun of It (Jenkins), Doing Art Together (Silberstein-Storfer), Making Things (Wiseman), Stitchery for Children (Enthoven), Making Make-Believe (Kohl) as well as every book I see about printing because I like prints. Art for the Fun of It is my all-time favorite in terms of being supremely confident, child-focused and process-oriented. Half the book details types of art and examples of activities while the other half places art within the overall context of creativity and gives some straight talk about how children's creativity and independence may be at variance with other common child-rearing goals like following direction and conforming to get good grades. The book is out of print but I bought it on Amazon. We also have a lot of exhibit catalogues and other large format art books and periodically my daughter will pull one down and flip through it (all those big color pages are probably very alluring to a non-reader), which I hope is the precursor to a genuine interest down the road.
Some places I'm keen to try but haven't yet are the drop-in programs at the Museum of Children's Art (Oakland) and Hands-On and Sticky Art Lab in Berkeley. It sounds like you are already over-scheduled for weekly activities but an occasional extra might fit in. Finally, I am trying to extend the creative approach to cooking, gardening and sewing to teach that we can create art with many media in our daily lives. Stitching is the toughest since I can't sew, but it's fun to learn something together and probably heartening to her that our skill levels are roughly similar.
All the best!
+1 for LHS and Children's Discovery museum.
Archived Q&A and Reviews
Dec 2012
RE: Membership Museums -- Best Option for 2-year-old?
It really depends on your schedule and location. Of the ones you listed, Discovery Museum is definitely the best as far as things to do, play with, etc., but it's ~40 minutes from Berkeley, and is not open on Mondays. Hobitot is great, but pretty small with limited hours and I don't care for the basement setting. Science Academy has some cool stuff, but is generally geared toward older kids. For us, after trying out several memberships we've gotten the most use out of our Oakland Zoo membership. L.
I'd get a membership to Bay Area Discovery Museum. It's hands-down my favorite little-kid place in the Bay Area. My kids (almost 4 years old) never cease to have fun there, it's got great indoor and outdoor settings, so many different places, and it's somewhere they can really grow into. The pirate ship, the art room, the little toddler area, the waves center, and the changing exhibits are all awesome. Habitot has the advantage of being closest, if you live in the East Bay, and we do periodically go there. It can be a great (but very crowded) refuge on a cold or rainy day. And my kids do always like it. I kind of hate the experience there, though. It's so crowded and so dark and so cramped. They do often have deals for 5-packs of passes and other things on living social, group on, etc. so you can supplement with that. A membership just never seemed worth it to us. Academy of Sciences is awesome, but it takes forever to get there, parking costs a lot of money, and while there's a lot that little kids can find interesting there, so much of it goes over their head at this age. And it's the most expensive. We reserve Academy of Sciences for a once a year trip at this age. An Oakland zoo membership is also something good to consider. Or, the Lindsay Wildlife center in Walnut Creek. --so many great places in the area!
I have a 19 month old and we live on the East Bay. We recently purchased a membership to the Discovery Museum, only to find that we can get free tickets through our local library. Moreover, we have found that he gets sick almost every single time we go there (probably because everything there is touch and feel), and the drive really is kind of long. I think we have to go 3 more times to make it worth the price of membership, and with the free tix available at the library, we wish we hadn't gotten the membership.
We haven't brought him to the California Academy of Science yet, mainly because it is also a very long drive from the East Bay, and from my experience there (without the baby), it always seemed so crowded on the weekends.
That's just my 2cents worth. I'd visit those places a few times with the free tickets you can get (check your local library and online), calculate the drive time, to see if it's worth it to buy a full membership.
That said, if you live in SF near the Golden Gate Park, then it's much more worthwhile.
We've had membership to Discovery Museum, great for outdoor/indoor activities, more like a glorified playground, can easily spend 3-4 hours there. Downside, closed on Mondays, depending on where you live, it's a little more of a trek from the East Bay. Can't speak to Academy of Science membership, but having just visited 5 days ago, I know that membership costs twice as much as BADM, also more of a trek into the city. We also had membership to Lawrence Hall of Science, a little rough around the edges but they have very age appropriate activities, planetarium, hands-on exhibit with the animals, open 7 days a week, and convenient if you live in the East Bay. Also, took advanatage of reciprocity when travelling to other parts of the country to other children museums, a great deal! Hope that helps!
Kids Museum Lover
Of the 3 possibilities, the Bay Area Discovery Museum would be my first choice. It's a wonder filled, age appropriate place for a 2 going on 3 yo. Downside is the drive. CAS is better for a year or two older children. Habitot feels claustrophobic to me. Maybe consider Lawrence Hall of Science? We like it there quite a lot & never tire of it. Fellow fun seeker
Dec 2008
RE: Bay Area outings with visiting grandparents
How about the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito? Fun for kids and spectacular views for the parents. Plenty of parking and not too much walking for the grandparents (you could even drop them in front and then park).
Nov 1997
The Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito is another good place. Might want to add a link to their page at the Science Education Academy of the Bay Area (SEABA) web site at http://www.fwl.org/seaba/members/badm/badm-desc.html. I've searched some, but I haven't found a more official home page for them; I'm surprised. Duff
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