The Thinkery ~ Austin, TX

I am a BIG fan of Children’s Museums and was thrilled to have a preview of the Thinkery, Austin’s Children’s Museum in a new location recently.

Opening December 7 & 8 at Mueller, the new museum is really well-done.  The thing that they have done best at the new location is providing more hands-on activities for older kids.  My youngest is 4 and loved to spend time at the downtown location, but the older kids were easily bored.  Not here.  We could have spent hours.

As you walk in, there is a huge room filled with activities for all ages.  From construction, to light-board switches, to flying pigs and painting on windows – it is visually stimulating and draws you immediately in.  I really enjoyed sitting down on the bench and watching them play.  But it wasn’t long before Mom & Dad got in the on action too.

We found so many cool & new things to play with here.  My children really enjoyed making all sorts of figures out of hot wax (don’t worry – it cools before you get to touch it). And my oldest son had a blast making all types of aircraft and then watching them take flight!

I really don’t want to give the whole museum away by posting too much info here – but let’s just say there was more than enough to play with.  Make sure you check out the water room upstairs – you can make sore pretty cool music there!

I love that the baby area was expanded with lots of fun crawling spaces. I really enjoyed that area of the old museum, so I wad happy to see they kept the concept here.  This would have been a favorite of mine if I still had an infant.

And they have a gorgeous new story time area as well.  Can’t wait to see what fun programs are performed up here. Right down the hall is there Kitchen area where they will have fun experiments going on.  We made ice tunnels out of big blocks of ice and salt while we were visiting.

And I am so in love with this amazing climbing structure. My youngest wanted to spend all day playing on this one.  They also have a fun water area out here as well.  I can imagine all the sunny day smiles that will fill this area over the years!

Well done Thinkery!  It’s a fantastic addition for the Central Texas area.  Check out all they offer online as well – they have sleepovers, camps, and upcoming Gingerbread House Workshops!