The San Jose Children’s Museum

Yesterday we ventured into the capital city of San Jose for the first time. We hailed a cab, and Nelson, our driver, took us all over San Jose to see the sites from the road on our way to our final destination, the Children’s Museum. I’m glad we took as cab, as the museum is not in the best of neighborhoods, but after learning that the museum used to be a Costa Rican prison, it made much more sense that it’s not in the center of town.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect at the museum because our kids have out grown the Denver Children’s Museum at this point, so we were hoping that it would provide at least some entertainment for them. After paying a mere $9 for the entire family to enter for the day, I was even more uncertain, you get what you pay for, right? Boy were we surprised. It was downright incredible.

As I mentioned, the museum used to be a prison, so it’s a maze of corridors and courtyards, each doorway leading to a new section of the museum, a new topic and learning experience. Everything was interactive and engaging. We had to literally drag the kids away from one exhibit to see another because they would become so engrossed in whatever they were learning about.

Much of the museum was only in Spanish, but there were quite a few exhibits, especially ones that needed more explanation, that were also in English. The employees around the museum that helped demonstrate and engage with the kids spoke a mix of Spanish and English as well. Some of the displays and activities had seen better days, but nothing was damaged or worn down beyond it’s continued learning value.

The kids had a lot of favorite places at the museum, but the highlights were the Space room, the Rain Forrest, The Human Body, the Electricity room, the Earthquake simulator, The full sized helicopter, airplane, fire truck and train, the bubble room, the grocery store, the bank, the tilted house (teaching about the inner ear and balance), and the pedal go carts.