DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville

Ranking: Value - 4; Dad Fun Factor - 4 out of 5; Kid Fun Factor - 4 out of 5

We hit the road today for one of our boys' favorite spots on a cold, cold, day: Naperville's Children's Museum. I say Naperville because that's where it's located but they call themselves the DCM. We like to hit the popular spots as close to opening as we can, on Saturday that is 9:00 am, so we arrived right at 9:45. It was already a mob scene with little gangs of birthday celebrants running rampant around the various play areas. At least out membership (recall that you want to buy that at the Rockford CM) got us in a few minutes faster than the the common folk. We immediately headed to the Light and Sound Room. This room is the home to photo-sensitive walls (paint with light), percussion instruments galore, shadow theatre, and many other fun things. One section we really enjoy is a where your movement generates music and a light show. It is really cool.

Adjacent to the Light and Sound Room is the heart of the DCM, what I call the Wind and Water Room. Here you can play with bubbles, make the perfect river system, sit and watch the fish, or play with a whole host of wind contraptions. The wind area is particularly neat because of the center piece: a functional wind tunnel. My boys love to run in and out of the tunnel pretending to be super heros flying through the air.

The DCM is two stories with a fully built out basement. The basement houses the party rooms for birthdays. It also provides space for the rest of us non-birthday participants to buy vending machine yummies (today that was popcorn) and microwave up some snacks. The bathrooms scattered around the building are all pretty little-man friendly. I can't say much about the ladies room but the men's room is well equiped for dad but the urinals are too tall for junior tinklers. They do provide stools for the sinks though. The locker room right at the entrance is a little tight for the crowds we experienced today but normally it's not a big deal. The whole place is wheel chair accesible with an elevator between the three levels.

We had a great time today at the DCM but the crowd was a little much. That, of course, is our problem. One benefit of a large number of birthday parties is the increased quality of lady guests. Not that I'm looking or anything. I think they all tend to try to look better than the rest of their competition. It must be a chick thing. Anyway, plenty of dad's without showers and mom's done up. Again, I can't complain.

I recommend the DuPage Children's Museum for it's simple and fun activities. I still like Kohl's best and, when we get there, the Chicago CM at Navy Pier. It's simply great. Add this one to your rotation.

For more information visit their website at: https://www.dupagechildrensmuseum.org/