New Favorite Family Spot: Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, CA

by Mike Johnson
in Events
— 22 Oct, 2011

Recently we had the pleasure of attending a blogger event at San Francisco’s Children’s Creativity Museum, formerly known as Zeum. The museum relaunched last week with the new name, new exhibits and an expansion into offerings for younger kids – 3 to 5 years old.

Here’s why the new Children’s Creativity Museum might become my family’s new favorite spot:

There is something for all ages.

This is always a big challenge for our family. Our daughters are aged 10, 5, 3 and 1. Therefore, it’s always a challenge to find something fun for the whole family to do. A lot of the local discovery and kid’s museums skew younger. My 10 year old has grown out of wanting to climb the ladder of a mini fire engine, so she gets bored.

On the other end are things like plays and shows, which my 10 year old loves, but the little ones have limited attention spans. So our time is spent trying to keep the little one’s quiet and not enjoying the show with our 10 year old and engaging with her.

In steps the new Children’s Creativity Museum…

Audrey Yamamoto, the museum’s executive director talks about their shift from play to invention. Much of the magic of this place lies within that shift. The Children’s Creativity Museum is like a really cool blank canvas where kids of any age can create new things.

My daughters particularly loved the Animation Studio and the Music Studio. The Animation Studio was a place where they created clay figures with wireframes that they could make the stars of claymation movies.

In the Music Studio they danced around in front of a green screen creating fun music videos. There was also a section that had a karaoke element where kids sang in front of the green screen and received a DVD to take home. My 3 year old got shy, but my 10 and 5 year old did a killer rendition of jingle bells.

My 1 year old wasn’t left out either. The Imagination Lab is another highlight of the revised museum. The area encourages families to “Move it, Build it, Sculpt it, Perform it, Style it or Dream it.” My 1 year old spent at least an hour on the “Move it” part as she used the massive amounts of foam blocks and objects to help her navigate the world.

I won’t even get into the fact that my 38 year old sister came along with us and she had more fun than anybody…there really is something for everyone.

Another reason this may become our new favorite spot is that it sits in the heart of San Francisco’s SOMA district. After some fun at the museum, there are lots of greats places to grab a bite and to do some shopping afterwards.

If you’re a Bay Area parent or in the area visiting, check this place out. You can get some more info at their new website: creativity.org (pretty solid URL!)

About Mike Johnson

My Family. Boston Sports. Music. Food. Video Games. Founder of Playground Dad. Live in Northern California with my wife and 4 daughters. The Wire is the best TV show ever. My daughters still tell me I'm funny and that's all that matters to me.