Museum Review-KIDS Imagination Space

The graphic above is from K.I.D.S. Imagination Space, a great Southern Oregon museum for kids around age 10 and under. Of course it's open to kids of all ages, but it's been my experience that kids older than 10 have more fun at Scienceworks in Ashland (I will blog about that museum later).

KIDS Imagination Space has only been around for 3 years and it has grown into a really neat place. It started out with just a couple exhibits, and has filled the Old Moose Lodge with toys and activities that I would love to have in my own home--if I lived in a warehouse.

There's a "fenced off" area for parents and their toddlers to play, and that helps keep the little ones safe and enjoying the place while the older children play with high energy everwhere else.

I like the waist-high sandbox area--my children have fun and the sand gets everywhere, but it's not my house!

My eldest daughter just outgrew the museum these last 6 months (she just turned 11 and informed me that she was too old to really enjoy this museum anymore), but her favorite place used to be the pretend grocery store. My 2 1/2 year old daughter LOVES the little grocery carts and the pretend strawberries of that exhibit.

My three sons, ages 5, 7, and 9, like the life size chess set, the picture shadow room (a curtained room that has a timed flash that catches your shadow on the wall), the loft area where they lob balls in tubes and up and down a bucket "elevator." The older two played for over an hour in the pretend Cafe, serving parents a variety of meals and re-organizing all the food and equipment (just for fun!).

The BreakAway Cafe (the one that serves real food) has overpriced food, but we bring a lunch and eat it in the lobby.

We had a birthday party there for a son turning 4 and it was great fun but they've gotten more strict about parties. You have to rent one of their birthday rooms. I haven't ever rented one, but I have peeked into their birthday room and I love how they've decorated a chair to look like a throne for the birthday child.

It's gotten busier as the exhibits have improved. Expect holidays and weekends to have more crowds, but Monday mornings have been so quiet it's like you have the whole place to yourself.

Their website is at http://www.discoveryspace.org/ and here is their cost and location information:

ADMISSION
$5 per child (under 1 free)
$2 per adult
Memberships available

HOURS OF OPERATION

MONDAY-SATURDAY 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
SUNDAY 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

LOCATION

226 N. Ross Lane
Medford, OR 97501
541-772-9922