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7 Great Children’s Museums for Northwest Families

The best museums to visit around Seattle, the Eastside, North Sound and South Sound

Author Elisa Murray
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Published on:

young girl running in train-themed exhibit at Children's Museum of Skagit County
Photo:
Children’s museums offer plenty of ways to play, such as exploring the train-themed play space at the Children’s Museum of Skagit County. Photo: Meredith Charaba

Interactive, hands-on fun

Confession: I didn’t get children’s museums for a while. My 2-year-old would happily play with pots and pans at home, so why would I pay admission to a kids museum just so he could play with fancier toys (and potentially ruin his yen for playing with kitchen gear)?

It wasn’t until friends invited us to Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett when he was about 3 years old that my light-bulb moment occurred. As he moved from delightedly tossing handkerchiefs up the air maze to playing veterinarian to climbing outside to quietly making beaded bracelets in the art studio, I became a convert to the variety of hands-on play experiences that children’s museums offered. (Did I mention that he never, ever did art at home, and that while he bopped around I got some solid social time with my friends?)

Children’s museums became an essential part of our play menu, especially in the rainy months.

This isn’t accidental, of course. According to the Association of Children’s Museums, early children’s museums (the first opened in 1899 in Brooklyn) were part of a progressive education movement that promoted the then-revolutionary concept of child-centered environments and learning experiences. (Think Maria Montessori.) In our increasingly plugged-in world, kids museums offer a time-tested, real-world antidote to the allure of screen time.

Pop into a local children’s museum for playtime or make a day of it with a trip to one a bit farther from your home:

First stop: Eastside play palace

More places to play:

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2018 and updated most recently on April 30, 2025, by ParentMap’s family fun editor, Meredith Charaba, with a thorough fact-check.

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