Moco Kidsco

Programs: Now in its fourth year of operations at its proof-of-concept location, kid museum is open seven days a week, offering a wide range of programs for children. In order to cultivate childrens creativity and curiosity, our programs are built around hands-on, maker experiences. In contrast to the highly-structured and scheduled educational and enrichment programs that exist within traditional learning environments, we give kids the freedom to learn by following their imagination as a guide. Kid museum's programs fall into three general categories: (1) weekend and out-of-school-time programs: these programs include open-ended sessions where children can learn at their own pace (with guidance and mentorship from kid museum's educators), as well as workshops and classes in areas like video game design, robotics, coding, woodworking, 3d printing, electronics, textiles, and many other 21st century skills. Dedicated days throughout the year focus on exploring world cultures through making, such as workshops built around mexican day of the dead, caribbean spring, or japanese children's day. (2) group visits from schools and community-based organizations: our group visits allow youth to take part in creative projects in kid museum's makerspace that complement their schools' curricula. 30% of all our group visits come from schools or organizations that serve low-income populations. (3) festivals and community outreach: kid museum produces two large-scale, free community festivals annually kidfest silver spring, the region's largest annual family festival celebrating creativity and innovation, and the world of montgomery festival, a day-long event celebrating world cultures. In addition, we organize pop-up outreach events which bring maker learning experiences directly into underserved communities throughout the dc metro area.