Mission: Habitot’s mission is to help the broad community of parents and caregivers raise curious, creative and confident children. Hands-on exhibits and programs focus exclusively on early childhood.
Programs: * Hands-on Exhibits Six permanent exhibits and one temporary exhibit encourage imagination, curiosity, problem-solving, social interaction, communication skills and parent-child connection. Exhibits include Waterworks, Little Town, Wind Tunnel, Infant-Toddler Garden. The current temporary exhibit is the Rocketship 80,000 visitors a year
* Public Programs include three dozen multicultural events and performances throughout the year in music, art, dance, performance, storytelling and puppetry. Special Family Literacy Nights foster reading readiness and Child Safety events help prevent unintended accidents among young children. 10,000 participants a year
* Art Programs include a drop-in Art Studio (included with admission) with changing daily activities, an Art Reach program taking arts to low income community preschools, and on-site focused art classes for children in ceramics, mixed media, and painting. 45,000 beneficiaries
* Parent Education includes an in-museum Family Resource Center of books and other parenting references, 50 parenting classes a year on topics ranging from CPR and chokesaving to positive discipline strategies, and Parent-to-Parent brochures on parenting topics 5000 direct beneficiaries
* Family Outreach Program designed to make Habitot's exhibits and programs available to a wide audience, especially low-income families and at-risk children. We offer free field trips to Head Start and state-supported preschools, free admission days, subsidized memberships, class scholarships, teen parent programs, book give-aways and organizational and library memberships for clients of social service agencies, hospital programs, homeless shelters, literacy programs, and teen parent programs. 8,329 direct beneficiaries
I first started visiting Habitot with my niece in 2000 and have been going back again and again ever since with my other niece and now my own daughter. They all love the changing exhibits, the wiggle wall, the water room, the market, the art room, the face paints and the wind tunnel. Not only is it a fun place for the kids, it's a great resource for parents. Just the other day they had a water safety instructor from the YMCA in the water room and we plan to visit their upcoming car seat inspection event.
I'm a father of 3 year old twin boys and have watched their curiousity bloom with Habitot's hands-on activities tailored for their developmental stages of being infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. It's a perfect place for younger children, where they're able to touch everthing and explore on their own, just with your parental supervision. The size of the museum is fairly small, but considering it's focus on ages 0-5 smaller, children can spend enough time at each area without being rushed. The drop in art studio and waterworks exhibits are family favorities!
After seeing the impact on my sons directly, I appreciated the importance of the Museum for all young children and applied to join the Board to further expand Habitot's reach.
What a wonderful place for small children to bring their parents. Habitot is not a large museum, but it is large enough to pack in a morning or afternoon of space exploration, a trip to the supermarket, water play, arts and crafts, and much more. The size is actually one of the aspects I like most; I don't have to worry about losing my kids and, with two little ones, it's a constant issue. The exhibits are 100% hands on, which my daughters love and I can rest easy that both girls are safe. It's one of our favorite places to go and they never tire of it.
Habitot is a beautiful indoor space for babies and toddlers to explore in a safe environment. My daughter is a curious 20 month old and we've been going to Habitot for almost a year now. I find her busy splashing water around in the water play area. She carefully picks out fruit for her play cart. She laughs as she dances in the wind tunnel area. She rides the little tractors and laughts at the puppets.
This place is grace, although kind of pricey if you don't get a yearly membership.
